When booting my PC - I get 3 choices of OS to select - all Win XP!

Hi...

I wonder if anyone can help...

About 6-7 months ago I had major problems with my PC (slowing down, crashing etc) - I'd already tried defragging, removing unwanted files, programs etc, but to no avail...

I therefore decided to re-install Win XP Pro (legal student copy), but the installation itself crashed on 2 separate occasions... yet on 3rd attempt it was accepted and installed ok, but it's never run well since - mainly speed issues.

Upon starting the PC, during the BIOS bootup, I get a choice of 3 separate XP installations, but only the top 1 works. The other 2 just crash before I get to the Windows welcome screen.

Does anyone know how to remove all traces of the 2 bad installations at all please? Before I throw my PC out of my window?

The PC is a AMD Sempron 3100
2ghz RAM
160 gig hard drive main
250 gig hard drive secondary

Many thanks in anticipation

 

If you go to start, run, and type %windir%, does c:\windows open, or does a different folder open?

 

Hi...thanks for the fast reply!

I just did that and got

C:\WINDOWS2

Thanks!

 

Oh-oh. "c:\windows2" might be a problem. It basically means windows got installed into the "windows2" folder instead of c:\windows, which means you sort of have two side-by-side installations- one in c:\windows and one in c:\window2. Tim gave good advice about clearing out the extra boot options on startup, but I am not sure if there is a quick, safe way to remove the double set of files. Asking the old-school techs here- anyone have any good advice for this? Do you guys think it would be safe to just delete/rename "c:\windows"?

 

I wouldn't risk it. We don't know which of these three installations is the one we want to keep (although c:\windows2 does seem to be the one in use - did the OP select the correct Boot option to access the preferred installation?)

Also, deleting/renaming the windows folder scares me. There are lots of references to this folder that would have to be changed. The registry, the environment...yuck.

Personally, I think the best bet would be to backup data, format and re-install, but perhaps someone else can come up with an easier solution.

 

I second this motion.....