Two MBR's after a Reinstall?

[dbtmellis]

I know this is a Forum for Windows 7. I have a problem with my neighbors computer, and he is running Windows Xp. Refuses to upgrade to Windows Vista, and I doubt his PC can handle Windows 7.

So, how is it possible that a system can have two MBR's? I did a complete reinstall of the OS, and now when it boots up, there are two choices both named "Windows Xp Home Edition". Only one of them boots up into Windows. The other says that the MBR is corrupt.

How can I remove the old/corrupted MBR so that the OS boots straight into the correct one?

 

[AddRAM]

Use EasyBCD to delete the defunct OS listing on the boot screen

I would first customize one of the names by altering it, so you know exactly which one to delete.

EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies

 

[theog]

So, how is it possible that a system can have two MBR's? I did a complete reinstall of the OS,

You over installed with Win XP, NOT a clean install.

 

[Mayank Parmar]

Edit the boot file, but you need to make sure which of the two works and delete the corrupt one

 

[Ztruker]

Control Panel, System, Advanced tab.
Click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
Click the Edit button.

The boot.ini file looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

In your case it will have a 2nd line similar to the last one shown. You need to delete the one not needed. You can determine this by looking at the default=line. The one you want to keep will match that location.

 

[gregrocker]

There is only one MBR per drive which is edited with the boot information when you install. What you're seeing could be caused by installing a second XP on another partition or as suggested not doing a clean enough install by first deleting the old XP partition.

Did you pay attention to which partition you were installing XP upon? There should have been a selection screen for you to choose the partition desired. What's best in that case is to delete all the partitions and then create and full format the new one(s) and install Win7 to the first partition in order.

However if you didn't boot the XP disk but only ran it from the OS then there could be more problems than you see.

Please post back a screenshot of Disk Management so we can see how its configured. Steps are same as for http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...nt-post-screen-capture-image.html#post2261610.

Go to msconfig>Boot tab top see if two listings are available to delete the unwanted listing.

 

[dbtmellis]

There is only one partition on the drive.

 

[gregrocker]

OK, waiting for picture.

Any other hard drives?

Did you delete the partition and create new?

 

[mjf]

@dbtmellis
It would also help if you explained exactly what you did to the PC and what you wanted. eg. did you just want to reinstall XP?