gavin
Senior Member
Posts: 139
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Post by gavin on Apr 28, 2008 14:34:46 GMT
When I start my machine using BootCamp, having chosen Windows after holding down the option key, a further (DOS looking) menu appears.
It asks me to choose between two Windows installations. I only ever installed it once, and one of those options doesn't work anyway, it just comes up with an error.
Is there any way to prevent this menu from appearing, as it adds a significant amount to the boot up time.
Cheers Gav
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Post by Forum Cat on Apr 28, 2008 15:24:26 GMT
Hi Gavin,
I have never put Windows on my Mac. I don't really like the thought of it to tell you the truth. However this must be quite irritating.
Does it give you any clues about what the other version that it is seeing could be? If you could post some additional information it may give a clue as to what is happening.
The forum cat
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Post by CyberChimp on Apr 29, 2008 4:13:49 GMT
It sounds similar to a problem which can be caused by the boot.ini file in Microsoft Windows. A couple of quick questions may help establish whether this might be the case: - How long have you had Boot Camp installed and have you applied the (very) recent Boot Camp update from Apple - Boot Camp update 2.1?
- Has the problem with being offered two choices of Windows installations always been present when booting into Boot Camp?
- Which version of Windows have you got installed?
- How are the two Windows options described in the "(DOS looking) menu" when booting up? Does this have something similar to "Please select the operating system to start?" at the top of the screen?
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gavin
Senior Member
Posts: 139
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Post by gavin on Apr 29, 2008 18:33:21 GMT
Hey guys I found a solution by going: control panel --> system --> Advanced under startup and recovery. Here I set it to allow 0 seconds to choose an Operating System. Still leaves a mystery as to why this problem ever arose... In answer to the other questions, BootCamp has always done this on my machine. I'm using Windows XP Home, and both options on the menu read "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition". The first one of these would boot and the other wouldn't. I have not installed the latest version of BootCamp. It almost seems like the Windows partition has somehow been set as a Dual Boot setup. What you get for putting Windows on your mac I guess
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Post by CyberChimp on Apr 29, 2008 19:32:19 GMT
based on the extra info I'm now 99.9% certain that the problem is related to the boot.ini file which lies within the Windows partition.
The boot.ini is a small text file which some NT based versions Windows (including XP) refer to when booting the operating system.
The actual file is split into two sections. The first section [boot loader] deals with delay timings before going to default option automatically, locations of operating system(s) and deciding which will be considered the default operating system if more than one is present. The second section [operating systems] deals with dual booting.
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Although setting the delay timing to zero means that Windows starts booting 'instantly' this can potentially cause difficulties when things go wrong by offering less time to use keyboard combinations to boot into safe mode. If you wanted to fully resolve the problem you will probably need to modify the boot.ini file so that only the correct version of Windows exists in the list of available operating systems.
Only downside with doing anything which alters the boot.ini file is that messing it up can make it impossible to boot Windows at all.
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Hope that lot has been of some help in explaining it a bit.
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Post by Forum Cat on Apr 29, 2008 21:22:44 GMT
based on the extra info I'm now 99.9% certain that the problem is related to the boot.ini file which lies within the Windows partition. I don't know about the OP but that answer sure impressed me. CC
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gavin
Senior Member
Posts: 139
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Post by gavin on Apr 30, 2008 12:53:06 GMT
based on the extra info I'm now 99.9% certain that the problem is related to the boot.ini file which lies within the Windows partition. I don't know about the OP but that answer sure impressed me. CCThe OP is also very impressed. Thanks a lot, I will take a look at it. In truth it's just a gaming partition so if the worst came to the worst while modifying the boot.ini file, I could always reboot into OS X, delete the Windows partition and start again. Thanks again Gav
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keith
Senior Member
Posts: 269
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Post by keith on May 13, 2008 21:41:27 GMT
boot.ini isn't quite so essential providing you've patched your XP installation to SP2 as it no longer relies on it quite as much. Pre SP2, if the boot.ini was missing then Windows simply wouldn't boot but after SP2 it's intelligent enough to know it's missing and be able to boot.
You have patched your XP installation past SP2?
But still be careful if you're editing it manually.
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