windows XP

Hi,Before i post my problem id like to thank everyone for helping me in the past on other issues i had.my problem i installed a second harddrive when i turn on pc screen shows two XP pros installs asks me to choose one or in 20 seconds it loads one,but if i try to pick one with my keyboard i cant select one so i have to wait 20 seconds for it to pick it,is this normal with two harddrives,when i put in second hardrive i loaded xp pro in second drive to or did i do something wrong?


Thanks Oakfn

You have two options because you still have XP on the first drive.
Your options are basically either get your data from it and format that drive to remove Windows from it - then put your data back on it...or just remove that boot option. You can edit the file "boot.ini" on your current XP install (the file is hidden) to remove that entry.

I'm assuming it's not letting you select because you have a USB keyboard and the USB keyboard and/or mouse option isn't enabled in your BIOS

either way...I'd format the first drive so Windows no longer exists on it.

i deleted one in that file now gives me choice of windows default or windows xp,ive tryed to format but for some reason cant get to screen where it shows my drives and asks me if i want to format,know of a simple site that tells you step by step how to format? kinda like formating for dummies

Thanks

First try this

rclick my computer, then click on properties|advanced
then under startup and recovery, click on the settings box and the
deselect the check in the box for "time to display list of operating systems"


What do you want to format the new drive?
Rclick my computer
then click on manage|disk management
then click on the drive you want to format, down below under the blue bar and you will see the option to format

hope this helps if not post back with more details

The drive that you want to boot from is going to be C: which should be your first drive. I would guess that you are going to use the new drive for non-OS use?

hi did that where it says format its greyed out cant select it,and yes i want to format new drive have xp pro on both drives not sure if i need both to have xp on them


Oakfn

Does the second/new drive show up in the control panel? Can you click on files on that drive and open them. Have you ran the add new hardware wizard, if not do so. Did you take the second drive from another computer where it was the only drive, and if so does it have jumpers and did you set that drive to the slave position, or are both drives set to cable select?

One way to format that drive would be to insert it as the only drive in your computer and then boot into your XP CD and when you get to the "welcome to setup" screen press F10

You will then be at the Recovery Console.
at the prompt type
format /q
then when done
exit

Again you will then reinsert this as the slave drive and run the hardware detect from the control panel and then check the disk management and see if you can again format it from there.
Heres a link on the recovery console
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058/EN-US

You can also force format that sucker by installing it alone in your box then going through the set up and when prompted to use or create a partition to set up on just delete and create a new partition using all the space and then doing a quick format then shutting down and yanking when format is done-don't let setup lay any files on that drive.

Heres a page with some formatting info/step-by -step
http://www.bootdisk.com/


Hope this makes sense, and there are other ways but I would give the RC a try first.