Windows 2000 machine. Tried to upgrade to XP, gives error and says I need the upgrade cd not the oem cd. So I go buy an upgrade cd (sp1). Install new windows, it boots but has no speaker audio. hmmm. Then avg starts puking up it doesn't know my license number. When windows starts I get a black window asking to select one of TWO Windows xp operating systems. Click the top one there's no icons on the desk top and no audio but everything else says normal Windows operation.

Click the bottom one and you get the proper desktop with all the icons, the sound works, the avg program works.

Reboot and the black screen links to click to the operating system are reversed, the bottom one is on the top and the top is on the bottom. They both say the exact same thing. It's a crapshoot which one to click to get it to work.

One thing I noticed is when you get the initial black screen boot with the windows logo, there are two versions of the screen-one has a year date on it and one does not. One says MS Windows XP one says MS Windows XP PRO.

Calling all nerdnicks and geeks how do I get this thing back alive again short of reformatting the hard drive.

your dongle is hangin wrong

I would seriously consider the short way: start fresh with a re-formated hard drive. You'll appreciate a fresh start in the long run.

what was the reason for having two os's if i may ask?

There wasn't, Windows did it itself.

what was the reason for having two os's if i may ask?

i see

so you cannot go back in time....

at this point....

to say June 1rst ?

Ya, that would be first step, pick a restore point prior to the mess up and see if it works. If not, I would take the opportunity to upgrade to a bigger drive, install the oem version on it and then slave the old drive to it, so you can still access all the data and photos on the old drive. Gives you a new clean slate, while keeping all your old data, a win-win.

Gives you a new clean slate, while keeping all your old data, a win-win.

daz right..... :cheers:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c66/ravenob1/h5.png

looking on google i see MANY other people have had this issue. They say to edit the boot.ini file but don't say from where-either inside the bad version or the good version :spin:

It tells you in the boot file...

boot loader

Default = operating system 0 or 1 or 2 or 3, ect...

then

Operating systems... 0 or 1 or 2 or 3, ect...

under operating systems remove the one that is not selected under boot loader...

I'm pretty sure that is the route... been a few years since i tinkered with a PC...

understand this. But they both are listed as the same operating system so do I get a boot to the good one and that is now the first o/s? I already found earlier they can change position in the initial boot order. How do I know which one is which number?

You can tell by the location which is which
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S

right click the icon mycomputer\advanced\startup and recovery\edit