Problem: Now have two OS on my laptop

Good news: My XPS M1730 laptop came in last night and so I started a reformat. Evidently I didn't do everything correctly because I now have two problems. When booting up, I can select one of two different operating systems to load [both options say XP Pro].

On the new [and blank] version of XP Pro, my internet connections were removed and I can't figure out how to get them back. I only have the LAN connection icon and don't have a wireless icon at all.

However, everything is still available under the old version of XP, including my internet connections. I just went in and uninstalled all the bloatware I didn't want. After that, I redownloaded some of my games from Steam so I really don't want to have to reformat again.

Here's my question... should I remove the newer version of XP [is it good or bad to have two OSs of the same kind on your laptop?] and if so, how do I do it so I don't screw up the other one?

Thanks.

 

You should be able to delete the old one without much trouble, use something like gparted to delete it's partition.
As for the new one, have you tried installing drivers?

 

I had reinstalled all the drivers which came with the machine. The Dell CS couldn't figure it out either.

I now want to delete the new and empty OS as I have already put alot on the original one and removed the bloatware.

How do I remove the new one [and can be sure I am removing the correct one]?

 

Sounds like you attempted something slightly above your ability level.

At this stage, I would wipe everything and start again. Re-get your internet settings (whatever they are, I don't know if you mean your login details or what here) and start again.

 

Best is to reformat. Put in the Dell MD CD, boot off it, then put in the XP CD when prompted and boot off that. Run DellMDKit.exe from CD in Windows, and then install all drivers, etc. from the CD, and/or support.dell.com (once you have a working network card).

If that's not an option, the way to remove the second installation is to boot into the correct Dell-preinstalled version of Windows (C:\Windows) and delete the entry for the second one from boot.ini. You can do so from System Properties, I believe, under boot, I think.

I am guessing you did a clean install of Windows on to the same partition, so two copies of Windows exist on C:\. If that is the case, then AFTER you reboot and confirm you are in the correct version of Windows (which will not anymore prompt you to tell it which version of Windows to boot into as it will only know about one, that which Dell put on, then delete the other Windows folder (probably C:\WINXP, ***NOT C:\WINDOWS***) and any extraneous user folders in C:\Documents and Settings. WARNING: PROCEED WITH CAUTION so you don't wipe out needed user folders. Typically, the name.WINDOWS folder is the one created for the second install of Windows, which you are getting rid of, so you can delete those folders.

But, again, make sure you know what you're doing before you delete anything.

 

Since you just did a new install, I would just suggest wiping the entire drive and redoing it. You may want to use DBan with the quick erase option before reinstalling.