Removing other XP OS's on startup

I am trying to do a clean install on a Dell Dimension 2400. When I tried booting from disk it said it was unable to... So i tried installing it from the main desktop window and it went through all its steps up unto the partition management screen then i was unable to delete the current partition. So I exited out of the setup and restarted. Now i have 3 choices to choose from on startup (its pretty much as if i had a dual boot setup):

Windows XP Home
Windows XP Home
Windows XP Setup

Does anyone know how to get rid of the bottom 2? And does anyone know how to install a fresh copy of XP on it given the conditions I described above?

 

Delete the last two entries from the boot.ini file (it is a hidden system file located on the active partition : usually C: drive).

 

Well I will tackle the easy item another way

To get rid of the other 2 options when you start your computer

Start/Control Panel/performance and maintenance/system/advanced/Startup and recovery settings / the top box has the listing for all three options, you can delete what you don’t want to show on your bootup there


Alex

 

amen to that!!

 

Thanks for your help!

Now I just have to figure out how to do the clean install.

 

What was the error you got when you tried to boot from the cd and install ?

 

I cant remember on top of my head.... something like "unable to boot, push F1 to try again or push (some other button) to exit........"

Could installing from a USB be an option?

I tried tried running the cd while at the desktop screen and it went fine all the way to the partition screen. At that point when I tried to delete the current partition it said that i couldnt because that it holds files needed to install XP or something like that

 

if you really want to do a clean install, why don't you format your hdd before the install and get rid of all the crap.

is this the original ide hdd, or a newer sata hdd? If sata, the problem about booting is it can't find your hdd. If it's an ide/pae sata, you're in good shape.

There are several good disk parttioners. Try searching with google, or here's a free one that looks to do everything:
http://partitionlogic.org.uk/
though I didn't try it out.........

If you have the proper type hdd, you need to be sure the XP disk you have is actually bootable. Download the trial version of UltraISO and install it. Then open the XP disk with it- if it's bootable it will say "Bootable CD/DVD" in the upper left corner of the screen, It it isn't bootable, it will say "Data CD/DVD" and you'll have to find another disk/image.