two different load identifiers

Question

I had a corrupted hal.dll file and during the process of fixing it I had to answer this question:

1. When Enter Load Identifier appears, type one of the following that best describes your operating system and press : ·

Windows XP Home Edition for Windows XP Home Edition

Windows XP Professional for Windows XP Professional

Windows XP Media Center for Windows XP Media Center

i entered the latter; now when i boot up i have to choose between the choice of either:

1) windows xp media center edition

2) windows xp media center

i admit i'm a computer neopyte. that said how do i eliminate the need to answer which identifier to use every time i boot up?

Thanks

jsimon818 · Answer

this is for my home computer so i won't be able to attempt anything until tonight.

RoHe · Answer

Start>run Type in: msconfig Click OK Click BOOT.INI tab Click 'Check All Boot Paths' button Accept the offer to remove the invalid boot path.   Ron

RoHe · Answer

You're welcome.    Did that fix it?   Ron

jsimon818 · Answer

thanks Ron

jsimon818 · Answer

no it did not.  it gave me the message 'it appears that all boot.ini lines for msft operating system are ok'

RoHe · Answer

Does it boot when you choose either of those 2 options at the boot screen?

Did you do a parallel install of Windows, so now you have 2 copies of Windows OS on the hard drive?

You will probably have to edit the boot.ini file manually to remove 1 of the 2 functional boot options.

Note: The only way you can fully remove 1 copy of Windows after a parallel install is by a clean reformat/reinstall (or using PC Restore if still available). You can manually delete the extra files, but that's risky and you could prevent the system from booting if you delete the wrong file(s).

Be sure to back up personal files on external media first, whichever way you proceed. ;)

Ron

jsimon818 · Answer

Ron,

Also, if i look at the boot.ini file, i'll have two lines similiar to the one below (this is an example and not the actual line). the first will reference Windows XP Media Center and the other will be Windows XP Media Center Edition.

do i simply edit the file to delete the one?

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

RoHe · Answer

Since they are both functional boot paths now, you'll have to manually edit the Boot.ini file to remove one of them. Follow the instructions in that link to microsoft.   Ron

jsimon818 · Answer

ok makes sense.  thank you.

jsimon818 · Answer

Ron,

My original problem was a corrupted hal.dll file and i followed the instructions pasted below. for step 9, I typed the info from number 3.

now every time i reboot, it gives me the choice of 'windows xp media center' or 'windows xp media center edition'. they both will boot up but i would like to eliminate one. that said, i don't think i have two copies of the OS but then again, i don't know much about it. it appears i have two paths to get to the same operating system.

thanks for your help.

Repair the Windows Boot Configuration

The error hal.dll is missing or corrupt can usually be resolved by repairing the Windows boot configuration. Click the button below that corresponds to your version of Windows to view the repair instructions.

Windows XP Repair the boot configuration using the Windows XP Recovery Console

Note: The Windows XP CD is required to perform the following steps.

Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD drive and restart the computer.
Press the when prompted Press any key to boot from CD.
At the Welcome to Setup screen press to start the Recovery Console.
If prompted, select the number corresponding to the Windows installation you want to log into (usually C:\WINDOWS) and press .
Enter the Administrator password, if any, and press .
At the C:\WINDOWS> prompt, type cd \ and press .
There is one space between cd and \ (the backslash).
Type bootcfg /rebuild and press .
There is one space between bootcfg and / (the slash) and no space between / and rebuild.
When prompted Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All), type y, and press .
When Enter Load Identifier appears, type one of the following that best describes your operating system and press :
- Windows XP Home Edition for Windows XP Home Edition
- Windows XP Professional for Windows XP Professional
- Windows XP Media Center for Windows XP Media Center
When Enter OS Load Options appears, type /NoExecute=OptIn /fastdetect and press .
Remove the Windows XP CD from the CD drive.
Type Exit, and press to reboot into Windows XP.

Windows General

two different load identifiers

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