[NoExcess]

Hey guys.

I have just reinstalled windows on a new partition. Now I previously had a dual boot, one of which was just a wasteland which I had never got around to deleting and just left on one of my partitions.

It was finally time to do a reinstall after the amount of anomalous occurrences on my previous install forced me to do so .

So to clarify before I did this NEW install when I would boot up I already had two windows install options at startup, one of which was the said wasted install which I never used any more and the other was my main one I used every day.

I note this because I thought it may be pertinent.

The windows version I was using was xp with no service packs. This new windows install which I put on another partition, from which I'm typing from now, is windows xp service pack two.

The thing is I still want to get on to the second install because since installing this new one a vital program which I want to use crashes and I have no clue why. It was fine on the other version but not on this one.

The problem however is that once I installed this new version I lost my dual boot option and there is no dual boot screen now. I have tried pressing f5/f8 whichever it is and the current windows install comes up but neither of the other two.

Usually when I install a new install they come up automatically so I am wondering why it doesn't since installing this one? I am at a loss as to why I don't have the dual boot option...

Any ideas on how to get it back up so I can access that other windows install again? If not I think I'll just have to make yet another windows install with the older version of windows (no service packs) and see if the program I want to use will work on that.

But any ideas throw them my way.

thanks.

[surgeVel]

Sounds like you may need to repair the MBR (master boot record). Either that or you accidentally deleted the partitions and clumped them into one when reinstalling.

Try this:
XP: Repair or fix master boot record using recovery console | Windows installation | Tech-Recipes

[NoExcess]

Ok, I had been reading around and came to the same conclusion as you on my own. My plan was to run the recovery console however I reached another stumbling block.

When I rebooted with my xp disk in and tried to run the repair console I checked the partition I wanted however when it asked for my password, which I am certain (99.99% at least) is correct as I've been using it every single day for maybe two years, it says the password is incorrect and so boots me out of the recovery thing.

Any way to get around this?

Can I disable the password in my new windows install so that it won't ask me in the recovery console or somesuch like that?

thanks.

[surgeVel]

Do you have an administrator account password setup? Sometimes users create their own account when installing, and don't assign an Administrator account password. Did you try it with no password? Or if you did set a separate Administrator password other than your normal user password, try that.

[Mak213]

The only way around it would be to use one of the password tools we have listed in the Read First thread.

Other than that you can try a blank password to see if the password on your account is not hte same as the one they have.