Computer suddenly has two boot options. What to do?

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Sethno
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23 Aug 2015, 12:29 am

My computer really needed a larger hard drive, and since the Microsoft's Windows 10 software was claiming the computer wasn't compatible with 10 (which was nonsense), I got a new, larger drive, and on Friday used my restore disc to reinstall Windows 7 Pro.

It started doing nearly 200 updates, and during this suddenly the Windows 10 icon appeared. The software now said the computer WAS compatible with 10, so I clicked to "get in line for Windows 10".

In the meantime, the computer has continued getting updates.

On Saturday afternoon, I began using a USB adapter with the old hard drive, copying all my files onto the new drive.

Just after starting to copy one folder, the computer said it was getting ready to restart so's to install the latest updates. I chose to stop the file copying, and let the computer restart.

Possible problem- The USB adapter connected to the old drive was left plugged into the computer.

Ever since then the computer's had trouble booting. At first it needed to use the Windows disc to "repair".

That seemed to fix something, but now when it boots, the computer offers two different options. One is called "Windows 7", and the other is called "Windows 7 Professional". The first one seems to be the newly installed OS, put there on Friday. It IS Windows 7 Pro. The second option, which is NAMED "Windows 7 Pro", doesn't work. If I choose neither, naturally the computer defaults to the first option, but even that seems to take a bit longer to boot than it did before.

This is "lumpy" or "messy" and I'd rather it just boot into Windows rather than giving me booting options.

I suspect allowing it to boot after the updates with the old drive still connected (BY USB???) did something, since there was a full Windows installation still on that drive.

Is there anything I can do to put things back to how they were and get the new drive to just boot without options? Or will it be necessary to wipe the new drive by installing Windows all over again, get the updates all over again, start moving my files all over again...etc.?


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slave
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23 Aug 2015, 8:25 pm

Yet another reason why I won't touch Win10.
Hope u can fix it.



Sethno
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24 Aug 2015, 7:28 am

slave wrote:
Yet another reason why I won't touch Win10.
Hope u can fix it.


This has nothing to do with Windows 10. The computer is running Windows 7.

My only mention of Windows 10 was that with the new hard drive and new Windows installation, it says it now can get Windows 10.


_________________
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Your Aspie score: 100 of 200 / Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 101 of 200
You seem to have both Aspie and neurotypical traits

What would these results mean? Been told here I must be a "half pint".


slave
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24 Aug 2015, 11:35 am

Sethno wrote:
The software now said the computer WAS compatible with 10, so I clicked to "get in line for Windows 10".


I misinterpreted your choice to "I clicked to "get in line for Windows 10". and thought you were trying to get Win10 all along.
I did not understand that you were intent on sticking with Win7.
Sry.



Kiriae
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24 Aug 2015, 12:53 pm

Try this: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/i ... tions.html
Fast solution for disabling the boot choice.

About slow booting - if there is really a problem with system files you might try putting the Win7 disc and choose "repair" http://www.7tutorials.com/overview-syst ... -windows-7 , system recovery also has that option http://www.7tutorials.com/fix-windows-7 ... tup-repair . It will check the file system for errors and fix them if it finds any.
But I suppose the updates are at fault - they installed some unnecessary addons (like when my WinXP was slowing down by 90 secs because of a NET Framework related update, disabling it helped). To check what slows down the booting you enter the event log/viewer and pay attention to the times, if there is too long time between events during the system start up - the event following the time is usually the cause, especially it it is an "error" or "warning".
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/22 ... s-7-a.html



Kiriae
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24 Aug 2015, 1:19 pm

Also check what programs are starting up with your system. They slow down the system startup.
http://www.wikihow.com/Change-Startup-P ... -Windows-7



Sethno
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25 Aug 2015, 5:54 am

slave wrote:
Sethno wrote:
The software now said the computer WAS compatible with 10, so I clicked to "get in line for Windows 10".


I misinterpreted your choice to "I clicked to "get in line for Windows 10". and thought you were trying to get Win10 all along.
I did not understand that you were intent on sticking with Win7.
Sry.


8O

I never said that either. I said the computer's problem has nothing to do with "getting in line" for Windows 10. It has to do with the machine not booting into Windows 7 correctly. No Windows 10 downloads have happened...yet.

Someone on another site seems to have solved the problem by advising me to try running MSCONFIG and using that to delete the second boot option. That seems to have done the trick.

The problem did resurface when I shut down the computer and then stupidly rebooted it with the previous drive still connected thru the USB port.

Using MSCONFIG a second time and again deleting the 2nd boot option has once more solved the problem.

I've just got the remember this is not a typical external drive with backed up files on it. It's a former internal hard drive with an OS on it, which apparently the computer notices, even if it can't actually be booted from, and it gets ID'd as a possible boot source anyway.

The USB cable will be yanked each and every time the computer is rebooted from now on.


_________________
AQ 31
Your Aspie score: 100 of 200 / Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 101 of 200
You seem to have both Aspie and neurotypical traits

What would these results mean? Been told here I must be a "half pint".


Sethno
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25 Aug 2015, 5:57 am

Kiriae wrote:
Try this: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/i ... tions.html
Fast solution for disabling the boot choice...


Thanks, Kiriae.

As you might notice above, I've found something that works, but I will check out your links too.


_________________
AQ 31
Your Aspie score: 100 of 200 / Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 101 of 200
You seem to have both Aspie and neurotypical traits

What would these results mean? Been told here I must be a "half pint".


Kiriae
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25 Aug 2015, 7:33 am

Sethno wrote:
The problem did resurface when I shut down the computer and then stupidly rebooted it with the previous drive still connected thru the USB port.

Using MSCONFIG a second time and again deleting the 2nd boot option has once more solved the problem.

I've just got the remember this is not a typical external drive with backed up files on it. It's a former internal hard drive with an OS on it, which apparently the computer notices, even if it can't actually be booted from, and it gets ID'd as a possible boot source anyway.

The USB cable will be yanked each and every time the computer is rebooted from now on.

You can solve it by formating the external drive so your computer stops seeing the "system" there.
Backup the files you want to keep (you can do the backup on your computer HDD or on the external drive by shrinking its initial partition and making a new partition next to it then putting the files you want to keep there) and then do a format of the external drive (or just the initial partition). Then you either put the backed up files back on the drive or just extend the partition with files backed up and change it's letter if you wish.

You can do it in Win7 using Disk Management tool http://www.7tutorials.com/how-manage-yo ... nt-utility or DiskPart command http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/e ... uage=en_US .

Alternatively you can try manually deleting the "Windows" folder in external drive and all hidden files in it's main folder but I wouldn't bet it works as well as cleaning the whole partition because the system/installation could have it's recognize files in some other folder.