2 questions about an Armada E500

Hi,

I have a friend who bought an E500 from a friend of his. I know nothing
about the machine but I'm asking these questions for him since he doesn't
have internet access with it.

It appears that the machine originally had Win98 but the friend put XP Pro
on it and made it a dual boot system and later removed Win98.

Now my friend is getting a screen that is asking if he wants to boot from
Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows. It halts the boot-up until he
makes a selection. Is there a way to eliminate that screen since Win98 is no
longer on the machine? BTW, if he selects Microsoft Windows then the splash
screen for Win98 flashes very briefly and then goes to the C:\ prompt.

Secondly, the friend left the file system as FAT 32. Is it possible to
re-format to NTSF without losing the data on the HD? At the present time he
doesn't have the XP disks and I don't know if he'll be able to get them so
re-installing XP may not be an option at the present time.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Joe

On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 23:04:41 -0600, "me again"
wrote:

Hi,

I have a friend who bought an E500 from a friend of his. I know nothing
about the machine but I'm asking these questions for him since he doesn't
have internet access with it.

It appears that the machine originally had Win98 but the friend put XP Pro
on it and made it a dual boot system and later removed Win98.

Now my friend is getting a screen that is asking if he wants to boot from
Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows. It halts the boot-up until he
makes a selection. Is there a way to eliminate that screen since Win98 is no
longer on the machine? BTW, if he selects Microsoft Windows then the splash
screen for Win98 flashes very briefly and then goes to the C:\ prompt.


He needs to edit a hidden file called "BOOT.INI" in his C:\ directory.
It is possible to do this from the GUI, but I don't remember the
details. Here is an alternate technique, done from a command prompt
window:

C:
CD \
ATTRIB -S -H BOOT.INI
EDIT BOOT.INI

In the section labeled "Operating systems", he should have one line
starting with "Multi" that refers to XP, and another that refers to
Windows. He needs to delete the line that refers to Windows.

Save the file, exit from the editor, and then type

ATTRIB +S +H BOOT.INI

at the prompt. Next time he reboots, his machine should go directly
into XP.


Secondly, the friend left the file system as FAT 32. Is it possible to
re-format to NTSF without losing the data on the HD? At the present time he
doesn 't have the XP disks and I don't know if he'll be able to get them so
re-installing XP may not be an option at the present time.

Thanks in advance for your help,


I am not sure of the answer to this question, unfortunately.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

John,

Thanks for the info. It will be very helpful.

I did some searching on the FAT32 NTSF question in the XP newsgroup and my
preliminary info indicates he should probably just leave it as FAT32 because
the HD is only 6GB. It IS possible to format without losing data though.

Regards,

Joe

"John F. Eldredge" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 23:04:41 -0600, "me again"
wrote:

Hi,

I have a friend who bought an E500 from a friend of his. I know nothing
about the machine but I'm asking these questions for him since he doesn't
have internet access with it.

It appears that the machine originally had Win98 but the friend put XP Pro
on it and made it a dual boot system and later removed Win98.

Now my friend is getting a screen that is asking if he wants to boot from
Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows. It halts the boot-up until
he
makes a selection. Is there a way to eliminate that screen since Win98 is
no
longer on the machine? BTW, if he selects Microsoft Windows then the
splash
screen for Win98 flashes very briefly and then goes to the C:\ prompt.


He needs to edit a hidden file called "BOOT.INI" in his C:\ directory.
It is possible to do this from the GUI, but I don't remember the
details. Here is an alternate technique, done from a command prompt
window:

C:
CD \
ATTRIB -S -H BOOT.INI
EDIT BOOT.INI

In the section labeled "Operating systems", he should have one line
starting with "Multi" that refers to XP, and another that refers to
Windows. He needs to delete the line that refers to Windows.

Save the file, exit from the editor, and then type

ATTRIB +S +H BOOT.INI

at the prompt. Next time he reboots, his machine should go directly
into XP.


Secondly, the friend left the file system as FAT 32. Is it possible to
re-format to NTSF without losing the data on the HD? At the present time
he
doesn 't have the XP disks and I don't know if he'll be able to get them
so
re-installing XP may not be an option at the present time.

Thanks in advance for your help,


I am not sure of the answer to this question, unfortunately.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria