You cannot select the Upgrade option when you try to install Windows Vista, and you receive an error message: Your upgrade partition has multiple operating systems
| Article ID | : | 927296 |
| Last Review | : | August 16, 2007 |
| Revision | : | 3.0 |
On This Page
Symptoms of the problem
– Your upgrade partition has multiple operating systems
Back to the topSteps to let you install Windows Vista
To resolve this problem, follow these steps:
| 1. | Start the computer, and then edit the Boot.ini file to remove any references to another operating system. |
| 2. | Remove any folders that contain files for other operating systems. |
Edit the Boot.ini file
Warning If you edit the Boot.ini file incorrectly, you may be unable to start the computer.
Step 1: Save a backup copy of the Boot.ini file
| a. | Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK. |
| b. | In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab. |
| c. | In the Startup and Recovery area, click Settings. |
| d. | In the System Startup area, click Edit.
The Boot.ini file opens in Notepad. |
| e. | In Notepad, click the File menu, and then click Save As. |
| f. | In the File name box, type Boot.bak, and then click Save.
A backup copy of the Boot.ini file is saved to the top folder of drive C. |
Step 2: Determine your version of Windows
| a. | Click Start, click Run, type Winver.exe in the Open box, and then click OK. |
| b. | Note the version of Windows that appears at the top of the About Windows dialog box. For example, Microsoft Windows XP Professional may appear. |
| c. | Click OK. |
Step 3: Edit the Boot.ini file
| a. | If the Boot.ini file is not open in Notepad, follow steps a through d in step 1. |
| b. | In the Boot.ini file, remove the lines that refer to operating systems other than the operating system that the computer is now running.
Note After you remove these lines, you cannot start the computer by using these operating systems. For example, the Boot.ini file may include the following lines: Remove any line that does not refer to the operating system that you noted in step 2c. For example, if the computer is running Windows XP Professional Edition, remove the following line: |
| c. | In the File menu, click Save to save the new version of the Boot.ini file, and then exit Notepad. |
| d. | Click OK two times to close the System Properties dialog box. |
For more information about the Boot.ini file, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Back up and remove folders that contain files for other operating systems
To successfully install Windows Vista, you must also remove any folders that contain files of other operating systems. If any important files are stored in these folders, back up the folders first. For example, back up the folders to a CD or to an external drive. Or, move the folders to another partition on the same physical drive. For example, move the folders from drive C to drive D.
The folder that contains an operating system’s files appears in the Boot.ini file. For example, in step 3, the folder that contains the files for Microsoft Windows 2000 is the WINDOWS folder.
APPLIES TO
| • | Windows Vista Home Basic |
| • | Windows Vista Home Premium |
| • | Windows Vista Ultimate |
| • | Windows Vista Business |
| • | Windows Vista Enterprise |
| • | Windows Vista Home Basic 64-bit Edition |
| • | Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition |
| • | Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition |
| • | Windows Vista Business 64-bit Edition |
| • | Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit Edition |
Keywords:Â |
kbtshoot kbsetup kbprb kbexpertiseinter KB927296 |
Microsoft Knowledge Base Article
This article contents is Microsoft Copyrighted material.
Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Trademarks
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply