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Fixing the “Multiple Operating Systems” error during Vista upgrade

The problems with Vista seem to be never ending. For instance, many users have reported the error message: Your upgrade partition has multiple operating systems. This occurred particularly when they were trying to upgrade their Vista. This article will show you how to fix this issue.

The primary reason for this error can be twofold:

a)      You actually have multiple partitions installed on your PC.

b)      Your boot.ini file has two entries for the startup – making your PC believe that there are two partitions installed.

Thus, to fix this problem, you have to take measures accordingly. Read the instructions below.

Resolution 1:

If your situation is as described in point (a) above, then you might try deleting one of the operating systems on the partition. At any rate, it is well advised that you have only one OS per partition.

Resolution 2:

If your situation is as described in point (b) above, then you have to locate the boot.ini file, and change it accordingly so that your PC does not have the misconception that there are two OSs on your system. Here is what you have to do:

1. Backing up the boot.ini file before changing it
   1. Open the Run prompt by going to Start -> Run.
   2. Enter sysdm.cpl.
   3. In the System Properties dialog, go to the Advanced tab.
   4. In the Advanced tab, under the heading System and Recovery, click on Settings.
   5. A Startup and Recovery window pops up. Click on the Edit button next to the option that says To edit the startup options manually, click Edit.
   6. The boot.ini file is opened in Notepad. Go to File -> Save As and save this notepad file by any name in a folder of your choice.
2. Changing the boot.ini file
   1. Repeat Steps a-e as in point 1 above.
   2. Change the boot.ini file to state that only one OS is installed in the partition. [You can find more details regarding this on the web.]
   3. Save the file.

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3. Free Hard Disk Partition Software For Windows
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