thanks to you all for your helpful posts. i ended up editing boot.ini in
notepad from the properties dialog. it was:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect


and i changed it to:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Home
Edition"

working fine now.

thanks again

"Rock" wrote:

> RiderDude wrote:
>
> > one of my dumb kids infested my dell dimension 2400 with everyspyware program
> > known to man (and a few unknown ones). i tried washing them out, and
> > scrubbing them out, but the stains were still there. i ended up doing a clean
> > install of XP from the disks which i miracuously found in the attic. deleted
> > all partitions and built a single new NTFS partition and nestled XP snugly
> > therein. problem is, now when i boot, BIOS thinks there are 2 OSs on the disk
> > and asks me to choose the one i want to boot from. one works (i'm assuming
> > this is the newly installed version), the other doesnt (i'm assuming it's a
> > ghost of the old OS rattling around like Jacob Marley). how can i get rid of
> > Marley's ghost?
>
> Sounds like you did a parallel install and there still might be nasties
> left around. Recommend you look at doing a clean install. See this link:
>
> http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
>
> --
> Rock
> MS MVP Windows - Shell/User
>
>