I do not understand why it wants to know what window installation I want to log on to
You have installed Windows twice, into separate directories on this computer, rather than overwriting a prior install.
This is not bad (I had that setup for awhile by accident), but it makes this sort of troubleshooting more difficult. Basically, you have two Windows subdirectories on the same partition, that is what I think you’ve got there. I can’t imagine you’ve made a partition because that would have required much more knowledge. However, about the two installs, I wonder now if you did them or if the prior owner did tham.
We can’t know without looking at file dates of certain configuration files (because executables could be identical dates coming from the same CD install done twice, using the dates of compilation from Microsoft and not your system date to imprint the dates, while configuration files are done as you install).
That’s called the boot loader.
At the beginning of your C: drive you have something called an MBR, or Master Boot Record. It loads some info from the C: drive, and looks for something called Boot.ini
Boot.ini has a description of all the systems and drives on you machine (I have one machine with 6 drives), at least the bootable images.
When you install ME/2K/XP it searches for previous installations. Unless you tell it to overwrite the previous one, he will config the machine in whats called “dual boot” mode.
That’s what you have now. At this point, you can actually rescue all the data from the previous install.
Depending on which of the options you chose (which version you answer when it asks you at boot time), you can either boot the new, fresh, unchanged copy, or go back to your previous install.
I suspected MBR corruption when you first described the problem.
Be careful. Some viruses and trojans work by tweaking the MBR.