wasnt sure where to put this, if it fits in better somewhere else please let me know . . .
anyway i my computer is dual booted with mint and vista. at the boot screen i have the option of 5 different mint boots and two vista. i was wondering if i could change it so that i have two for each? a normal one and a recovery . . . please let me know of this is possible/not possible, or if you know how to do it

As root, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst. Comment out the menu entries you do not want to see. There should already be commented lines in the file that show how they are commented. It's usually a leading #.

sorry im quite new to all this . . .
so i can edit the names and delete the entries in the bit below?

## ## End Default Options ##

title Linux Mint 7 Gloria, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic
quiet

title Linux Mint 7 Gloria, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic

title Linux Mint 7 Gloria, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title Linux Mint 7 Gloria, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Linux Mint 7 Gloria, memtest86+
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Windows Vista (loader)
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda3
title Windows Vista (loader)
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

You can read the following tutorial. It explains what all those lines in menu.lst mean.

For example, if you want to get rid of the entry that would boot Linux Mint with 2.6.28-11-generic kernel, you need to comment out (#) or delete the following lines:
Each paragraph is responsible for one entry in your grub menu.

thanks heaps for the quick replies everyone, they were very helpful. one more quick question, can i edit the names of the vista ones as the normal and the recovery have the same name

EDIT- dont worry read the article

I don't think so. Grub doesn't boot windows directly. It chainloads it and starts windows' own boot loader (which you would have to edit to achieve it).
Linux recovery mode means that the system is started in a single user mode (note the 'single' option at the end of some lines)
HTH

jsut for future reference you can change the name of the windows boots
ty for the help everyone

Yes, you can change the NAME of the windows entry in grub to whatever you want, but it doesn't mean that it will start in the recovery mode (if that's what you mean?). I don't know much about the windows boot loader so I can't help you with that part.