ok so i boot and it always comes up with two os's but now i want one of them deleted. one version of xp i have installed has only service pack 1 and the other has service pack 2. i use the one with 2. i would like to delete the one with service pack one. i read up on how to delete os's but the problem is that they are on the same disk. so how do i delete one of these from my c drive with out killing my good one.
tralfas 0 Newbie Poster
zelkea 5 Posting Whiz
If you have one logical disk with two partitions with an OS installed on each you can easily delete the unwanted OS by deleting the associated partition via Disk Management. You can access disk management by right click on My computer and clicking Manage. Disk Management is located under Storage.
You will also have to remove the OS you do not want from the boot.ini. Follow the steps below to complete this.
- Right click my computer and select properties
- Click on the Advanced tab
- Click on Startup and Recovery
- Click Edit and remove the OS you removed. (I would highly recommend that you backup this file first)
tralfas 0 Newbie Poster
ok i got about this far
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f122/tralfas/desktoppic.jpg
but after this i dont know where the os is.
gerbil 216 Industrious Poster
Okay, you only have one partition, c:, with both OS's on it, so don't disturb it. Thing to do is to logon with the SP2 OS that you wish to keep, identify the SP1 Windows folder and just delete it. Then you must modify your boot.ini file to remove the loading point for that OS :-
Press Windows-PauseBreak; or open System properties; or Start,Run, sysdm.cpl; > Advanced tab, Startup n Recovery Settings button, and Edit. Delete the line in notepad that refers to your SP1 OS, and Save.
Should be done. If you are not sure about editing the boot.ini file post it here with a remark identifying the SP2 OS.
tralfas 0 Newbie Poster
do you know which folder it is usually in and then once i get to the folder how do i tell the difference between the good os and the bad one.
zelkea 5 Posting Whiz
Pull up a cmd window then type in 'cd %systemroot%' and hit enter this will take you to your current OS’s systemroot. On a default installation of xp this command will take you to c:\windows.
tralfas 0 Newbie Poster
ok so i entered that into the cmd prompt and i got the default. then i typed start %systemroot% and got to see the folder visually. now i just delete delete !!!!!! ? or what needs to be deleted.
sorry everyone on this board is probably like STFU god!!!! but please help i need to get this off my computer. =)
zelkea 5 Posting Whiz
Lol no worries tralfas we all started somewhere. It depends on which OS you ran the command on.
To be safe boot into the OS that you do NOT want and run the command above, this will be the folder you will delete. Now boot into the OS you want to keep and run the same command. Verify that the systemroot folders are different then delete the folder listed from your previous boot. I would recommend having a complete backup and your xp media incase you need to reinstall. The default location for the systemroot is c:\windows what is the location of the second installation do you have a c:\windows2?
tralfas 0 Newbie Poster
Wow thanks for all the help guys you all are AWESOME!!!!
i did system root on both and the first one was the default C:\WINDOWS and the second one was C:\WINNT . so these folders were side by side easy enough and then i just deleted the winnt folder and now its gone. all i need to do now is remove it from the boot.ini then im done but for now i really need to sleep ! =)
jbennet 1,618 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster
To remove it from the boot.ini you co control panel -> system -> advanced tab -> startup and recovery
Make sure you dont delete the wrong one!!!
zelkea 5 Posting Whiz
No problem, thanks for posting the names of the directories.
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