How to make a dual boot PC into single boot?

  • Thread starter Thread starter occam
  • Start date Start date
O

occam

Hi

I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D:)
to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.

My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)

I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.

Thanks
 
occam said:
Hi

I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D:)
to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.

My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)

I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.

Thanks
Click to expand...


just delete the folder win98 is installed in

then run msconfig

and have it check for the boot path and let it remove the invalid entry
 
occam said:
Hi

I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D:)
to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.

My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)

I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.
Click to expand...

Ok, since you said that WinXP is on D: but you didn't go into more
detail on how this is set up. Is this two separate drive units with a
C: partition on one and the D partition on the other, or one drive unit
with both the C: and D: partitions on it?

Before we can give more specific details of what's involved, it's
necessary that we know this. Also since this is posted in the Windows
XP basic newsgroup, it could be above your technical abilities.
 
Roy said:
occam wrote:
Click to expand...
Ok, since you said that WinXP is on D: but you didn't go into more
detail on how this is set up. Is this two separate drive units with a
C: partition on one and the D partition on the other, or one drive unit
with both the C: and D: partitions on it?
Click to expand...


Roy

Win XP is installed on the same drive, with two partitions C: and D:

Before we can give more specific details of what's involved, it's
necessary that we know this. Also since this is posted in the Windows
XP basic newsgroup, it could be above your technical abilities.
Click to expand...

Try me. Windows basic NG is just a statting point. Where is the best NG
to post this to? (As this is a 'throw-away' portable I am working with,
I am not afraid of doing anything catastrophic with it.)


Thanks
 
philo said:
just delete the folder win98 is installed in

then run msconfig

and have it check for the boot path and let it remove the invalid entry
Click to expand...

Philo

I am assuming you mean when logged into the XP partition? Deleting the
C: drive (where Win 98 is) was not allowed. The message was something
like 'MS system files -- deletion not allowed'. (This is effectively
the same message I get when I try and re-format this (Fat32) partition
as NTFS space, for use by the XP system.
 
occam said:
Hi

I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D:)
to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.

My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)

I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.
Click to expand...

You will not be able to remove or format the C: drive, in NT terminology
this C: drive is refered to as the System Partition. This partition is
flagged as the 'Active Partition', it is the partition that is used to
boot the computer and it contains files necessary to boot Windows XP.

You can remove all of the files on the C: partition *except* the
following which are necessary to boot Windows XP:

Boot.ini
NTDETECT.COM
ntldr
NTBOOTDD.SYS (if present, which I doubt, used for SCSI Controllers
without a SCSI BIOS)

John
 
Hi

I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D:)
to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.

My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)

I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.

Thanks
Click to expand...

If you have a bootable XP installation CD that you used to install XP
and do not want W98 (ever), before you get too far along, whack
(reformat) that disk and reinstall XP onto the C drive. If you want a
D partition for storage or programs, create one. I would do it while
you can before you wish you had done it later - and have a big mess.

That way, you will be more in line with most "regular" type of XP
installations which will make discussions a lot easier later.

You will never have to say something like:

Well... everybody else's XP is installed on C, but my XP is installed
on D and some of my stuff is on C and some on D and now I'm all mixed
up. BTW, I also have Win98 installed on C, could that be my problem
with XP?
 
John said:
You will not be able to remove or format the C: drive, in NT terminology
this C: drive is refered to as the System Partition. This partition is
flagged as the 'Active Partition', it is the partition that is used to
boot the computer and it contains files necessary to boot Windows XP.

You can remove all of the files on the C: partition *except* the
following which are necessary to boot Windows XP:

Boot.ini
NTDETECT.COM
ntldr
NTBOOTDD.SYS (if present, which I doubt, used for SCSI Controllers
without a SCSI BIOS)

John
Click to expand...

Hi John

Thanks for that info. If I understand correctly therefore, then the
better option is to re-install XP over Win 98 (in Drive C:) and
re-format the Drive D (initial XP install)?
(I believ this is what Jose, in the next message, is also telling me.)

Thanks
 
Jose said:
If you have a bootable XP installation CD that you used to install XP
and do not want W98 (ever), before you get too far along, whack
(reformat) that disk and reinstall XP onto the C drive. If you want a
D partition for storage or programs, create one. I would do it while
you can before you wish you had done it later - and have a big mess.

That way, you will be more in line with most "regular" type of XP
installations which will make discussions a lot easier later.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jose, I will try that. I am hoping that by doing so, I will not
have any problems uninstalling (re-formatting) the first copy of Win XP
(on D)
 
occam said:
Philo

I am assuming you mean when logged into the XP partition? Deleting the
C: drive (where Win 98 is) was not allowed. The message was something
like 'MS system files -- deletion not allowed'. (This is effectively
the same message I get when I try and re-format this (Fat32) partition
as NTFS space, for use by the XP system.
Click to expand...



I did *NOT* tell you to delete the C: drive

I told you to simply delete the folder that Win98 is installed in.

If Win98 is on C: and XP is on D: (for example)

you can delete all the data there except for boot.ini ntdetect.com and ntldr
 
occam said:
Hi John

Thanks for that info. If I understand correctly therefore, then the
better option is to re-install XP over Win 98 (in Drive C:) and
re-format the Drive D (initial XP install)?
Click to expand...

No, I think that you can leave it as it is, getting rid of all the files
except the ones noted above and use the rest of the disk as a storage
area. Or you can simply make the D: partition active and then *copy*
the above mentioned system files to the newly made active D: partition.

If you decide to make D: the active partition you will have to edit the
boot.ini file to change the partition number, the active partition is
usually enumerated as partition 1 on the disk. As it is now C: is
enumerated as partition 1 and D: is enumerated as partition 2, you are
most likely booting Windows XP on partition 2. When you mark D: as the
active partition it should be enumerated before the other partitions.

If you want to try this *copy* above mentioned system files to the D:
drive and then replace the boot.ini file (on both drives) with this one:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP partition(1)"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP partition(2)"
/fastdetect


Place this boot.ini file in the root folder of each drive. Before you
change the active flag on the partition you may want to reboot the
computer to test the new boot.ini file.

Use the built-in Disk Management tool (diskmgmt.msc) to "Mark" D: as
Active and then reboot the computer. One of the options in the above
boot.ini file should boot Windows. If Windows fails to boot then you
will have to toggle the active partition flag and make C: the active
partition again, you can use Fdisk on a Windows 98 Startup diskette to
toggle the active partition.

A safe way of going about this would be to create an NT floppy boot
diskette, see here: http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/

Of course if all of this utterly fails all you have to do is boot the
machine with the Windows XP installation disk and when at the
disk/partition selection screen delete all the partitions and then
create a new one and format it NTFS for the new Windows XP installation.
To avoid potential drive letter assignment mix ups reboot the computer
and restart the Windows XP setup program

John
 
occam said:
Hi

I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D:)
to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.

My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)

I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and advice. I have now managed
to install XP on the C: partition and clear out the D: partition for data.
 
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