II WANT TO UNINSTALL AN UNACTIVATED COPY OF WINDOWS XP PRO

[Andy]

Basically, I want to uninstall a copy of XP PRO from a my
machine. I have two PC's. Installed XP PRO on 1st machine
(no problem). INtsalled it on 2nd machine (no problem)
until it came to 'activating' the 2nd machine.

Obviously I know now that you cant have 1 copy on two
machines but knowing that alone doesnt help with my
problem; I want to uninstall the copy from 2nd machine but
it wont let me 'get in' to uninstall it! Viscous circle or
what?! Please help otherwise my monitor will take the
brunt!!!

 

[Ron Martell]

Basically, I want to uninstall a copy of XP PRO from a my
machine. I have two PC's. Installed XP PRO on 1st machine
(no problem). INtsalled it on 2nd machine (no problem)
until it came to 'activating' the 2nd machine.

Obviously I know now that you cant have 1 copy on two
machines but knowing that alone doesnt help with my
problem; I want to uninstall the copy from 2nd machine but
it wont let me 'get in' to uninstall it! Viscous circle or
what?! Please help otherwise my monitor will take the
brunt!!!

Boot the computer with a Windows 98 Startup Disk. Get one from
www.bootdisk.com if you don't have one.

At the A:\> enter the following command:

FDISK

Agree to question about support for large disks. Then choose the
option to 'delete a partition" and then to "delete a non-DOS
partition".

Exit FDISK and shut off the computer.

Windows XP, and everything else on that hard drive will have been
totally toasted. Recovery will be difficult or expensive (or both).

When you are ready to install another operating system on the computer
just boot the computer with the installation CD and it should launch
automatically and proceed to create a new partition and then to format
that partition and finally to install the operating system.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

Basically, I want to uninstall a copy of XP PRO from a my
machine. I have two PC's. Installed XP PRO on 1st machine
(no problem). INtsalled it on 2nd machine (no problem)
until it came to 'activating' the 2nd machine.

Obviously I know now that you cant have 1 copy on two
machines but knowing that alone doesnt help with my
problem; I want to uninstall the copy from 2nd machine but
it wont let me 'get in' to uninstall it! Viscous circle or
what?! Please help otherwise my monitor will take the
brunt!!!

There is no uninstall - just boot the machine from the XP CD and then when
you get to the section on disk partitions etc just delete the partition or
reformat the hard disk - then just eject the CD and you're done.

--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Basically, I want to uninstall a copy of XP PRO from a my
machine. I have two PC's. Installed XP PRO on 1st machine
(no problem). INtsalled it on 2nd machine (no problem)
until it came to 'activating' the 2nd machine.

Obviously I know now that you cant have 1 copy on two
machines but knowing that alone doesnt help with my
problem; I want to uninstall the copy from 2nd machine but
it wont let me 'get in' to uninstall it! Viscous circle or
what?! Please help otherwise my monitor will take the
brunt!!!

The normal way to "uninstall" any operating system is to format
the hard drive and install a new OS of your choice.

However, if you performed an upgrade from Win98/Me, elected to
backup the old system files, and didn't convert the partition to NTFS,
then all you need do is boot into Safe Mode and Start > Control Panel

Add/Remove Programs. All of these conditions must be met for the

uninstall option to be available.

Otherwise:

How to Manually Remove Win XP and Restore Win9x
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q314052

--

Bruce Chambers

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