Remove Win9x/Me & Keep Win XP
Remove Win9x/Me & Keep Win XP
When XP is installed after Win 9x/Me, you cannot format the partition/Drive Win9X/Me is installed on to remove the dual boot.
To remove Win9x/Me from a dual boot installation with XP.
1. Boot to Win XP*
2. Open System Properties [Winkey+Pause/Break]. Select Advanced tab; Startup and Recovery; Settings button.
3. Select the Edit button and from notepad, first backup boot.ini, by going to File; Save As and rename boot.ini. to something like boot.inibak.
4. Delete the line or lines) that refer to Win9x/Me.
5. Set timeout=0 so the system boots directly into Win XP (you will not get the boot menu).
6. Save As boot.ini & Exit. The example below would be representative of the results.
[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
7. You can now open Explorer and delete the hidden [Explorer toolbar, Folder Options, View, unhide] bootfiles for Win9x/Me: C:\Io.sys and Msdos.sys , plus Command.com and, if present.
[I would leave Autoexec.bat and Config.sys for compatibility, but they can be removed]
8. You can now delete the Win9x/Me folder (Usually named C:\Windows) and Program Files (if not shared with XP).
* Uninstall all Win9x/Me software if both Win9x/Me and XP are on same drive/partition before proceeding with the above.
Alternate method for removal of Win 98/Me and leave XP
1. Backup the XP boot files located on the Win98/Me partition to a floppy. NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, BOOT.INI
2. Boot from a Win 98/Me startup disk.
3. Format C: drive/partition.
4. Copy NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, BOOT.INI from floppy to C: drive.
5. Boot from XP CD and take the first repair option by typing R to load recovery console.
6. Run the commands fixboot, fixmbr.
7. Exit and boot into XP.
Note that the above method will delete all data from the Win98/Me partition/drive.
* Remove Windows 2000/XP and leave XP
Procedure below is for dual boot of Windows 2000 installed on C:\ and XP to another partition or hard drive. File system is not a factor. Drives or partitions can be NTFS, Fat32 or a combination of the two.
1. Boot into the Windows 2000 or XP option you want to remove.
2. Uninstall all applications. This will get rid of application folders located in Program Files and on other drives.
3. Backup your addresses and any V-Box folders [downloaded programs from the internet] that are sometimes located in the Winnt folder.
4. Boot into Windows XP (the one you want to keep if you have more than one).
5. Delete the Windows 2000 folder on C, usually on a Win 2000 install it is
called "winnt", but could be called "windows".
6. Delete the documents and settings folder on C
7. Delete the C:\Program Files folder if XP does not have applications
installed to the C:\Program Files.
8. Do not delete these (hidden) boot files from the root
folder: C:\Boot.ini, Bootsect.dos, hiberfil.sys, ntbootdd.sys, Ntdetect.com,
Ntldr, Pagefile.sys.
9. Edit Boot.ini from System Properties [Winkey+Pause/Break]>Advanced
tab>Startup and Recovery>Settings>Edit.
10. Before editing, go to File and Save as. Save boot.ini to something like boot.inibkp.
11. Set timeout to 0.
12. Remove the line referencing Windows 2000.
13. Save as boot.ini.
Unless you reinstall Win XP clean, you cannot easily move XP to the C
drive, so the XP installation location will remain on the same drive with the same drive letter designation.
After completing any of the above removal techniques , you can use an imaging application [Partition Magic, BootIT NG, etc.] to resize the C drive and the adjacent partitions to reclaim space if needed.
* Remove Win XP from a NTFS System
1. Backup all data, settings, passwords, downloaded programs, etc., anything that cannot be restored from other media.
2. Boot up with a Win9x/Me boot disk, and type in a:\fdisk /mbr This will create a new boot sector (DOS, FAT), destroying the existing NTFS.
3. You can now format the partition/drive with a reboot using the floppy startup disk..
4. Type at the DOS prompt: a:\format c: /s This will format the drive and install the basic system files.
5. You can use fdisk /status to identify your partitions.
6. Win9x/Me can now be installed from the CD or other media.
* Remove Win XP & Keep Win9x/Me when Both use FAT/FAT32 file system
To remove Windows XP from a dual-boot installation with Win9x/Me when they use the same FAT file system and leave Win9x/Me as the bootable OS.
The following steps apply only to computers where a dual boot with XP was installed after Win9X/Me.
The boot drive (drive C:), contains the Win9x/Me (hidden) boot files Io.sys and Msdos.sys; plus Command.com , Autoexec.bat & Config.sys.
Backup all data on your hard disks that can not be replaced.
1. Use the Win9x boot disk to boot up the computer. At the A: prompt, type SYS C: and then press ENTER. The Sys command transfers control of the boot process to Win9x/Me. You will see a System transferred message.
2. Reboot
3. You can now delete these (Hidden) boot files from the root folder: C:\Boot.ini, Bootsect.dos, hiberfil.sys, ntbootdd.sys, Ntdetect.com, Ntldr, Pagefile.sys (if they are present).
4. Finally, delete the Windows XP installation folder (typically
* Remove Windows Vista or Delete Vista install Removing Vista from a dual boot system
