how to remove W2K from WXP

[badgolferman]

I tried to install a fresh copy of WXP SP2 onto a Dell 8400 the other
day and had a new problem for me. It booted from the CD, but after it
said "Setup will now check your hardware (blah blah)" the screen would
go black and the computer would do nothing. I tried several times to
make it work but was unsuccessful. Finally I tried a W2K installation
disk and it came up perfectly fine with that.

I decided to install W2K and then upgrade to WXP. After installation
of W2K I put the WXP disk in and ran Setup. This time the error
message was "Windows 2000 Professional cannot be upgraded to Windows XP
Professional" or something similar to that. I was forced to install a
fresh version of WXP on the hard drive.

Everything seems to be working fine, but I have to make a choice at
bootup for which OS to run. I also have a C:Windows and a C:Winnt
folder under root directory. I would like to remove the bootup option
and the Winnt folder but don't want to screw it up. What is the proper
method to remove all vestiges of W2K OS?

 

[AllenM]

Well normally I do not post replies here in the XP group but I am always
willing to help out a "badgolfer" only because I can relate. I have a DELL
8400 here at work and have done this so I'm sure you can also. Your 8400
should have come with a recovery partition so that you may restore it back
to factory defaults. I believe during the POST if you hit F11 this will get
you there where they have a Ghost image for you to restore to. Give it a try
or call DELL Tech Support. Better yet resort to your manual as it should
have the restore info there.

 

[badgolferman]

AllenM, 3/29/2006, 2:10:34 PM, <[email protected]>
wrote:

Thanks for your reply fellow duffer. This particular machine has been
wiped completely clean. No partitions exist and it had Linux on there
for a time after the original XP Home was removed. I have comandeered
it and made it my desktop system where it is communicating with this
group as of right now. I just don't like superfluous software on my
machine and want that W2K gone. There is no original software or
manual available and Dell is certainly not going to help with what we
have done to this machine.

 

[AllenM]

So you have tried booting and hitting the F11 key? When you view in Disk
Management you do not see a FAT32 partition about 2.95GB?

 

[badgolferman]

AllenM, 3/29/2006, 3:25:14 PM, <u#[email protected]>
wrote:

There is no partition other than the one I created when installing W2K.
This machine was used for testing purposes and all old setup stuff was
removed.

 

[Steve N.]

AllenM, 3/29/2006, 2:10:34 PM, <[email protected]>
wrote:

Thanks for your reply fellow duffer. This particular machine has been
wiped completely clean. No partitions exist and it had Linux on there
for a time after the original XP Home was removed.

XP setup can't deal with the disk once it has had a Linux boot sector
put on it. You need to zero fill the disk, then the XP CD will boot and
you can proceed as you wish.

Steve N.