Remove dual boot

[Mahendra Shah]

Hello,

I have a dual boot - win 98SE and win XP-home edition - on two separate
drives. (98 SE on C; drive and XP on E: Drive) C: drive has another
program that can also be removed. All other data files were stored on E:
drive

I do not need to have dual booting now. Is it possible to just reformat C:
drive without disabling something else and gain that much additional storage
space?

I would appreciate any help.

 

[erpara]

NO do not do this - you will not be able to boot - there
are files on the c: drive that you need. By the way - NO
NO NO
and did I mention NO?!!!!!

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Mahendra.

Yes - and no. Drive C: almost always is the System Partition, which holds
the "system files" for all installed Windows, including both WinME and
WinXP. So, if you simply reformat C:, those files will disappear and WinXP
will be unable to boot. But, you can then boot from the WinXP CD-ROM and
use the Recovery Console to Repair Drive C:, using FixMBR, FixBoot and
Bootcfg. This should restore the boot sector and the system files,
including C:\boot.ini, which will once more point to E:\Windows, where the
bulk of WinXP resides. As a bonus, the recreated boot.ini will no longer
include WinME as a choice when rebooting; when there is only a single choice
available, it will be booted automatically with no delay time.

To reformat C:, you can boot from a MS-DOS or WinME boot floppy and use
Format.exe. Even better, use WinXP's Recovery Console's Format command;
this way, you can choose the NTFS file system, rather than FAT32. Unless
you plan to reinstall Win9x/ME on this computer, there is no good reason to
use FAT32 on it. NTFS has several advantages, including security, both in
the sense of security from prying eyes and in the sense of security from
drive failure. When you are ready, you can use WinXP's Convert.exe to
convert E: to NTFS as well.

RC

 

[Mahendra Shah]

Thanks for the insight.

Mahendra

Hi, Mahendra.

Yes - and no. Drive C: almost always is the System Partition, which holds
the "system files" for all installed Windows, including both WinME and
WinXP. So, if you simply reformat C:, those files will disappear and WinXP
will be unable to boot. But, you can then boot from the WinXP CD-ROM and
use the Recovery Console to Repair Drive C:, using FixMBR, FixBoot and
Bootcfg. This should restore the boot sector and the system files,
including C:\boot.ini, which will once more point to E:\Windows, where the
bulk of WinXP resides. As a bonus, the recreated boot.ini will no longer
include WinME as a choice when rebooting; when there is only a single choice
available, it will be booted automatically with no delay time.

To reformat C:, you can boot from a MS-DOS or WinME boot floppy and use
Format.exe. Even better, use WinXP's Recovery Console's Format command;
this way, you can choose the NTFS file system, rather than FAT32. Unless
you plan to reinstall Win9x/ME on this computer, there is no good reason to
use FAT32 on it. NTFS has several advantages, including security, both in
the sense of security from prying eyes and in the sense of security from
drive failure. When you are ready, you can use WinXP's Convert.exe to
convert E: to NTFS as well.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP

 

[Kenny]

Follow the steps here:
http://tweakhomepc.virtualave.net/dual/removedualboot.html

 

[Jake]

-----Original Message-----
Hello,

I have a dual boot - win 98SE and win XP-home edition - on two separate
drives. (98 SE on C; drive and XP on E: Drive) C: drive has another
program that can also be removed. All other data files were stored on E:
drive

I do not need to have dual booting now. Is it possible to just reformat C:
drive without disabling something else and gain that much additional storage
space?

I would appreciate any help.


.
No! Your system BIOS files are on C drive. The BIOS

boots by looking at "A" first then goes to "C". What you
can do is repartition your harddrive, remove the "E"
partition, reformat entire harddrive and reinstall/create
a new "C" drive with WindowsXP. But, you'll lose
everything you have installed and be back to basic
WindowsXP. If you are willing to do that, download the
repartition program at below website. Good Luck!
Ranish Partition Manager v2.44 Beta
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_download/0,fid,6170,
fileidx,1,00.asp