Two copies of Windows XP

[Bill Schipper]

My stepson has a new computer that came without an operating system. At my
advice he bought Windows XP Professional, then tried to install it.

During the installation process he apparently selected something he
shouldn't have, and now he has two copies of Windows, in two separate
partitions (C: and D:, with D: as the boot partition). We've edited the
boot.ini file so that only the second installation (on D boots up.

The question: How can we delete the other version of windows, the
partition it sits on, and combine the two partitions so that there is only
one partition, namely C:? The hard drive capacity is 80 GB, and drive C:
is just 2 GB in size.

I'm inclined to do the following:

- from Computer Management, select C:, and delete it
- rename the drive letter of partitioin D: to C:

But I may be missing a step.

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Bill Schipper

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Please see if the following article by Michael Stevens helps:

"I have two installations of XP on the same partition, how do I remove the
one I don't need?"
http://michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html#two

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Bill Schipper]

Will,

We've actually done part of that (removing reference to Partition 1 in
boot.ini [after backing it up]). I can see that simply removing the
Windows folder would be the next step. But I noticed the following:
Although the My Documents shortcut points to drive D: (the current boot
drive), Notepad by default saves its documents on drive C:. If we were
todelete that first partition (C, I would expect an error from Notepad
when it tried to save a file.

Hence the second part of my question (not answered in Michael's otherwise
helpful article): once we have removed the old installation of Windows XP,
can we combine the two partitions into a single partition C:? Or can we
delete the first partition, then expand the boot partition and rename the
drive letter to C:? Or are we stuck with D:?

I do have a copy of Partition Magic 8.0 (now owned by Symantec) which I
could try installing on his system to combine the two partitions.

Bill

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

You should be able to combine the two partitions with PM, but I don't use
that particular program.

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

Will,

We've actually done part of that (removing reference to Partition 1 in
boot.ini [after backing it up]). I can see that simply removing the
Windows folder would be the next step. But I noticed the following:
Although the My Documents shortcut points to drive D: (the current boot
drive), Notepad by default saves its documents on drive C:. If we were
todelete that first partition (C, I would expect an error from Notepad
when it tried to save a file.

Hence the second part of my question (not answered in Michael's otherwise
helpful article): once we have removed the old installation of Windows
XP, can we combine the two partitions into a single partition C:? Or can
we delete the first partition, then expand the boot partition and rename
the drive letter to C:? Or are we stuck with D:?

I do have a copy of Partition Magic 8.0 (now owned by Symantec) which I
could try installing on his system to combine the two partitions.

Bill

Hi

Please see if the following article by Michael Stevens helps:

"I have two installations of XP on the same partition, how do I remove
the
one I don't need?"
http://michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html#two

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Mistoffolees]

My stepson has a new computer that came without an operating system. At my
advice he bought Windows XP Professional, then tried to install it.

During the installation process he apparently selected something he
shouldn't have, and now he has two copies of Windows, in two separate
partitions (C: and D:, with D: as the boot partition). We've edited the
boot.ini file so that only the second installation (on D boots up.

The question: How can we delete the other version of windows, the
partition it sits on, and combine the two partitions so that there is only
one partition, namely C:? The hard drive capacity is 80 GB, and drive C:
is just 2 GB in size.

I'm inclined to do the following:

- from Computer Management, select C:, and delete it
- rename the drive letter of partitioin D: to C:

But I may be missing a step.

Any advice gratefully accepted.

Bill Schipper

I would clean out the hard drive and install right from
the beginning. There is very little to lose except for
about 20 to 30 minutes. The on-screen directions are quite
clear on how not to run into this situation unless it is
wanted. It will take much longer than 30 minutes to set
everything right by manipulating the partitions and then
manually re-writing parts of the Windows Registry...if all
goes well.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

You should be able to combine the two partitions with PM, but I
don't
use that particular program.

To add to what Will said above, note that you can *not* combine
two partitions without a third-party program such as PM.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

Will,

We've actually done part of that (removing reference to
Partition 1
in boot.ini [after backing it up]). I can see that simply
removing the Windows folder would be the next step. But I
noticed
the following: Although the My Documents shortcut points to
drive D:
(the current boot drive), Notepad by default saves its
documents on
drive C:. If we were todelete that first partition (C, I
would
expect an error from Notepad when it tried to save a file.

Hence the second part of my question (not answered in
Michael's
otherwise helpful article): once we have removed the old
installation of Windows XP, can we combine the two partitions
into a
single partition C:? Or can we delete the first partition,
then
expand the boot partition and rename the drive letter to C:?
Or
are we stuck with D:?
I do have a copy of Partition Magic 8.0 (now owned by
Symantec)
which I could try installing on his system to combine the two
partitions.
Bill

Hi

Please see if the following article by Michael Stevens helps:

"I have two installations of XP on the same partition, how do
I
remove the
one I don't need?"
http://michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html#two

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Bill Schipper]

Thank you to everyone for the advice. It turned out that the simplest
solution was to set the BIOS on the new computer to boot first
from the CD, then reboot, and have the CD software delete all existing
partitions. We then installed a clean copy of Windows
on a single partition, and did all the other stuff necessary, then reset the
BIOS to boot first from the HDD.

The real difficulty was that it had to be done over the telephone, since he
lives in a different part of Montreal. But all is in order now.

Happy New Year to all --- or Bonne Année

Bill