Two system folders after XP reinstall

[Cyber12]

I am running XP Pro, SP3 on a five user computer. I have admin rights and
need advice about this scenario:
I upgraded from OEM XP Home Edition to XP Pro three years ago without any
problems and the system folder remained C:WINNT.
Three months ago I did a "Repair install of Windows XP by starting your
computer from the Windows XP CD".
Without deleting the current installation of "Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" I pressed ENTER to set up Windows XP.
The reinstall was done without any problems and I presently have all the
recent Microsoft updates and use IE8 as default browser.
The problem (which I have resolved is that the computer showed two current
installations of "Microsoft Windows XP Professional"at boot up; and I had to
choose the most recent every time I booted up.
I edited the C:\Boot.ini to remove the line referencing the old
installation. Which in fact was not operational; and now I can boot directly
to the Welcome screen.
The problem which I need help with is that I have two system folders:
The operational one i.e. C:\WINDOWS with a size on disk of 1.93GB and 120026
files.
And the old one C:\WINNT which has a size on disk of 4.18GB and 24434 files.

I need to find out if it is safe to delete the C:\WINNT folder without
affecting the system operation or if there is a better solution to get rid of
this folder and recover valuable Disk Space?

Always thanks a lot.

Joe

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

I am running XP Pro, SP3 on a five user computer. I have admin rights and
need advice about this scenario:
I upgraded from OEM XP Home Edition to XP Pro three years ago without any
problems and the system folder remained C:WINNT.
Three months ago I did a "Repair install of Windows XP by starting your
computer from the Windows XP CD".
Without deleting the current installation of "Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" I pressed ENTER to set up Windows XP.
The reinstall was done without any problems and I presently have all the
recent Microsoft updates and use IE8 as default browser.
The problem (which I have resolved is that the computer showed two current
installations of "Microsoft Windows XP Professional"at boot up; and I had
to
choose the most recent every time I booted up.
I edited the C:\Boot.ini to remove the line referencing the old
installation. Which in fact was not operational; and now I can boot
directly
to the Welcome screen.
The problem which I need help with is that I have two system folders:
The operational one i.e. C:\WINDOWS with a size on disk of 1.93GB and
120026
files.
And the old one C:\WINNT which has a size on disk of 4.18GB and 24434
files.

I need to find out if it is safe to delete the C:\WINNT folder without
affecting the system operation or if there is a better solution to get rid
of
this folder and recover valuable Disk Space?

Always thanks a lot.

Joe

The standard method goes like this:
1. Boot into Windows.
2. Rename c:\WinNT to WinNT.old
3. Wait a week.
4. If all is well, delete WinNT.old.

 

[cyber12]

The standard method goes like this:
1. Boot into Windows.
2. Rename c:\WinNT to WinNT.old
3. Wait a week.
4. If all is well, delete WinNT.old.

.

OK I have changed the folder's name to C:\WinNT.old since yesterday.
Now I will wait a week before deleying it.
What should I look for to know that there's nothing wrong with the system
and that everything is going well?
If anything.
?

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

OK I have changed the folder's name to C:\WinNT.old since yesterday.
Now I will wait a week before deleying it.
What should I look for to know that there's nothing wrong with the system
and that everything is going well?
If anything.
?

Just use the usual facilities: EMail, browsing, word processing, backing up
your files. If there were any important files in c:\WinNT then they would
throw up a problem very quickly. My guess is that you're safe but I prefer
to look before I leap.