WINNT fonts

[Buddy]

I am trying to clean up my C: drive, which contains little but Windows
2000 pro. I had thought that 2G would be enough, but now I cannot
even effectively defrag C:.

I found a Fonts directory under WINNT which seems to duplicate most of
the contents of the Fonts directory under Windows and takes up 68.1M.


Is it safe to delete this folder? Why are there two Fonts folders
anyway?

Buddy

 

[George Hester]

The real question is why do you have a WINNT folder and a Windows folder? Is this a Windows 98 upgrade?

 

[Buddy]

No, this is Windows 2000 Pro, but it is an upgrade from Windows 98.

I do not know why I have a WINNT folder. I thought that would be for
Windows NT, but thought that since 2000 is based on NT, it may include
a WINNT folder as a sort of legacy from NT. It is now hogging my
drive.

If I can delete it without problems, I would be delighted.

Buddy

 

[George Hester]

If you are running Windows 2000 professional then it is the C:\Windows folder you want to get rid of. Move it somewhere like under a folder C:\hold for the time being. If you can, then you can be sure you are not using it. Give it a few days of rebooting and shutting down. Then if there are no issues for a few days delete the entire folder you moved.

 

[Gary Smith]

If you are running Windows 2000 professional then it is the C:\Windows folder you want to get rid of. Move it somewhere like under a folder C:\hold for the time being. If you can, then you can be sure you are not using it. Give it a few days of rebooting and shutting down. Then if there are no issues for a few days delete the entire folder you moved.

Not necessarily. That would be true if it had been a clean install of
Win2K, but an upgrade from Win98 might be using the Windows folder
instead. The fact that both are present suggest that there may have been
two separate installs, or an install of Win2K that preserved the existing
file system but not the existing operating system. The OP will need to
proceed with care to determine which folder is actaully in use. Actually,
that should be readily apparent from examining the content of BOOT.INI.

 

[George Hester]

He would not be able to move the folder if that were the case. What you suggest I thought of but I knew if Windows 2000 was using the folder he would not be able to move it and the op would find that out in the process. In essence what I suggested is what I heard to do elsewhere in the microsoft newsgroups. It is actually one reason why I do not like upgrades that do not allow us to name the %systemroot% upon the upgrade.

For example upgrading Micosoft Office to say Office 2003 from Office 2000 puts a folder in called Office11. We are still left with Office which is what Office 2000 used. In that case I would never suggest removing that folder becasue it is too difficult to determine if it is still being used or not. I am sure boot.ini shows WINNT as the %systemroot% could also go to command prompt and type in %systemroot% to be sure. I would be very surprised if in Windows 2000 that said C:\Windows.

 

[Buddy]

I have been out of town and may have missed your reply.

I did upgrade from Windows 98 to 2000 Pro. Can I delete the WINNT
folder without losing anything?

 

[George Hester]

Windows 2000 uses WINNT. Windows 98 uses Windows. If you go to Start | Run | cmd | OK and type %windir% what does it say? Just the beginning of the message not the error part.

 

[Buddy]

It says:

'C:\WINNT' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

 

[George Hester]

Right that means if you delete C:\WINNT then you are in BIG trouble. If anything you could delete C:\Windows but definitely NOT C:\WINNT.

 

[Buddy]

OK, thanks for the warning.

But why do I have WINNT at all? I checked with a friend who also has
Windows 2000, and he did not have a WINNT file at all. Mine is taking
up more space than Windows!

 

[Dan Seur]

\WINNT is the default install name for either a WinNT or a W2k system
directory. \WINNT is not a file, it is a Big Collection of files. If you
didn't know it, Windows 2000 is the alias of - TA DA! - NT5.0.

You may have more than one system on that drive. \WINDOWS is the default
install name for some older Windows systems, and may contain such - or
even a W2k system if it was installed by upgrading an older system. If
your \WINDOWS directory is a lot smaller than your \WINNT directory I'd
bet it contains an older smaller system, W95 or some such. It might even
be a working system.

Your C:\boot.ini file (hidden/readonly/system by default) may tell you
whether and which. To see/edit that file remove those attributes; see
Help to find out how. Read up on that file before fooling with it;
disaster lurks.

 

[Buddy]

George, this may be useful to you, too:

My boot.ini file reads:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows"

but I do not know how to decipher that. I see that WINNT="Microsoft
Windows 2000 Professional", but again I don't understand.

I installed 2000 Pro on a neighbor's machine, and he has no WINNT file
at all. And his boot disk is not being eaten by the operating system.

Understand that I am an experienced "end user" and do not really
understand the structure of Windows. What I do understand is that I
have about 35M free space left on a 2G C:\ drive and WINNT is 967M of
that! The Windows folder is only 187M. Something does not need to be
there - or so it seems to me. But what?

 

[George Hester]

The statement that you have at the end of boot.ini really doesn't need to be there. Why it happens is that the boot loader recognized the old op sys and gave you the opportunity to boot right into C:\Windows. It really shouldn't be there. Change the boot.ini to this:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
;C:\="Microsoft Windows"

You must attrib -h -r boot.ini before you alter it. Start | Run | cmd | OK | cd\ | attrib -h -r boot.ini Then after doing the above attrib +r +h boot.ini. Find out about the attrib command by attrib \?

Now you will not get the boot loader message at boot. You will just go to your Windows 2000 installation.

I don't know why your neighbor's machine doesn't have the FOLDER C:\WINNT if they are using Windows 2000. For our purposes it doesn't matter. Try to cut C:\Windows into a different folder like C:\hold (Make a folder called Hold if you don't have one). Then reboot. I bet all goes well. And if all continues to go well for a few days you can trash C:\Windows in C:\Hold.

--
George Hester
__________________________________

George, this may be useful to you, too:

My boot.ini file reads:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows"

but I do not know how to decipher that. I see that WINNT="Microsoft
Windows 2000 Professional", but again I don't understand.

I installed 2000 Pro on a neighbor's machine, and he has no WINNT file
at all. And his boot disk is not being eaten by the operating system.

Understand that I am an experienced "end user" and do not really
understand the structure of Windows. What I do understand is that I
have about 35M free space left on a 2G C:\ drive and WINNT is 967M of
that! The Windows folder is only 187M. Something does not need to be
there - or so it seems to me. But what?

\WINNT is the default install name for either a WinNT or a W2k system
directory. \WINNT is not a file, it is a Big Collection of files. If you
didn't know it, Windows 2000 is the alias of - TA DA! - NT5.0.

You may have more than one system on that drive. \WINDOWS is the default
install name for some older Windows systems, and may contain such - or
even a W2k system if it was installed by upgrading an older system. If
your \WINDOWS directory is a lot smaller than your \WINNT directory I'd
bet it contains an older smaller system, W95 or some such. It might even
be a working system.

Your C:\boot.ini file (hidden/readonly/system by default) may tell you
whether and which. To see/edit that file remove those attributes; see
Help to find out how. Read up on that file before fooling with it;
disaster lurks.

 

[Buddy]

George, I followed the sequence to change the attributes of the
boot.ini file but my system responds with the message "Not resetting
system file -- C:\boot.ini."

I booted my system with the log on and looked at it and not once does
it access anything in C:\WINNT. It only accesses C:\windows. I am
reluctant to change the boot.ini because I really don't know what the
effects will be.

Also, I do not understand what changes you are recommending: you leave
the end of boot.ini unchanged (unless the ; before C:\="microsoft
windows" is NOT a typo) after saying that it doesn't need to be there,
and other than that only the timeout is changed (from 30 to 0).

You began by saying that the real question is why there is a WINNT
folder there at all, and I think that is still a good question. My
neighbor's system was installed from the same CD mine was installed
from, works perfectly and is not eating the boot disk. My main
concern is that I am down to 31M free space on C:!

What do you think is going on?

 

[George Hester]

I told you what to do. I made no typos. Do exactly what I said to do. The -h HAS to come before the -r in the attrib command. If you follow what I gave you exactly you will have no troubles. Or first unhide boot.ini with -h. Then you want to use -s to remove the system attribute. Then -r to remove the read-only attribute. After you make the changes thern use +r then +s then +h. You can use one switch at a time.

My original comment about having a C:\WINNT folder was before I was sure you upgraded from Windows 98. You are making this harder then it is. Your boot.ini is very clear. C:\WINNT is being called at boot.

I said this, "The real question is why do you have a WINNT folder and a Windows folder? " Note the word "and."

Finally I really don'r see why you are losing space. The issue of having a C:\Windows folder and a C:\WINNT folder may have nothing to do with that. Right now I can tell you C:\Windows is extraneous. Let me point something out to you. If you try to remove C:\Windows and you think it is necessary, Windows will not allow you to do it. The move will fail. If it doesn't fail that is a good indication it is not necessary.

--
George Hester
__________________________________

George, I followed the sequence to change the attributes of the
boot.ini file but my system responds with the message "Not resetting
system file -- C:\boot.ini."

I booted my system with the log on and looked at it and not once does
it access anything in C:\WINNT. It only accesses C:\windows. I am
reluctant to change the boot.ini because I really don't know what the
effects will be.

Also, I do not understand what changes you are recommending: you leave
the end of boot.ini unchanged (unless the ; before C:\="microsoft
windows" is NOT a typo) after saying that it doesn't need to be there,
and other than that only the timeout is changed (from 30 to 0).

You began by saying that the real question is why there is a WINNT
folder there at all, and I think that is still a good question. My
neighbor's system was installed from the same CD mine was installed
from, works perfectly and is not eating the boot disk. My main
concern is that I am down to 31M free space on C:!

What do you think is going on?

The statement that you have at the end of boot.ini really doesn't need to be there. Why it happens is that the boot loader recognized the old op sys and gave you the opportunity to boot right into C:\Windows. It really shouldn't be there. Change the boot.ini to this:

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
;C:\="Microsoft Windows"

You must attrib -h -r boot.ini before you alter it. Start | Run | cmd | OK | cd\ | attrib -h -r boot.ini Then after doing the above attrib +r +h boot.ini. Find out about the attrib command by attrib \?

Now you will not get the boot loader message at boot. You will just go to your Windows 2000 installation.

I don't know why your neighbor's machine doesn't have the FOLDER C:\WINNT if they are using Windows 2000. For our purposes it doesn't matter. Try to cut C:\Windows into a different folder like C:\hold (Make a folder called Hold if you don't have one). Then reboot. I bet all goes well. And if all continues to go well for a few days you can trash C:\Windows in C:\Hold.

 

[Gary Smith]

George, I followed the sequence to change the attributes of the
boot.ini file but my system responds with the message "Not resetting
system file -- C:\boot.ini."

Actually, boot.ini has three attribure which must be removed -- hidden,
system, and read-only. The order in which they're specified is
unimportant, but you must specify -h and -s in the same command. This
works: attrib -r -h -s C:\boot.ini

 

[Buddy]

I replaced the boot.ini with the text you offered, put Windows in Hold
and rebooted. Worked like a charm. No pause to select operating
system.

So far I have noticed no difference in working with Windows out of
commission. Thanks for the help.

That gives enough room to defragment C:, which has sped up operations
a bit.

I still have a 955M WINNT folder after using Spring Cleaning. Isn't
that unusually large?

 

[Buddy]

It didn't seem to make any difference. Despite "Not resetting ..." I
could edit the file.

 

[George Hester]

Yes it is sorta big but not that extravagent. 750+ MB is around the norm. So 900+MB isn't really anything to write home about. You're fine. Uhem mine is 2.3GB Yikes! Make sure that boot.ini is read only. Go to the root and type attrib boot.ini and make sure it includes a r. If not in command prompt (Start | Run | cmd | cd\) type attrib -h boot.ini <ENTER> then attrib +r boot.ini <ENTER> then attrib +h boot.ini <ENTER>. boot.ini has to be unhidden before you can change it's attrib properties. Takes a little getting used to.