2 instances of Win XP Pro - How to uninstall one of them?

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Guest

Have Windows XP Pro installed twice in a single partition. The first
installation was infected by virus/spyware so installed Win XP the second
time. How to uninstall one of the instances now that system is cleaned up?
Pentium III - Gateway. 80 gig harddrive. 1 partition. Also, upgraded
from Norton SystemWorks 2003 to 2005. Worked fine for a week or so, then
needed to be reinstalled. Now won't reinstall. Running on home router with
firewall. Using no other firewall.
 
Alex said:
Have Windows XP Pro installed twice in a single partition. The first
installation was infected by virus/spyware so installed Win XP the second
time. How to uninstall one of the instances now that system is cleaned up?
Pentium III - Gateway. 80 gig harddrive. 1 partition.
Click to expand...

Remove the unwanted installation from the BOOT.INI file. Then manually
remove the corresponding files.
"How to Edit the BOOT.INI File in Windows XP"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=289022)
 
Are you sure that it is actually installed twice? It just may be that the
Boot.ini File is fouled up. To check: Start/Run [or any other Command
Prompt]/type "msconfig' (without quote markers) and click "OK". This will
open the System Configuration Utility. Click the BOOT.INI Tab. If it shows
more than one operating system boot path (or even if it does not), click the
"Check All Boot Paths" box. If you have more than boot path and the result
shows one invalid, remove it and your problem should be solved.
If you have more than one OS installed, you should be faced with a choice
screen (which to boot from) each time you start. The same can happen if a
re-installation of Windows messed up the BOOT.INI file. Let us know what you
find.
Gene K
 
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