Cleaning Up the C drive after xp home edition install

[Guest]

I upgraded from Windows ME to Windows XP Home Edition on my laptop.
Everything is OK but on startup, it provides an option to boot XP or Windows.
Also, XP is now on the D drive and the C drive seems to be filled up with
old operation system & files. I don't have any reason to go back to the
older version of windows so my question is: Can I clean up the C drive and
remove all the files in it to recover the space and use it as a data drive
without screwing up the XP install?

 

[Thorsten Matzner]

I upgraded from Windows ME to Windows XP Home Edition on my laptop.
Everything is OK but on startup, it provides an option to boot XP or Windows.
Also, XP is now on the D drive and the C drive seems to be filled up with
old operation system & files. I don't have any reason to go back to the
older version of windows so my question is: Can I clean up the C drive and
remove all the files in it to recover the space and use it as a data drive
without screwing up the XP install?

Yes. Remove Windows ME from the BOOT.INI file and then manually delete
the Windows ME files from the HDD.
"How to Edit the BOOT.INI File in Windows XP"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=289022)

 

[Nepatsfan]

How did you run this "upgrade"? Did you start the installation
from within Windows ME or did you boot from the XP installation
CD and opt to install on your D drive?

The reason I ask is because you didn't upgrade ME. What you ended
up doing was a clean installation of XP on the D drive. You now
have what's called a "dual-boot" system. You're running two
versions of Windows on the same machine each on a separate
partition.

You've got two options if you want to correct this situation and
reclaim your hard drive space:

1. Boot into ME. Remove the folders that were created on D by the
XP installation. Put the XP CD into the drive and when prompted
select Upgrade, not New Installation. This means running the XP
installation all over again except this time you would end up
with only one operating system, XP.

2. Boot into XP. Remove all the folders on C that are not hidden
folders. In other words, you can delete Windows, Program Files,
My Documents along with any folders that pertain to the ME
installation. Don't delete folders that XP needs such as System
Volume Information and Recycled. Do not delete the following
files: boot.ini, ntdetect.com, ntldr and bootsect.dos. To be on
the safe side, I wouldn't delete any files, just folders.

No matter which method you choice, you're going to have to edit
your boot.ini file to remove entries that point to the deleted
operating system. The easiest way to do that is from within
Windows XP. Run msconfig. Click on the Boot.ini tab. Hit the
"Check all boot paths" button. Click the Yes button to remove the
now invalid entries. Restart your computer. Once your laptop
restarts, you'll see a dialog box that refers to running in
diagnostic mode. Put a check mark in the box and click OK.

 

[Guest]

Thank You Thorsten. Makes sense to me. Note the response from Nepatsfan
after your response - is he/she saying the same thing but with more detail?

 

[Guest]

Thank You Nepatsfan. Seems like option 2 is the safer choice. When you say
do not delete files, just folders, what folders are those files contained in?
Also, when you refer to a dialog box that refers to running in diagnostic
mode, will that only happen once then run the XP operating system from then

 

[Nepatsfan]

Open your C drive in either My Computer or Windows Explorer.
You'll see icons representing several folders. You can safely
delete folders such as Windows, Program Files and My Documents.
You'll also see icons representing twenty or more files with
names like autoexec.bat, boot.ini, config.sys and ntdetect.com.
Rather than pick and choose which of those individual files to
delete I suggested that you leave them all in place. That's what
I meant by "do not delete files, just folders".

Next, as long as you put the check mark in the box, diagnostic
mode is
a one time event. That said, if you then run msconfig it will
show Windows running in "Selective Startup" mode due to the fact
that you're not using the original boot.ini file. This has no
impact on your computers performance. If you want to see "Normal
Startup" selected in msconfig you'd have to manually edit the
boot.ini file per the instructions in the article that Thorsten
mentioned in his response.

In response to your question "is he/she saying the same thing but
with more detail?" the answer would be "Yes, he is." I also
wanted to point out that you had options in reclaiming your hard
drive space.

 

[Thorsten Matzner]

Thank You Thorsten. Makes sense to me. Note the response from Nepatsfan
after your response - is he/she saying the same thing but with more detail?

Method #2 is the same. I would not recommend #1 since you would have
to reinstall Windows XP and all your applications here.