Deleting Win98 but not XP

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G

Guest

Hi
My son has got a PC froma friend and it can boot up both XP homeand Windows
98. I want to uninstall the 98 but leave the XP. Thi=s is to make a bit more
space and perhaps speed things up a bit. How do I go about it if he doesnt
have the 98 disc for the PC?
 
W/o the 98 disk you could be/get in trouble,to reinstall xp (if its
corrupted),xp
will ask for 98 cd for the upgrade,w/o it,xp wont install.At this point,youre
best bet is to purchase another hd,set as slave to C: Format the hd,then go
to run,type:XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Once completed,C: is copied to the
new hd (D:).If asigned diffrent letter then use that in the cmd.Other than
that,
to eliminate 98 from a hd,you should perform a clean xp installation (boot
to xp
cd),but again the 98 cd will be requested....
 
elgordo said:
Hi
My son has got a PC froma friend and it can boot up both XP homeand Windows
98. I want to uninstall the 98 but leave the XP. Thi=s is to make a bit more
space and perhaps speed things up a bit. How do I go about it if he doesnt
have the 98 disc for the PC?
Click to expand...

Do this:
1. Boot into WinXP.
2. Click Start / Run / cmd {OK}.
3. Type set systemroot
and make a note of the folder name.
4. Identify the Win98 folder. It must be something other
than the name you noted in Step 3.
5. Rename the Win98 folder to Win98.delete.
6. Wait a week.
7. If all is well, delete the Win98 folder and purge your
recycle bin.

Note that deleting Win98 will NOT speed up your PC.
 
Ron Sommer said:
Because boot.ini won't have to run.
Click to expand...

I assume you mean that the timeout in boot.ini will
be 0 seconds. It can, of course, be set to this value
even without removing Win98.
 
Andrew said:
W/o the 98 disk you could be/get in trouble,to reinstall xp (if its
corrupted),xp
will ask for 98 cd for the upgrade,w/o it,xp wont install.
Click to expand...


And where did he say he's using an Upgrade copy of Windows XP. What you talk
about is a potential problem *only* if his is an Upgrade version.

At this
point,youre best bet is to purchase another hd,set as slave to C:
Format the hd,then go to run,type:XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Once
completed,C: is copied to the new hd (D:).If asigned diffrent letter
then use that in the cmd.Other than that,
to eliminate 98 from a hd,you should perform a clean xp installation
(boot to xp
cd),but again the 98 cd will be requested....
Click to expand...


Elgordo, ignore Andrew E's absurd advice. No clean XP installation is
required. Delete the contents of the Windows 98 partition, then go to
MSCONFIG 's boot.ini tab. Use the Check all boot paths button, and confirm
that you want to remove the Windows 98 entry that it displays.



Removing Windows 98 will save the space it uses, but won't provide any extra
speed.
 
--
elgordo


Andrew E. said:
W/o the 98 disk you could be/get in trouble,to reinstall xp (if its
corrupted),xp
will ask for 98 cd for the upgrade,w/o it,xp wont install.At this point,youre
best bet is to purchase another hd,set as slave to C: Format the hd,then go
to run,type:XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Once completed,C: is copied to the
new hd (D:).If asigned diffrent letter then use that in the cmd.Other than
that,
to eliminate 98 from a hd,you should perform a clean xp installation (boot
to xp
cd),but again the 98 cd will be requested....
Click to expand...
Thanks. I will try it tomorrow. He always boots up in XP. I have a 9 disc
from when I had it on my PC. Would it be OK to use when asked for by the XP
OS?. He already has a slave HD with plenty of space, so I will format that
anyway as he wants a clean slate. Thats the prob, the 2 OS are on a smaller
hd.
ta again.
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
Do this:
1. Boot into WinXP.
2. Click Start / Run / cmd {OK}.
3. Type set systemroot
and make a note of the folder name.
4. Identify the Win98 folder. It must be something other
than the name you noted in Step 3.
5. Rename the Win98 folder to Win98.delete.
6. Wait a week.
7. If all is well, delete the Win98 folder and purge your
recycle bin.

Note that deleting Win98 will NOT speed up your PC.
Click to expand...


What about removing the unused entry in boot.ini
and resetting the timeout to 0?

If Win98 happens to be on another partition, removing
its partition would free up a lot of space on the disk, too.

*TimDaniels*
 
Timothy Daniels said:
What about removing the unused entry in boot.ini
and resetting the timeout to 0?
Click to expand...
Good point!
If Win98 happens to be on another partition, removing
its partition would free up a lot of space on the disk, too.
Click to expand...
Have a look at Step 3. It said "Identify the Win98 folder."
It does not say "Identify the Win98 folder on drive C:."
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
Good point!


Have a look at Step 3. It said "Identify the Win98 folder."
It does not say "Identify the Win98 folder on drive C:."
Click to expand...


Getting rid of the Win98 folder doesn't delete the partition
that it's in. Are you assuming that the OP wants to keep
the rest of the partition contents?

*TimnDaniels*
 
Timothy Daniels said:
Getting rid of the Win98 folder doesn't delete the partition
that it's in. Are you assuming that the OP wants to keep
the rest of the partition contents?

*TimnDaniels*
Click to expand...

Yes, that is my assumption. I am reluctant to give directions
about deleting folders unless I know exactly what's stored
where. I feel that the OP should be the judge when it comes
to deleting folders other than the Windows System folder.
Even deleting the Windows System folder can be risky - hence
my advice for him to wait a week before deleting it for good.
He might have some irreplaceable files stored on his Win98
desktop, and he may be a member of this illustrious group who
do not back up their important files until disaster stares them
in the face.
 
Getting lots of different solutions folks. My son doesnt need files on the 2
hds but just wants XP.
 
elgordo said:
Getting lots of different solutions folks. My son doesnt
need files on the 2 hds but just wants XP.
Click to expand...


<Laugh out lout.> The two OSes are on separate HDs...
Now you tell us! Just take out the hard drive, or reformat
the partition, or remove the folder containing the unwanted
OS - in your case, Win98. Then, to remove the reference
to the removed OS from the boot menu file (C:\boot.ini),

click Start/Run/type msconfig, Enter/click BOOT.INI tab/
click Check All Boot Paths.

That should remove the entry for the now absent OS,
and the timeout value will be irrelevant with only one
OS for the loader to choose from. (I say "should"
because I've never done it that way - I just use Notepad
to edit boot.ini manually).

*TimDaniels*
 
Timothy Daniels said:
<Laugh out lout.> The two OSes are on separate HDs...
Now you tell us! Just take out the hard drive, or reformat
the partition, or remove the folder containing the unwanted
OS - in your case, Win98. Then, to remove the reference
to the removed OS from the boot menu file (C:\boot.ini),

click Start/Run/type msconfig, Enter/click BOOT.INI tab/
click Check All Boot Paths.

That should remove the entry for the now absent OS,
and the timeout value will be irrelevant with only one
OS for the loader to choose from. (I say "should"
because I've never done it that way - I just use Notepad
to edit boot.ini manually).

*TimDaniels*
Click to expand...

If C (Win 98 drive) contains the boot files, then "Just take out the hard
drive, or reformat the partition," is not a good idea.

Is XP on D?
 
Ron Sommer said:
If C (Win 98 drive) contains the boot files, then "Just take out the hard
drive, or reformat the partition," is not a good idea.

Is XP on D?
Click to expand...


Good point. I figured that since WinXP had to have been
installed last (for there to be a dual-boot), the boot files
would have been put on the WinXP partition. It would be
nice if Elgordo knew which partition had the boot files,
which partition was marked "active", and which hard drive
was at the head of the BIOS's hard drive boot order. But...

Let's start with the boot files - ntldr, boot.ini, and ntdetect.com.
Those are at the root of the file hierarchy of the "active"
partition, i.e. just below "C:" or "D:". Tell us which hard drive,
and which partition contains those files, Elgordo. Just to be
thorough, post the contents of boot.ini as well, using Notepad
and cut 'n paste.

*TimDaniels*
 
No mate. Both are on the same hd that doesnt leave much space. The slave is a
40Gb hd and it would be best if the OS were there, that is why I am
interested in transfering the contentsof C: to D: . My son doesnt care about
old folders.
Sorry if I confused people. You have al been very considerate.
 
elgordo said:
No mate. Both are on the same hd that doesnt leave much space.
The slave is a 40Gb hd and it would be best if the OS were there,
that is why I am interested in transfering the contentsof C: to D: .
My son doesnt care about old folders.
Click to expand...


First, terminology: "C:" and "D:" haven't been names for
hard disk drives for at least 10 years. Nowadays, those
terms are names for partitions, several of which may be on
a single hard disk drive. As I understand you, your son has
2 partitions on 1 hard disk drive, one named "C:" and the
other name "D:". Which partition no. is "C:"? Which partition
no. is "D:"? Are there any other partitions on this one drive?

Which partition no. has the Win98?

Which partition no. has the WinXP?

Which partition no. has the boot files ntldr, boot.ini, and
ntdetect.com ?

What are the contents of the boot.ini file?

It sounds like the files in the partition containing the Win98
don't have to be saved. Is this true?

Without this information, we could only guess the solution
to your son's problem.

*TimDaniels*
 
--Yeah thanks Tim etal. I picked up his PC. It has the 2 OS on one 5Gb hd
(Fat32)and a slave of 40Gb (NTFS),with about 800Mb on it (mostly Office
2003). He is prepared to lose the Office. When I try to boot up in MS98 I
get several corrupted file messages, so that is out. It would be best to move
everything to the larger hd and make it he primary. The smaller hd is making
noises too like the wings are going to fall off,so it probably needs
scrapping.Any input please/
elgordo
 
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