dual OS - how to get rid of one

[Guest]

Helping a friend with computer. A classmate of her daughter installed XP Pro
when there were some other problems with computer and ended up with dual OS -
Xp Home and Pro. The Pro is only in 4 colors, but the Home seems perfectly
fine. (I don't know what the original problem was that made them do this.)
Anyway, I'd like to get rid of the Pro version as I suspect it's a bootleg
copy or something 'cuz of the display being off. How to get rid of the Pro?
The daughter says she has a homemade CD with Pro on it. Do I try to use that
to uninstall?? If it doesn't work, I suppose I could just have them ignore
the Pro, but I need to have the Home come up as first choice. I saw that
under Advanced tab in My Computer, and I selected the Home, but it didn't
take. (I forget which OS I was in at the time.) Any ideas?? Thanks.

 

[Colin M. McGroarty]

Barbara,

You can edit the boot.ini file and remove the reference to the unneeded
operating system. This will of course not remove the other system's files,
but will remove the choice to boot to the other OS. You can then always
delete the unneeded operating system folder in order to recover hard drive
space.

Kind Regards,

 

[Guest]

Colin,
I am having the same trouble, how do you edit the boot.ini file?

 

[Kelly]

Options:

Go to Start/Run and type in: msconfig
Then go to the Boot.ini Tab and click on Check All Boot Paths. If you
receive a warning about a duplicate path: Do you want to remove, choose
yes.

Or...

Right click the My Computer icon/Properties/Advanced/Startup and
Recovery/Settings/System Startup/Edit.

How to Edit the BOOT.INI File in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q289/0/22.asp

Added info by M. Stevens:

I have two installations of XP on the same partition, how do I remove the
one I don't need?

Boot to the desired version of Windows XP you want to keep. Making note of
the position in the boot menu. This will be important when you edit
boot.ini.

Open a command prompt * and type " echo %windir%" without the quotes. This
will give you the current Windows folder you are using.

From Explorer, delete the folder containing the installation you want to
remove. The original install folder is usually called Windows and subsequent
folders will be derivatives of Windows or Winnt.

From System Properties [Winkey+Pause/Break] > Advanced Tab > Statup and
Recovery > Settings > Edit.
Select the Edit button and from notepad, first backup boot.ini, by going to
File; Save As and rename boot.ini. to something like boot.inibak.

Remove the line referencing the installation not chosen; you made note of in
step one.
Set timeout=0 so the system boots directly into Win XP (you will not get the
boot menu).
Save As boot.ini & Exit.

Reboot.
--
Happy New Year,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[Alex Nichol]

Helping a friend with computer. A classmate of her daughter installed XP Pro
when there were some other problems with computer and ended up with dual OS -
Xp Home and Pro. The Pro is only in 4 colors, but the Home seems perfectly
fine. (I don't know what the original problem was that made them do this.)
Anyway, I'd like to get rid of the Pro version as I suspect it's a bootleg
copy or something 'cuz of the display being off. How to get rid of the Pro?

It depends on how the installations were done. If they are in clearly
separate folders, and you can be sure which refers to the unwanted
system, then delete that folder. Then Start - Run - MSConfig.exe and on
the Boot.ini page click 'Check All Paths'. That will find this entry
is no longer valid and remove it for you.

If they are installed mixed up with each other, then really the only
safe approach is to back up data, and reinstall the Home system, making
sure you format the disk in the process. Set the BIOS to boot CD before
HD, and boot the XP CD direct. Enter Setup, and after the license
agreement take New Install. When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC;
select and delete the current partition and make a new RAW one to be
formatted at the next stage

The important point is the delete. Without that it will just go ahead
and make a new install over the top of the old one