How do I uninstall a semi-installed XP?

[mikaangelo84]

I say Semi-installed because the majority of the
files(almost all of them) have not been transfered to the
harddrive yet. I have windows 2000 pro originally. I
upgraded to Windows XP, but now am being forced to
uninstall XP. I am at the point where the OS is in the OS
select list at boot up. If I select Windows XP, it takes me
to a setup screen to finish installing from the CD. There
are two options I have at this screen: F3 to quit or ENTER
to continue. There is no button to completely cancel XP
installation. I NO LONGER have the XP CD so I cannot
complete the installation. The harddrive space needs to be
freed so I cannot simply ignore it and/or set the OS select
wait time for a zero second delay. How do I manually or
otherwise delete the XP installation componets off my PC? I
cannot find the folder that it is in. Thank you.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Boot with your Windows 2000 CD, and go into Recovery Console (choose Repair)
the first time its offered as a choice. At the command prompt, enter
BOOTCFG /? for BOOTCFG's command line options. You can rebuild the
BOOT.INI file from here, and make your Win2K partition bootable again.

 

[Jim Macklin]

What happened to the XP CD?



| Boot with your Windows 2000 CD, and go into Recovery
Console (choose Repair)
| the first time its offered as a choice. At the command
prompt, enter
| BOOTCFG /? for BOOTCFG's command line options. You can
rebuild the
| BOOT.INI file from here, and make your Win2K partition
bootable again.
|
| --
| Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
| Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
| http://www.dougknox.com
| --------------------------------
| Associate Expert
| ExpertZone - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
| --------------------------------
| Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
| Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.
|
in message
| | > I say Semi-installed because the majority of the
| > files(almost all of them) have not been transfered to
the
| > harddrive yet. I have windows 2000 pro originally. I
| > upgraded to Windows XP, but now am being forced to
| > uninstall XP. I am at the point where the OS is in the
OS
| > select list at boot up. If I select Windows XP, it takes
me
| > to a setup screen to finish installing from the CD.
There
| > are two options I have at this screen: F3 to quit or
ENTER
| > to continue. There is no button to completely cancel XP
| > installation. I NO LONGER have the XP CD so I cannot
| > complete the installation. The harddrive space needs to
be
| > freed so I cannot simply ignore it and/or set the OS
select
| > wait time for a zero second delay. How do I manually or
| > otherwise delete the XP installation componets off my
PC? I
| > cannot find the folder that it is in. Thank you.
|
|

 

[mikaangelo84]

I didn't record the hd space i had before I started the XP
install, so i don't know if anything was copied at all. Are
there files on my system that are useless/only usable for
XP? If so, how do I remove them and where are they? I can
use Win2k just fine already. rebuilding the boot.cfg will
remove XP from the OS list right? That Xp install screen
must come from somewhere right? Where? How do I remove
those files from my hd? Dangerously low on free space! Thanks.

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

What is on your hard drive, should be a couple of folders in the partition
that you were installing XP into. If you were upgrading, they'll be in the
root folder of your WIN2K drive. I don't remember the exact names of the
folders but they're hidden and start with a $ in the file name.

All you should need to do is edit BOOT.INI file to remove the reference to
the WIN XP setup line and change the default back to the Win2K line. If
you're not sure what to edit, post the contents of BOOT.INI here.