How to uninstall first Windows Installation?

[MS]

I know the title sounds rather strange. I'll try to explain.

I have both Windows Home and Windows Professional installed on my hard
drive, on the same partition. I get asked each boot-up which one to boot to,
and I always choose Pro, my current version. I would like to remove the
Windows Home installation.

Perhaps I should explain how I came to have such an unusual configuration.
My laptop came with Windows Home installed on it. At one point the OS got so
messed up, I couldn't boot up. As unfortunately is common these days, the
laptop didn't come with normal Windows CDs, but the manufacturer's "recovery
CD", which would return the laptop to the state when I bought it,
effectively losing all my data and settings. (Microsoft really shouldn't
permit manufacturers to do this. Since the computer includes Windows, a
license for Windows, it should include a Windows CD, not the crappy
"recovery CD".

So, I decided to purchase Windows, no other choice without losing
everything, as nothing short of a Windows CD would enable me to fix the
problem. (I didn't have recovery console installed, didn't come installed on
the laptop.) I spent the few extra bucks to get the Pro version, although
I'm not sure what benefit it has for me over Home.

Using the recovery console I was able to fix my installation of Windows
Home, so I could boot up again. But now I had the Pro CD, I might as well
install Pro. I'm not sure why, but instead of installing it to replace the
Home version, I installed it as a second OS. (I should have made a separate
partition for it, but didn't. Pro is installed in a separate folder called
"Windows2".) (In Documents and Settings--folders like "All Users Windows2",
etc.)

At first I did use both installations, sometimes booting into one, other
times the other. The reason being it took me a while to reinstall programs,
etc., to the new Windows installation (Pro), so I sometimes booted into Home
to run a program that was installed there but not in Pro.

But now I realize I never boot into Home any more, and also noticed that the
Windows (home) folder, and the Documents and Settings folders associated
with only that installation, take up more than 3GB of my meager 30GB HD. It
really would make sense to uninstall that first (Home) Windows installation.
(I guess the remaining Windows folder would still be called "Windows2", I
wouldn't risk trying to rename it.)

I can see some advantage of having two Windows installations on a HD. If one
goes bad and one cannot boot into it, one could boot into the other, and fix
the first from there. Much easier than using the Recovery Console. But can't
one also create a recovery CD or DVD, and boot into Windows running from the
optical drive, and fix the hard drive installation from there? How does one
create a Windows system CD or DVD?

Anyhow, after all these side tracks, my main question: How do I uninstall
the first", "Home" installation of Windows XP, and keep the second, "Pro"
installation intact?

(I guess I should go through the "My Documents" folder from the old
installation, to see what documents I might want to keep with my present
installation.)

Thank you to anyone for your help.

 

[Galen]

In MS <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I know the title sounds rather strange. I'll try to explain.

I have both Windows Home and Windows Professional installed on my hard
drive, on the same partition. I get asked each boot-up which one to
boot to, and I always choose Pro, my current version. I would like to
remove the Windows Home installation.

Perhaps I should explain how I came to have such an unusual
configuration. My laptop came with Windows Home installed on it. At
one point the OS got so messed up, I couldn't boot up. As
unfortunately is common these days, the laptop didn't come with
normal Windows CDs, but the manufacturer's "recovery CD", which would
return the laptop to the state when I bought it, effectively losing
all my data and settings. (Microsoft really shouldn't permit
manufacturers to do this. Since the computer includes Windows, a
license for Windows, it should include a Windows CD, not the crappy
"recovery CD".

So, I decided to purchase Windows, no other choice without losing
everything, as nothing short of a Windows CD would enable me to fix
the problem. (I didn't have recovery console installed, didn't come
installed on the laptop.) I spent the few extra bucks to get the Pro
version, although I'm not sure what benefit it has for me over Home.

Using the recovery console I was able to fix my installation of
Windows Home, so I could boot up again. But now I had the Pro CD, I
might as well install Pro. I'm not sure why, but instead of
installing it to replace the Home version, I installed it as a second
OS. (I should have made a separate partition for it, but didn't. Pro
is installed in a separate folder called "Windows2".) (In Documents
and Settings--folders like "All Users Windows2", etc.)

At first I did use both installations, sometimes booting into one,
other times the other. The reason being it took me a while to
reinstall programs, etc., to the new Windows installation (Pro), so I
sometimes booted into Home to run a program that was installed there
but not in Pro.

But now I realize I never boot into Home any more, and also noticed
that the Windows (home) folder, and the Documents and Settings
folders associated with only that installation, take up more than 3GB
of my meager 30GB HD. It really would make sense to uninstall that
first (Home) Windows installation. (I guess the remaining Windows
folder would still be called "Windows2", I wouldn't risk trying to
rename it.)

I can see some advantage of having two Windows installations on a HD.
If one goes bad and one cannot boot into it, one could boot into the
other, and fix the first from there. Much easier than using the
Recovery Console. But can't one also create a recovery CD or DVD, and
boot into Windows running from the optical drive, and fix the hard
drive installation from there? How does one create a Windows system
CD or DVD?

Anyhow, after all these side tracks, my main question: How do I
uninstall the first", "Home" installation of Windows XP, and keep the
second, "Pro" installation intact?

(I guess I should go through the "My Documents" folder from the old
installation, to see what documents I might want to keep with my
present installation.)

Thank you to anyone for your help.

Delete all the junk and edit the boot.ini file. (You can do so with the
system applet in the control panel through classic view if you'd like.)

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Click Classic View if not already enabled

Click System Applet > Click on the Advenced tab > Click on Startup and

Recovery Settings > Set your default and remove the time to display options.
Then kill everything in the old OS folder(s) and reboot. When rebooting it
helps to burn black candles and sacrifice a chicken of course but it's
generally pretty painless and now that you have a real CD you can always use
the Recovery Console to repair the boot.

Hmm... You *might* want to take note of this just in case:

Insert and boot from your Windows XP CD.
At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the
installation of Windows you want to repair.
Typically this will be #1
Type bootcfg /list to show the current entries in the BOOT.INI file
Type bootcfg /rebuild to repair it
Take out the CD ROM and type exit

Galen
--

"But there are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world
without them."

Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

Dought that the two are both installed,go to run type:WinVer You'll see that
one is installed.You should have ran the file transfer wizard before
installing
pro,you can/could have saved youre files,settings,etc then applied them in
pro.

 

[Nepatsfan]

I know the title sounds rather strange. I'll try to explain.

I have both Windows Home and Windows Professional installed
on my hard drive, on the same partition. I get asked each
boot-up which one to boot to, and I always choose Pro, my
current version. I would like to remove the Windows Home
installation.

Perhaps I should explain how I came to have such an unusual
configuration. My laptop came with Windows Home installed on
it. At one point the OS got so messed up, I couldn't boot
up. As unfortunately is common these days, the laptop didn't
come with normal Windows CDs, but the manufacturer's
"recovery CD", which would return the laptop to the state
when I bought it, effectively losing all my data and
settings. (Microsoft really shouldn't permit manufacturers
to do this. Since the computer includes Windows, a license
for Windows, it should include a Windows CD, not the crappy
"recovery CD".

So, I decided to purchase Windows, no other choice without
losing everything, as nothing short of a Windows CD would
enable me to fix the problem. (I didn't have recovery
console installed, didn't come installed on the laptop.) I
spent the few extra bucks to get the Pro version, although
I'm not sure what benefit it has for me over Home.

Using the recovery console I was able to fix my installation
of Windows Home, so I could boot up again. But now I had the
Pro CD, I might as well install Pro. I'm not sure why, but
instead of installing it to replace the Home version, I
installed it as a second OS. (I should have made a separate
partition for it, but didn't. Pro is installed in a separate
folder called "Windows2".) (In Documents and
Settings--folders like "All Users Windows2", etc.)

At first I did use both installations, sometimes booting
into one, other times the other. The reason being it took me
a while to reinstall programs, etc., to the new Windows
installation (Pro), so I sometimes booted into Home to run a
program that was installed there but not in Pro.

But now I realize I never boot into Home any more, and also
noticed that the Windows (home) folder, and the Documents
and Settings folders associated with only that installation,
take up more than 3GB of my meager 30GB HD. It really would
make sense to uninstall that first (Home) Windows
installation. (I guess the remaining Windows folder would
still be called "Windows2", I wouldn't risk trying to rename
it.)

I can see some advantage of having two Windows installations
on a HD. If one goes bad and one cannot boot into it, one
could boot into the other, and fix the first from there.
Much easier than using the Recovery Console. But can't one
also create a recovery CD or DVD, and boot into Windows
running from the optical drive, and fix the hard drive
installation from there? How does one create a Windows
system CD or DVD?

Anyhow, after all these side tracks, my main question: How
do I uninstall the first", "Home" installation of Windows
XP, and keep the second, "Pro" installation intact?

(I guess I should go through the "My Documents" folder from
the old installation, to see what documents I might want to
keep with my present installation.)

Thank you to anyone for your help.

You might want to take a look at question # 20:

I have two installations of XP on the same partition...
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpfaq.html

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[kurttrail]

I know the title sounds rather strange. I'll try to explain.

I have both Windows Home and Windows Professional installed on my hard
drive, on the same partition. I get asked each boot-up which one to
boot to, and I always choose Pro, my current version. I would like to
remove the Windows Home installation.

Perhaps I should explain how I came to have such an unusual
configuration. My laptop came with Windows Home installed on it. At
one point the OS got so messed up, I couldn't boot up. As
unfortunately is common these days, the laptop didn't come with
normal Windows CDs, but the manufacturer's "recovery CD", which would
return the laptop to the state when I bought it, effectively losing
all my data and settings. (Microsoft really shouldn't permit
manufacturers to do this. Since the computer includes Windows, a
license for Windows, it should include a Windows CD, not the crappy
"recovery CD".

So, I decided to purchase Windows, no other choice without losing
everything, as nothing short of a Windows CD would enable me to fix
the problem. (I didn't have recovery console installed, didn't come
installed on the laptop.) I spent the few extra bucks to get the Pro
version, although I'm not sure what benefit it has for me over Home.

Using the recovery console I was able to fix my installation of
Windows Home, so I could boot up again. But now I had the Pro CD, I
might as well install Pro. I'm not sure why, but instead of
installing it to replace the Home version, I installed it as a second
OS. (I should have made a separate partition for it, but didn't. Pro
is installed in a separate folder called "Windows2".) (In Documents
and Settings--folders like "All Users Windows2", etc.)

At first I did use both installations, sometimes booting into one,
other times the other. The reason being it took me a while to
reinstall programs, etc., to the new Windows installation (Pro), so I
sometimes booted into Home to run a program that was installed there
but not in Pro.

But now I realize I never boot into Home any more, and also noticed
that the Windows (home) folder, and the Documents and Settings
folders associated with only that installation, take up more than 3GB
of my meager 30GB HD. It really would make sense to uninstall that
first (Home) Windows installation. (I guess the remaining Windows
folder would still be called "Windows2", I wouldn't risk trying to
rename it.)

I can see some advantage of having two Windows installations on a HD.
If one goes bad and one cannot boot into it, one could boot into the
other, and fix the first from there. Much easier than using the
Recovery Console. But can't one also create a recovery CD or DVD, and
boot into Windows running from the optical drive, and fix the hard
drive installation from there? How does one create a Windows system
CD or DVD?

Anyhow, after all these side tracks, my main question: How do I
uninstall the first", "Home" installation of Windows XP, and keep the
second, "Pro" installation intact?

(I guess I should go through the "My Documents" folder from the old
installation, to see what documents I might want to keep with my
present installation.)

Thank you to anyone for your help.

"Succinct" is not in your vocabulary, huh?

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com/mscommunity
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[MS]

Dought that the two are both installed,go to run type:WinVer You'll see that
one is installed.

How much do you want to bet? ;-)

No, I definitely have both Home and Pro installed (as I wrote, Pro is
installed in a different folder, Windows2), and I can choose which to boot
into. (Default Pro, if I don't respond to the query in 5 seconds or so.)

 

[MS]

Are you saying there is no uninstall command I should use to uninstall the
Home installation. Just delete its Windows folder, its Documents and
Settings folder, etc., and edit the boot.ini file so it won't ask me which
to boot to, but just boot into the Pro installation, Windows 2?

Are you sure? No way to actually uninstall the Home installation (other than
manual deletion), leaving the Pro installation intact?

Would there be tracks of the Home installation anywhere other than its
Windows folder, and its various "Documents and Settings" folders? Root
folder? Anywhere else?

 

[Galen]

In MS <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Are you saying there is no uninstall command I should use to
uninstall the Home installation. Just delete its Windows folder, its
Documents and Settings folder, etc., and edit the boot.ini file so it
won't ask me which to boot to, but just boot into the Pro
installation, Windows 2?

Are you sure? No way to actually uninstall the Home installation
(other than manual deletion), leaving the Pro installation intact?

Would there be tracks of the Home installation anywhere other than its
Windows folder, and its various "Documents and Settings" folders? Root
folder? Anywhere else?

Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying and no there will be no 'tracks' of the
Home installation when you're done. There is no uninstall for it. Basically
you delete the old files and folders and edit it so that there's only one
install working. I've done this a few times in the past and haven't had any
issues with it thus far.

Galen
--

"But there are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world
without them."

Sherlock Holmes

 

[Conor]

I know the title sounds rather strange. I'll try to explain.

I have both Windows Home and Windows Professional installed on my hard
drive, on the same partition. I get asked each boot-up which one to boot to,
and I always choose Pro, my current version. I would like to remove the
Windows Home installation.

Perhaps I should explain how I came to have such an unusual configuration.

Easy. You're a ****ing clueless arse who didn't read the myriad of
warnings during installation.

So, I decided to purchase Windows, no other choice without losing
everything, as nothing short of a Windows CD would enable me to fix the
problem.

You could have asked someone to copy their XP Home OEM installation
CD...which is perfectly legal as long as you use the CD Key on your
licence sticker.


(I didn't have recovery console installed, didn't come installed on

the laptop.) I spent the few extra bucks to get the Pro version, although
I'm not sure what benefit it has for me over Home.

ROFLMAO. Wanna buy a bridge?

Anyhow, after all these side tracks, my main question: How do I uninstall
the first", "Home" installation of Windows XP, and keep the second, "Pro"
installation intact?

You can't. There is absolutely no way to do it.