How to Uninstall XP?

[Just Another Joe]

I have Windows 98 SE on a primary partition as C:. My data is on logical
drives D: and E: in the extended partition. I have 12GB free space outside
the extended partition. I installed Windows XP in that 12 GB free space as
a clean full install (not an upgrade). The installation went smoothly to
completion. It was drive J:

It rebooted fine. I played with XP a bit, tweaking some settings, etc.
When I next rebooted, it first said autochk could not be found, then
stopped with a STOP 0xC000021A message, and it continues to do so every
time. I am unable to reboot to XP in safe mode, or even in command mode.
I tried a repair installation, but it gave the same error.

I can successfully boot to Windows 98 SE on C:, but here's the thing. The
XP installation placed five files in the root of C: (WIN 98 SE): NTLDR,
NTDETECT.COM, BOOTSECT.DOS, BOOT.INI, and PAGEFILE.SYS. Now I get the XP
boot menu, which I don't want. I tried moving the five files to another
directory, but then it would not boot to WIN 98 SE at all. I moved the
files back to the root, and can again boot to 98 SE, but only through the
XP boot menu.

I want to completely remove XP, so that I can install it fresh. Getting
rid of the 12 GB partition is not a problem. The question is how to get
rid of the XP boot menu, and the five XP files, on the 98 SE C: drive,
and still have 98 SE boot normally (i.e. put it back the way it was before
the XP install).

Once that is done, my thought is that if I first hide the C: partition,
and then install XP, it will install as C:. I can then configure BootMagic
to choose between the systems.

Can anyone help? ADVthanksANCE.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have Windows 98 SE on a primary partition as C:. My data is on logical
drives D: and E: in the extended partition. I have 12GB free space outside
the extended partition. I installed Windows XP in that 12 GB free space as
a clean full install (not an upgrade). The installation went smoothly to
completion. It was drive J:

It rebooted fine. I played with XP a bit, tweaking some settings, etc.
When I next rebooted, it first said autochk could not be found, then
stopped with a STOP 0xC000021A message, and it continues to do so every
time. I am unable to reboot to XP in safe mode, or even in command mode.
I tried a repair installation, but it gave the same error.

I can successfully boot to Windows 98 SE on C:, but here's the thing. The
XP installation placed five files in the root of C: (WIN 98 SE): NTLDR,
NTDETECT.COM, BOOTSECT.DOS, BOOT.INI, and PAGEFILE.SYS. Now I get the XP
boot menu, which I don't want. I tried moving the five files to another
directory, but then it would not boot to WIN 98 SE at all. I moved the
files back to the root, and can again boot to 98 SE, but only through the
XP boot menu.

I want to completely remove XP, so that I can install it fresh. Getting
rid of the 12 GB partition is not a problem. The question is how to get
rid of the XP boot menu, and the five XP files, on the 98 SE C: drive,
and still have 98 SE boot normally (i.e. put it back the way it was before
the XP install).

Once that is done, my thought is that if I first hide the C: partition,
and then install XP, it will install as C:. I can then configure BootMagic
to choose between the systems.

Can anyone help? ADVthanksANCE.

This is really a Win9x question: How to restore the Win9x boot
behaviour. The answer is simple:
- Select Win9x from your boot menu.
- Press Enter, then immediately (really immediately!) F8.
- Select a DOS boot.
- Type this command: sys C:

End of story. You can now delete anything on drive J:. You can
also make any of the hidden WinXP boot files on drive C: visible,
and delete them too.

 

[Just Another Joe]

This is really a Win9x question: How to restore the Win9x boot
behaviour. The answer is simple:
- Select Win9x from your boot menu.
- Press Enter, then immediately (really immediately!) F8.
- Select a DOS boot.
- Type this command: sys C:

End of story. You can now delete anything on drive J:. You can
also make any of the hidden WinXP boot files on drive C: visible,
and delete them too.

Hello Pegasus. I read last night on one of the web forums about using sys c: to
address this problem, but it's good to have confirmation. Sys C: did the job.
However, sys can't C: when run from C: . The solution was a Win 98 SE boot
disk with sys.com placed on it.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Normally, assuming Win9x is installed to the C: drive, you'd just
have to boot from your Win98/Me startup diskette, type "SYS C:." Then
delete C:\NTLDR, C:\NTDETECT.COM, C:\BOOT.INI, C:\BOOTSEC.DOS, and
C:\PAGEFILE.SYS. Delete or reformat the WinXP directory/partition, as
applicable. Remove the startup diskette and reboot.


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH

I have Windows 98 SE on a primary partition as C:. My data is on logical
drives D: and E: in the extended partition. I have 12GB free space outside
the extended partition. I installed Windows XP in that 12 GB free space as
a clean full install (not an upgrade). The installation went smoothly to
completion. It was drive J:

It rebooted fine. I played with XP a bit, tweaking some settings, etc.
When I next rebooted, it first said autochk could not be found, then
stopped with a STOP 0xC000021A message, and it continues to do so every
time. I am unable to reboot to XP in safe mode, or even in command mode.
I tried a repair installation, but it gave the same error.

I can successfully boot to Windows 98 SE on C:, but here's the thing. The
XP installation placed five files in the root of C: (WIN 98 SE): NTLDR,
NTDETECT.COM, BOOTSECT.DOS, BOOT.INI, and PAGEFILE.SYS. Now I get the XP
boot menu, which I don't want. I tried moving the five files to another
directory, but then it would not boot to WIN 98 SE at all. I moved the
files back to the root, and can again boot to 98 SE, but only through the
XP boot menu.

I want to completely remove XP, so that I can install it fresh. Getting
rid of the 12 GB partition is not a problem. The question is how to get
rid of the XP boot menu, and the five XP files, on the 98 SE C: drive,
and still have 98 SE boot normally (i.e. put it back the way it was before
the XP install).

Once that is done, my thought is that if I first hide the C: partition,
and then install XP, it will install as C:. I can then configure BootMagic
to choose between the systems.

Can anyone help? ADVthanksANCE.

not.

 

[Just Another Joe]

Greetings --

Normally, assuming Win9x is installed to the C: drive, you'd just
have to boot from your Win98/Me startup diskette, type "SYS C:." Then
delete C:\NTLDR, C:\NTDETECT.COM, C:\BOOT.INI, C:\BOOTSEC.DOS, and
C:\PAGEFILE.SYS. Delete or reformat the WinXP directory/partition, as
applicable. Remove the startup diskette and reboot.

Grin. Thanks, Bruce... that's just what I did, but it looks like my
previous message hadn't propagated to your location when you posted !

Now have XP re-installed, and both it and 98 SE working fine with
BootMagic. Follow-up questions to come in separate threads.

 

[Guest]

I'd just like to know - what if any pros are allowed by having two os's on a drive - Im currently running 98 and wanting to upgrade to XP Pro but I'm getting an error during XP setup reading unable to find upgrade .dd lfile on the disk. So then I continued setup with XP and durring the booting I came to find the option of which partition to add XP and was warned that 98 might not run correctly having only one partition to chose from and that one having 98 as the primary OS. I'm trying to avoid a reformatt at all costs seeing as to how I currently dont have a drive that allows me to burn in order to save files onto a disk. Any tips much appricated in advance ! |)