Removing Old OS from system

[Guest]

I have a Sony Vaio that had Windows XP loaded on the C: drive. After
updating with Service Pack 2 the system went into a reboot cycle which I
couldn't figure out how to fix.

So... I installed Windows XP Professional on my D: drive and copied all my
data files from C: to D:. Everything works great.

But... I would like to delete the old XP edition on my C: drive and start
using the disk space for additional storage.

How do I go about deleting the old system from the C: drive while making my
XP Professional the default boot up system. (I currently am presented a
choice during bootup).

Thanks for the help!

 

[Nepatsfan]

I have a Sony Vaio that had Windows XP loaded on the C:
drive. After updating with Service Pack 2 the system went
into a reboot cycle which I couldn't figure out how to fix.

So... I installed Windows XP Professional on my D: drive and
copied all my data files from C: to D:. Everything works
great.

But... I would like to delete the old XP edition on my C:
drive and start using the disk space for additional storage.

How do I go about deleting the old system from the C: drive
while making my XP Professional the default boot up system.
(I currently am presented a choice during bootup).

Thanks for the help!

You can delete all the folders on your C drive. Note: You want
to go into Folder Options, View page and make sure you've
selected "Show hidden files and folders" as well as removed the
check mark next to "Hide protected operating system files".

After you delete the folders, you'll see a number of files
remaining such as ntldr, ntdetect.com, boot.ini and
bootsect.dos. Do not delete these files. They are needed to
boot the XP installation that's on your D drive.

Next, go to Start -> Run and enter msconfig in the Open box.
Click OK. In the System Configuration Utility click on the
boot.ini tab. Click on the "Check all boot paths" button. A box
will pop up asking if you want to remove an entry that looks
like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows
XP Professional Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Click yes. Close the utility and restart your computer. Once
your machine starts, you'll see a box mentioning "operating in
diagnostic mode". Put a check mark in the box so that msconfig
doesn't run at startup and click OK.

Nepatsfan

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the help!.....

I get an "access denied" message for a folder called "System Volume
Information" - will I be able to delete that? I happened to notice during a
recent Virus Scan that there is an old infected file somewhere in that
folder. Could it be protecting itself?

MagisterLudi

 

[Nepatsfan]

Take a look at this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309531/

Scroll down to the section titled "Windows XP Professional
using the NTFS File System on a Workgroup or Standalone
Computer" and follow the instructions to disable Simple File
Sharing and give yourself Full Control permissions to the
folder. You should now be able to delete the folder.

In regard to the anitvirus issue, you might want to take a look
here for some more information:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;831829

The usual procedure to follow when your AV software detects an
infected file in one of your restore points is to simply turn
off System Restore. Since that action deletes all the current
restore points the infected file is deleted as well. If the
infected file is located in C:\System Volume Information you'd
only need to turn off System Restore for the C drive. This
would leave the restore points that have been created by the XP
installation on D in place.

Nepatsfan

 

[Nepatsfan]

Following up on my earlier response, if you turn off System
Restore on your C drive to delete those infected files, make
sure you turn it back on once the files have been removed.
Windows will now recreate a clean System Volume Information
folder on your C drive. You should leave this new folder in
place.

Nepatsfan