Uninstall WinXP from second drive

[Guest]

Okay, I've had my computer a few years.

Got it with WinME installed.
Upgraded to WinXP
Drive got full, WinXP would not boot.
Got nice BIG new drive.
Installed WinXP on new drive
Moved many files from old drive to new drive.
Now, my computer will let me dual boot to either the new drive or the old
drive.
How do I remove the old installation of WinXP?

 

[Rich Barry]

Format the drive from the new WinXP drive after removing any important
data. Just rt click the drive icon and select format.

 

[Rich Barry]

Don't format if you Installed WinXP on the new drive with the old drive
connected. The boot files are on that drive.
You can delete everything but these files: boot.ini, bootsect.dos,
ntldr and NTDetect.com

 

[JS]

Move any important files from the old drive to the new drive as a first
step.
Edit the Boot.ini file located in the root of the new drive to remove the
boot entry for the old drive.
(make a backup of this file before you make any changes (name it
orig-boot.ini)
Note that the boot.ini file "must" be on the new drive along with several
other important files must exist on the new drive:
See: Windows XP Boot Sequence: http://www.compphix.com/xpbootprocess.html

Info on: How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP
See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022/en-us
Boot.ini switches explained:
http: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/information/bootini.mspx

Now remove the ribbon cable from the old drive, this will verify that you
can boot from the new drive without the old drive being connected, this is a
very important step as you must be able to boot from the new drive being the
only drive connected.
(Keep in mind that the drive jumper settings are important and must correct
for each step)
If the PC boots without problems to the new drive, then power down and
reconnect the old drive and "disconnect the new drive".
If the PC does not boot then check the drive jumper, must be set to 'Master'
or 'Master/No slave'

Now use the Windows Install disk to format the old drive (Note that the old
drive is the only drive connected at this time). This will remove any
remnants of your older Windows installation "without accidentally formatting
the wrong drive" since the old drive is the only drive connected.
Next Power Down the PC and connect both drives
(make sure the drive jumpers are set as 'Master' for the new drive and
'Slave' for the old drive.
Next with both drives installed power up and boot to Windows.
Now use Disk Manager to verify that both drives can be seen and are ok.

JS

 

[Guest]

Okay guys, I can see that that would work, but do I really need to reformat
the old drive or is there a way to remove XP from the old one without the
reformat?

 

[DL]

Delete the win directory, once youve dealt with your boot ini and checked
whether the sys will boot with the old drive disconnected (just pull the pwr
connector to it)