XP Home and Pro installed on same machine

[Guest]

I am trying to uninstall one version of Windows XP from a Toshiba Laptop.
The owner already had XP Home installed and thought she was installing
Office. Instead she installed XP Pro. The installation process never
finished. During boot up the default is Pro which does not fully start up,
due to the incomplete installation. She has the option to use the arrow key
to select Home version during the first few seconds of boot up. She wants to
uninstall Pro and continue with Home version. I tried putting the Pro CD
back in and looking for an uninstall option, but none is available.

I was told to "find the boot.ini file on the root drive (usually on the C:
drive, hidden system file), and remove the line regarding XP Pro. Then, when
the computer boots into Home, make sure that she only has one Windows folder
(and that it's the correct one) and the owner should be good from there on."

I am trying to verify that it is as simple as this before I try this on her
computer.

 

[David Candy]

Yes. You uninstall Windows by deleting it's files.

 

[Guest]

Yep - it's a simple as that - sort of....

What you're doing with the boot.ini file is removing reference to the failed
XPPro installation (so that no one can try to boot it).

If she has a 2nd Windows directory - be careful which one you delete!

I'd suggest renaming one of the directories (probably the newest one) and
then seeing if you can still boot into XPHome. If you can - then that's the
one that's gotta go!

There are other remnants on the system after this - but they're probably too
insignificant to hunt for.

- John

 

[Guest]

Thanks-

She only has one drive and one boot.ini on the C drive. Here is the text
that is in the boot.ini file:

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=C:\$Win_NT$.~BT\Bootsect.dat
[Operating Systems]
Multi(0)Disk(0)rDisk(0)Partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition"/Fast Detect
C:\$Win_NT$.~BT\Bootsect.dat="MicrosoftWindowsXP Professional Setup"

What part of this should I delete (I will make a backup before deleting the
line)? My thought is that it is the entire last line. There is no other
boot.ini file.

I'm new to this and am trying to help a friend out. This stuff is uncharted
territory for me.

 

[David Candy]

[Boot Loader]

Timeout=5
Default=Multi(0)Disk(0)rDisk(0)Partition(1)\Windows
[Operating Systems]
Multi(0)Disk(0)rDisk(0)Partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition"/Fast Detect

She should install SP2
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Thanks-

She only has one drive and one boot.ini on the C drive. Here is the text
that is in the boot.ini file:

[Boot Loader]
Timeout=5
Default=C:\$Win_NT$.~BT\Bootsect.dat
[Operating Systems]
Multi(0)Disk(0)rDisk(0)Partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition"/Fast Detect
C:\$Win_NT$.~BT\Bootsect.dat="MicrosoftWindowsXP Professional Setup"

What part of this should I delete (I will make a backup before deleting the
line)? My thought is that it is the entire last line. There is no other
boot.ini file.

I'm new to this and am trying to help a friend out. This stuff is uncharted
territory for me.

--
Thanks - Kiwi2000a

Yep - it's a simple as that - sort of....

What you're doing with the boot.ini file is removing reference to the failed
XPPro installation (so that no one can try to boot it).

If she has a 2nd Windows directory - be careful which one you delete!

I'd suggest renaming one of the directories (probably the newest one) and
then seeing if you can still boot into XPHome. If you can - then that's the
one that's gotta go!

There are other remnants on the system after this - but they're probably too
insignificant to hunt for.

- John