deleting OS

[person]

how do i delete an OS without formatting a drive (i've never done it before) (want to delete Windows XP)

[zomg]

are u goin to reinstall XP?
if so boot off the cd and just install over top of the current install, it will ask u if u want to delete the current windows directory.

if you want some other OS, just install it then , after the installation just delete the windows folder

[person]

wat if i have 2 XP, and i want to delete one. so..i dont know which windows folder to delete

[zomg]

u have 2 xp installs on the same partition already?!

[person]

unfortunately...yes

please help

[zomg]

hmm im not quite sure where your OS's are installed, but it is more than likely u have them in the same directory, there u could not delete one without the other...

if u want to get rid of the selection list that asks what OS u want to run, find the file "boot.ini" and open it in notepad and delete the last line, or second last line depending on which OS' u select on startup

should look like this:
"multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect"

[person]

so there's no way of completely deleting an OS in my case?

[Martin]

How did you manage to get two WinXP installs on the same partition?

How does your computer know which one to boot?

[person]

k, this is wat happened:

1) i bought a computer that only has one partition
2) i turned it on, and i installed XP without knowing it alreasy has XP
3) now there are 2 XP in the same computer
4) i dont know how my computer knows which to boot, it just does
5) am i beyond help?

[zomg]

person wrote:

k, this is wat happened:

1) i bought a computer that only has one partition
2) i turned it on, and i installed XP without knowing it alreasy has XP
3) now there are 2 XP in the same computer
4) i dont know how my computer knows which to boot, it just does
5) am i beyond help?

u cant really delete the windows directory if they both OS installs are running off it

[person]

i just found something that might help.
there's a WINDOWS folder in C:/ and there's also a WINDOWS folder in C:/C.

r they the 2 OS in seperate folders?

[Mazer]

person wrote:

there's a WINDOWS folder in C:/ and there's also a WINDOWS folder in C:/C.

That didn't quite make sense to me. But anyways, if it is such a problem why don't you back up anything you need, then format and reinstall?

[Maverick]

person wrote:

k, this is wat happened:

1) i bought a computer that only has one partition
2) i turned it on, and i installed XP without knowing it alreasy has XP
3) now there are 2 XP in the same computer
4) i dont know how my computer knows which to boot, it just does
5) am i beyond help?

How could you not know it had xp on it? Fiirst of all wouldnt you turn on the comp first? and second of all if you bought ur comp than that means you bought the xp....

[person]

Quote:

That didn't quite make sense to me.

wat i meant was that there's a folder called WINDOWS located in my C drive (C:/) and there is also a folder called WINDOWS located in a folder called C my C drive (C:/C/) since there r 2 seperate WINDOWS folders, could they be the 2 seperate OS?

[josh]

it sounds like you just bought this computer. So back up the few documents or whatever that you have on it now to a CD. Reformat the Hard Drive, and do a clean XP install.