How to make a dual boot PC into single boot?

Hi

I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D
to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.

My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)

I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.

Thanks

occam wrote:
> Hi
>
> I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D
> to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.
>
> My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
> now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)
>
> I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.
>
> Thanks
>


just delete the folder win98 is installed in

then run msconfig

and have it check for the boot path and let it remove the invalid entry

occam wrote:
> Hi
>
> I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D
> to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.
>
> My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
> now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)
>
> I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.

Ok, since you said that WinXP is on D: but you didn't go into more
detail on how this is set up. Is this two separate drive units with a
C: partition on one and the D partition on the other, or one drive unit
with both the C: and D: partitions on it?

Before we can give more specific details of what's involved, it's
necessary that we know this. Also since this is posted in the Windows
XP basic newsgroup, it could be above your technical abilities.

Roy Smith wrote:
> occam wrote:

> Ok, since you said that WinXP is on D: but you didn't go into more
> detail on how this is set up. Is this two separate drive units with a
> C: partition on one and the D partition on the other, or one drive unit
> with both the C: and D: partitions on it?


Roy

Win XP is installed on the same drive, with two partitions C: and D:


>
> Before we can give more specific details of what's involved, it's
> necessary that we know this. Also since this is posted in the Windows
> XP basic newsgroup, it could be above your technical abilities.
>

Try me. Windows basic NG is just a statting point. Where is the best NG
to post this to? (As this is a 'throw-away' portable I am working with,
I am not afraid of doing anything catastrophic with it.)


Thanks

philo wrote:
> occam wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive
>> D to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB
>> of RAM.
>>
>> My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
>> now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)
>>
>> I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>
>
> just delete the folder win98 is installed in
>
> then run msconfig
>
> and have it check for the boot path and let it remove the invalid entry

Philo

I am assuming you mean when logged into the XP partition? Deleting the
C: drive (where Win 98 is) was not allowed. The message was something
like 'MS system files -- deletion not allowed'. (This is effectively
the same message I get when I try and re-format this (Fat32) partition
as NTFS space, for use by the XP system.

occam wrote:
> Hi
>
> I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D
> to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.
>
> My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
> now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)
>
> I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.

You will not be able to remove or format the C: drive, in NT terminology
this C: drive is refered to as the System Partition. This partition is
flagged as the 'Active Partition', it is the partition that is used to
boot the computer and it contains files necessary to boot Windows XP.

You can remove all of the files on the C: partition *except* the
following which are necessary to boot Windows XP:

Boot.ini
NTDETECT.COM
ntldr
NTBOOTDD.SYS (if present, which I doubt, used for SCSI Controllers
without a SCSI BIOS)

John

On Oct 31, 6:15*pm, occam <oc...@erewhon.nix> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D
> to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.
>
> My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
> now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)
>
> I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.
>
> Thanks

If you have a bootable XP installation CD that you used to install XP
and do not want W98 (ever), before you get too far along, whack
(reformat) that disk and reinstall XP onto the C drive. If you want a
D partition for storage or programs, create one. I would do it while
you can before you wish you had done it later - and have a big mess.

That way, you will be more in line with most "regular" type of XP
installations which will make discussions a lot easier later.

You will never have to say something like:

Well... everybody else's XP is installed on C, but my XP is installed
on D and some of my stuff is on C and some on D and now I'm all mixed
up. BTW, I also have Win98 installed on C, could that be my problem
with XP?

John John - MVP wrote:
> occam wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive
>> D to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB
>> of RAM.
>>
>> My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
>> now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)
>>
>> I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.
>
> You will not be able to remove or format the C: drive, in NT terminology
> this C: drive is refered to as the System Partition. This partition is
> flagged as the 'Active Partition', it is the partition that is used to
> boot the computer and it contains files necessary to boot Windows XP.
>
> You can remove all of the files on the C: partition *except* the
> following which are necessary to boot Windows XP:
>
> Boot.ini
> NTDETECT.COM
> ntldr
> NTBOOTDD.SYS (if present, which I doubt, used for SCSI Controllers
> without a SCSI BIOS)
>
> John

Hi John

Thanks for that info. If I understand correctly therefore, then the
better option is to re-install XP over Win 98 (in Drive C and
re-format the Drive D (initial XP install)?
(I believ this is what Jose, in the next message, is also telling me.)

Thanks

Jose wrote:
> On Oct 31, 6:15 pm, occam <oc...@erewhon.nix> wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive D
>> to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB of RAM.
>>
>> My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
>> now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)
>>
>> I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.
>>
>> Thanks
>
> If you have a bootable XP installation CD that you used to install XP
> and do not want W98 (ever), before you get too far along, whack
> (reformat) that disk and reinstall XP onto the C drive. If you want a
> D partition for storage or programs, create one. I would do it while
> you can before you wish you had done it later - and have a big mess.
>
> That way, you will be more in line with most "regular" type of XP
> installations which will make discussions a lot easier later.
>

Thanks Jose, I will try that. I am hoping that by doing so, I will not
have any problems uninstalling (re-formatting) the first copy of Win XP
(on D)

occam wrote:
> philo wrote:
>> occam wrote:
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> I found an old Win98 PC, and decided to install Win XP on it (Drive
>>> D to see if it would be too slow. It was not, even with 196 (!) MB
>>> of RAM.
>>>
>>> My question - how can I keep the Win XP and uninstall Win 98? (Right
>>> now, on boot up, I get offered to boot up in either.)
>>>
>>> I have tried to reformat C: drive, but the system will not allow it.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>
>> just delete the folder win98 is installed in
>>
>> then run msconfig
>>
>> and have it check for the boot path and let it remove the invalid entry
>
> Philo
>
> I am assuming you mean when logged into the XP partition? Deleting the
> C: drive (where Win 98 is) was not allowed. The message was something
> like 'MS system files -- deletion not allowed'. (This is effectively
> the same message I get when I try and re-format this (Fat32) partition
> as NTFS space, for use by the XP system.



I did *NOT* tell you to delete the C: drive

I told you to simply delete the folder that Win98 is installed in.

If Win98 is on C: and XP is on D: (for example)

you can delete all the data there except for boot.ini ntdetect.com and ntldr