deleting Win 98 partition on dual boot

[colombo3]

Before I screw anything up badly, I figured I'd ask the experts here. I currently have a dual boot Win98 and XP Home machine, with other partitions for data and such. I would like to uninstall 98, and was wondering how to go about this?

98's OS is on the C: partition and XP's OS is on the D: partition, and I am using XP's boot loader at startup. I just made this machine a dual-boot to learn how to do it, and I'm running 98 on the other machine on my home network, so I don't really need it residing in this machine. Was just wondering if I just empy out the C: drive (erasing Win 98) could I use that as another storage partition? And is there a particular way I should uninstall 98? Whay other problems might I encounter?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[ZANEY123]

Go to disk manager in admisntrive tools unde computer managamnet and just right click on the drive and select format. it will clean that drive and you should be able to use it for storage,,then go into msconfig and delete the win98 entry in the boot.ini file see this thread for pics

how do I get rid of option to boot to XP or WIN

[reboot]

WHOA! If you format C: you won't have anything to boot XP with, it will take out boot.ini as well as a few other files.
Just use Explorer to delete everything on C you don't want, but be very careful in the root folder to not delete any files that start XP.

[ZANEY123]

Thanks reboot for clarifying my post i mean format the C partitoin only not the D it should show them listed as 2 drives.

But you might ru n into a promblem with xp not being able to boot since not on the first partition..

zaney123

[colombo3]

Reboot,
That's what I was afraid of when I said that I didn't want to screw anything up. The ONLY thing that's on the C: drive is the Windows 98 OS. And I'm not suure which files from it need to stay for XP to boot!

[ZANEY123]

I think since xp is on the second partiton it might not be able to boot unless you use Partition magic or other software and fix the mbr....

Sorry if i confused you colombo. i did not notice that the xp was on d instead of c

[oosik]

my understanding is that the mbr on the c: drive contains all info for booting both OS's, without it you have neither.

[reboot]

Doesn't matter where XP is.
If the boot files are deleted from C: it won't start.
You can safely delete every folder from C: but not any files in the root of C: unless you know exactly which ones.
XP must have:
boot.ini
io.sys
msdos.sys
ntdetect.com
ntldr
and possibly a couple of others.

[mike breck]

Reboot

Will that work without editing the boot.ini file?

I thought you had to change the Timeout value to "0" and
make sure the default operating system points to location of Windows XP on D:\ (as opposed to 98 on C:\).

So that would mean deleting "C:\=Microsoft Windows" line under the "[operating systems]" header.

Then you can delete every folder and file on the C:\ partition apart from the contents of the root folder.

Once you've freed up all that space, you can then use a Partition Manager to reduce this partition significantly and redistribute the space to your XP partition.

[Iman74]

Originally posted by reboot WHOA! If you format C: you won't have anything to boot XP with, it will take out boot.ini as well as a few other files. Just use Explorer to delete everything on C you don't want, but be very careful in the root folder to not delete any files that start XP.

Tell me if you think this is possible, he goes into FDISK, made the D: partition the active partition which has XP and then doing away with C: Does that make sense?

[mike breck]

Iman74,

I don't think that would work without reinstalling XP onto the D:\ partition.

If you wipe out the Boot info on the root of C:\ then XP won't load.

[colombo3]

Okay, so let me see if I have this straight....I really CAN'T delete 98 from C: unless I want to do a whole reinstall of XP, since I don't know which specific files to keep on the C: drive ???

It's not that big of a deal since I have 160GB hard drive space on a RAID array and 98 isn't really that big, but it's a shame to not use that space for something else. Like I said, I installed both OS's to learn how to set up a dual-boot, but (and it kills me to say this about ANYTHING Microsoft!!) I didn't think I'd actually like XP and I do. The thing almost really works
-Eve

[GreyFalcon]

You can format C, but it will take out your bootloader. I'm not familiar with the home version of XP, but in the Pro version you can boot from the XP CD choose the repair option and use the FIXBOOT command in the console under your Administrators password. A half-assed way to repair it would be to start another installation of XP, and exit the installation after the bootloader is re-established, but before anything is installed, and then edit out the installation in your BOOT.INI. Either way, you can regain access to XP after you format, though it might be a little scary the first time you do this, and no, formatting C doesn't mean re-installing XP.

[mike breck]

Hi colombo3,

No - what Reboot and I are saying is YOU CAN DELETE Win98 from your C:\ drive.

But you have to do this without formatting the C:\ drive. Just deleting all the folders, such as the Windows 98 and Programs folders.

Just don't delete anything in the Root Directory of C:

What is the Root Directory?

Double Click on My Computer and then double click on the C:\ drive. This is the Root Directory of C:\

As you can see the main folders which take up all the space are Windows, Programs Files, and My Documents. These can be deleted. But leave all the loose files outside of these folders in the Root of C:\ because some of these are XP files. So it's better to leave the whole lot, in case you delete the wrong one.

The way I would do it is as follows:

Right-click the Boot.ini file in the the root of C:\ and uncheck it's Read only attribute so you can edit it.

Next type Notepad.exe "C:\boot.ini" into the Run box and hit Enter.

This will open the file in Notepad.

Change the timeout= entry to 0 and make sure the default operating system points to location of Windows XP (as opposed to C:\).

Delete the "C:\=Microsoft Windows" line under the "[operating systems]" header and save the changes.

Reboot the PC and you should find that XP loads without prompting. By changing the timeout value and deleting the "C:\=Microsoft Window" line in boot.ini, the system will no longer be a dual-boot system. It will no longer offer you the chance to boot to Win98.

Now from Explorer in XP, you can delete the Window (98), Programs Files, and My Documents in the C:\ partition. But don't delete any of the loose files outside of these folders

Once you've freed up all that space, you can then use a Partition Manager such as Partition Magic to reduce this partition and redistribute the space to your XP partition.

Or, if it's not very big, just leave it be.

HTH

[ZANEY123]

Thanks mike that answers my questions to

I love this place so much knowledge that goes around here .
this place has been so helpful to me also.

Zaney123

[GreyFalcon]

If I remember correctly the BOOT.INI lives in a hidden folder called BOOT. The only reason I went through the repair options, was to provide a way to migrate the XP boot files to the XP partition. Without a C: drive [ Deleting the drive with FDISK] a repair option or the beginning of an install, will put the bootloader on the drive with XP. What Mike is suggesting is easier, and safer if you don't want to jump in feet first, but I find having the bootloader on another drive a real pain, especially if that drive is a fragile FAT32 and not NTFS. Partition Magic 8.0 can resize the cluster size of a converted NTFS partition now to 4k, so conversions can be made without having to live with slow cluster size migrated from FAT32.

[mike breck]

Yes, I see what you mean GreyFalcon.

So you suggest formatting C: and then booting up with the XP CD and choosing the Repair option>FIXBOOT. This will then rebuild the Bootloader on D:\

Judging from what you've said, you've tried this and it worked sucessfully?

I'm not being cheeky or doubting your word - I'm just interested in your experiences with this method.

[anomaly]

Will it boot to the CD without having a startup disk in? I ask becasue a CD driver is required, isn't it?
If so, will a Win98 startup disk work to boot to the Win2k/xp CD?

[mike breck]

Hi anomaly,

No you don't need a floppy bootdisk because the W2K and XP CDs are bootable themselves.

As long as the BIOS is set to boot off the CD-Rom drive first, then restarting the PC with these CDs in the CD-Rom drive will begin Windows setup.

HTH

[GreyFalcon]

Mike, I have recovered XP from quite a few situations in a dual boot environment, and I thought I remembered what I had done, but I set up the situation on my test computer and could not do it, so [DISREGARD MY LAST TWO POSTS UNTIL I FIND THE EXACT PROCEDURE]! I'll post it back to this thread when I find the exact answer. It's been a while since I've found any use for a 9x OS, so I may be just applying the console commands improperly.