removing dual boot

[Roberto]

When I originally installed windows 2000 I did it as a dual boot with windows NT. I placed windows 2000 on a second hard drive E and left windows NT on the boot hard drive C. I have never had an occasion to boot into NT and would like to remove it as a dual boot option and delete all of the files on the C drive. However, I know that there are some files on the C drive that cannot be removed. For example, boot.ini.

What is the best way to remove all of the windows NT files?

[Tech1]

Format the C drive, then fdisk /mbr and make the E drive the master

[crjdriver]

Originally posted by Tech1 Format the C drive, then fdisk /mbr and make the E drive the master

If you do that, it will not boot. Boot files needed by win2k are on the C drive. You can edit the boot.ini file and remove any reference to winnt. Make sure the default os reflects where you installed win2k. Note the boot.ini file is a hidden, read only file on the root of the boot drive. You will need to remove the read only attribute prior to editing.

After you have removed to boot menu, you can delete all files relating to winnt on C. Do not format C, just use it for storage / data.

[Tech1]

WOn't the MBR just rebuild itself? I swear it does, AFAIK

[crjdriver]

When you "format C" you will destroy ntlr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini. All of these files are necessary for win2k to load. I have never recommended using win9x / dos utilites for installing nt based os. All partitioning / formatting should be done either in the RC or by setup.

[crjdriver]

You could format C, then extract and copy the needed files from the win2k cd. That would be more work for no gain.

[Mr N8]

You can use fdisk /mbr, but do not format c: if you don't want to lose your Win2k installation. fdisk /mbr rewrites the MBR with a generic boot loader.

Before doing this, though, I would make backup boot disks from your current system. Using fdisk /mbr does not usually cause any problems with booting up, but if it does, you will need to restore the mbr with the boot disks.

[Roberto]

So far, I prefer the option given by crjdriver of editing boot.ini and deleting all files relating to winnt on C drive. In addition to the ntlr,ntdetect.com and boot.ini files are there any other files that may be necessary to retain on the C drive? I would like to delete as many files as possible. for example, all files under the default directory "C:\program files\".

[Markoman01027]

You should run Repair installation in Windows 2000 setup, once you edit the boot.ini file or choose to do fdisk/mbr. Either way, will solve your problem. But fdisk/mbr will completely wipe out the dual boot.


I believe if you boot up into the recovery console, and use the command "FIXBOOT" it will do the samething as fdisk/mbr, as fdisk/mbr is used more for the windows 9.x family and FIXBOOT is used for the NT family. Somebody correct me if I am wrong on this one.

[crjdriver]

Fixboot is the correct command to use for a new boot record. If you do the repair install, you will get rid of the dual boot. There are other things to consider; you will loose any service packs, hot fixes and patches that have been applied. So you will need to redo those. I have done a few repair installs on win2k and on two the directX reverted back to the original and on one it did not [no, I do not know why]

[Roberto]

Wow! The last thing that I want to do is to reinstall all of the windows security patches -- they are never ending.

[crjdriver]

If you want instructions on how to edit the boot.ini file, post back or do a search on this forum for "boot.ini"