Re: Installing XP - and removing Win2000 Professional

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From: R. C. White (RCWhite_at_msn.com)
Date: 02/06/04 

Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2004 12:22:54 -0600

Hi, Mike.

As Carey Frisch says, it may be best to start fresh. But maybe not.

When you tell WinXP Setup to "upgrade" from Win2K, it installs WinXP over
Win2K and "migrates" your installed applications to the new WinXP Registry.
But it erases Win2K files in the process, leaving you with ONLY WinXP
installed.

You must have told WinXP Setup to do a "clean install", rather than
"upgrade". I hope you told it to put WinXP into a separate volume (primary
partition, or logical drive in an extended partition), because Microsoft and
nearly everybody else STRONGLY advise against putting two Windows
installations into a single volume.

Whether in the same or different volumes, you apparently now have a "dual
boot" system. It's not that hard to fix. It's a two-step process:

1. Edit C:\boot.ini to delete the extra choice from the boot-up menu.
Either go to System Properties | Advanced | Startup and Recovery Settings
and click the Edit button. Or, after Step 2, run msconfig.exe, click the
Boot.ini tab and click Check All Boot Paths.

2. Delete Win2K's "boot folder", which usually is named either \Windows or
\WinNT (in any volume), to reclaim the GB or more of disk space used by its
files and folders.

While booted into WinXP, open a "DOS" window and type Set. In the long list
of environment variables, the bottom probably says something like:
windir=E:\Windows. This "windir" is the boot folder for the current
operating system; WinXP won't let you delete it. Then find Win2K's boot
folder, probably something like D:\WinNT, and delete that. From "DOS", you
can use the command: rd WinNT /s; the /s will delete all subdirectories and
files after you answer Yes to "Are you sure?".

RC 

-- 
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@corridor.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
"Mike" <michael_clark007@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b1c401c3ecce$89350fc0$a101280a@phx.gbl...
>
> I recently upgraded to windows xp - but
> it kept my windows 2000 OS - i have
> set the default OS to be be XP - but
> would prefer to remove win 2000
> completely -- does anyone know how to
> do this?
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