Uninstall XP?

[Andyf]

Hi, I installed XP onto the wrong partition on my new PC by accident. Doh

So I installed it onto the right partition, but couldn't find a way to uninstall the old one, so just reformatted the partition.

The trouble is, the computer still asks me which OS I want (they both look identical on the list). AND it defaults to the now broken one! Doh. How do I get rid of it???

Cheers for any help!

 

[eyeCpc]

There are now two entries seen in the boot.ini file found at the root of C. You will need to open that with NotePad after right clicking on it to uncheck the read only option or simply open up the msconfig uititliy and open the boot.ini tab there.

The second entry is now your primary installation and simply needs to be set as default. The other is simply removed there or by manually editing the boot.ini file itself. Once you do it once you will see how easy of a task that is.

 

[Andyf]

Ahh! so easy! thanks very much. I'll have a go when I get home.

 

[eyeCpc]

I generally use NotePad for any editing there. You may first have to uncheck the hide system files option found in the tools>folder options>view once you have either MyComputer or a W.Explorer window open. The tools link is on the menu bar there. One line should see partition #1 at the top of the two.

The default line of text for this right under the operating systems should read as follows:
"multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect" without quotes.
(note the Microsoft name sees a gap only when posting a copy and paste.)

 

[Andyf]

Thanks. how about partition number? Sorry, I haven't actually checked, being at work, so it may just be obvious, but presumably, If I have 2 installs, the listing will be the same, barring the partition number. Is it labeled in the same way to drive letter: i.e. c: = partition 1, d: = partition2; e: = partition3? Although D: is prolly the optical- I haven't had the computer long enough to remember!

 

[eyeCpc]

SInce the second installation was default that partition(2) line will be seen right above the default seen in the previous post. You simply delete that (2) listing since that points to an installation no longer there.

In the screen shot here ignore the little bit seen after the /fastdetect since that is something configured on the system here. But the rest is what the default boot.ini file should look like.




You can reduce the load time a little by changing the 30 seconds to 15 or lower even down to 5. That's for allowing time to choose which version or installation of Windows to load with the default 30 seeing that displayed for 20 seconds when dual booting. If you decide to dual boot Pro with Home at some future time you simply increase that number for allowing more time to select the version being run.

 

[Andyf]

awesome, thanks very much for your help. I'll try it when I get home. What happens if I delete the wrong one, though? surely thats quite terminal! would I have to reformat somehow and install windows again?

 

[eyeCpc]

You will know by either editing with NotePad or using the boot.ini tab found in the msconfig utility which one is for the first partition. A quick fix will see the one installation on the first primary takeover. You can simply copy the info seen in the screen shot here in order to verify what you end up with in the file there.

All you have to do in NotePad is simply use the backward key once you are at the end of the partition(2) entry and wipe that one leaving the default for the 1st intact. When going to save the file save it as all files not a doc or txt type in order to see the corrected version overwrite the original or simply use the msconfig.

This is why right clicking on the file first to uncheck the read only or hidden boxes and clicking the apply button has to be looked to make sure you will be able to overwrite it when saving the correction with NotePad. One alternate method for seeing this done is simply booting to the recovery console and using the "Fixboot" and "Fixmbr" commands there to see a new master boot record created which will correct any goof in the boot.ini you make there.

That's an even easier method if you are nervious about editing the file. I thought I would add this in as well as the 3rd and easier method. With Vista there is no recovery console available since MS threw in an automatic tool to fix startup problems found on the installation disk.

(too bad a Europeon court just ruled against them for having WMP included in Windows. Microsoft hasn't responded yet.)