HELP! Ailing computer with 3 OS's

[october]

Here is the story...
My friend's computer had windows 98 on it. A friend gave him windows xp, and he installed it and ran. It had some trouble but he put up with it. Then he moved, and somehow the computer got messed up and would not boot. He could not get a disc for xp because a friend installed it, so he hooked up with a copy of windows 2000 professional. That is what he runs now.

Here is the question...
My friend now has three (3) os's on his computer eating up space. He wants to remove Windows 98 and xp, and we don't know how to do that. Can anyone help?

thanks

-october-

 

[damunzy]

What directories are all the OSes installed it? If they are all different it should be as easy as deleting the old OS's directory and that will free up space. Normally windows 98 gets installed into the C:\WINDOWS directory. If you did a dual boot install of XP then it is probably in the C:\WINNT directory or it allowed you to pick what directory name you want (I believe this is the way it works...can't really remember). I didn't know you would be able to install Windows 2000 after you already had XP on it....

Basically you need to find out what diectory each OS is in and delete the old ones...it shouldn't effect the current OS. The best thing to do would be to format the HDD and restart from scratach....that will solve just about any problem (except HDD failures and damn LILO and Mandrake Boot loader....damn them!!!).

 

[october]

Thanks...I'll look into this. It's my friend's computer and I am wary of deleting things, since one day I tried to improve my dad's computer and wiped out his email addresses and his stored emails which had vital information; they were in a weirdly named directory. Someone else told me that this guy's HD is probably messed up because of all the copies of Windows on it, so if I mess it up I will be responsible. But I will report this tip to him. Thanks palehorse.

-october-

 

[october]

By the way, why did you leave out "under God" from your pledge and add in equal? Our country was founded on equality already...no need to add it now. Also, isn't Bensalem near King of Prussia? I grew up around there.

o

 

[damunzy]

Completely off topic now but:

Pledge: The Pledge didn't originally have it and I think that adding it was a bad 'improvement'. There wa a thread in OT about this....don't know if you were involved in that one but look in up, might be a good read for you.

Bensalem: It is close....about 30 minutes away. I work in West Consohoken which is very close to KoP and it takes me about 30 minutes to get there and KoP is about another 5 minutes away or so. Where ya living now?

p

 

[october]

Yah I've been to West Consohoken a lot....I live in State College now.

 

[starlifter]

It's my friend's computer and I am wary of deleting things, since one day I tried to improve my dad's computer and wiped out his email addresses and his stored emails which had vital information; they were in a weirdly named directory. Someone else told me that this guy's HD is probably messed up because of all the copies of Windows on it, so if I mess it up I will be responsible

There is no such thing as weirdly named directory...

I have to ask this:

Do you understand, or at least know, the OS install methods, or were you doing it in the "blind" and hoping for the best?

It makes a difference, because if the answer is yes, then you may have adjusted lots of things properly at install.

If no, then you probably did a default install to the C-Drive. In that case, then before you delete a thing, you need to go the the root of your c: drive and open this file with notepad, and paste a copy of it (it will be only a few lines) into a post so we can see it:


boot.ini

Assuming you are not prepared to begin by doing a format c: (e.g., a clean install), you need to determine exactly what the OS expects. W2K will very likely be completely contained within only 3 subdirectories, plus 3 files in the root of your installed drive. What drive letter did you install W2K to?

 

[Lostman]

I'd just format and reinstall bro. You can probably find a way to clean it up and narrow it down to 1 OS but at what cost? Your just going to be setting yourself up for a headache.

 

[baseballtwin86]

And backup the important stuff on a disk. I don't really see the need in updating an OS in the first place. In your case, if it does succeed, you may delete some some of the Win 2000 system files. I would wipe the hard drive clean, and reinstall one version of windows. This will be much less of a headache, and will make your friend's machine run much better.

 

[BlueMonday]

I gotta agree with the two previous posts. Having those three OS all on one system is a mess to remove becuase they mostly won't let themselves be removed. Back up what you need, then reformat the whole drive. Even if you could fix it without formatting the hard drive, a re-format will do you good. It will get rid of all those junk files that are wasting space, remove all viruses, trojans, worms, and spyware. Re-formatting is a great way to get back the computer you used to have.

 

[october]

Ok I will format the c drive and then install one copy of windows. One more question....how do I format the c drive, and then how do I install windows on the freshly formatted drive?

-o-

 

[Black Fluffy Lion]

Originally posted by october
Ok I will format the c drive and then install one copy of windows. One more question....how do I format the c drive, and then how do I install windows on the freshly formatted drive?

-o-

http://tech.jmwebdesigns.com/software/expert/print/reformat.html

couple of words of advice, learnt the hard way...if your network/internet connection/printer/whatever were hard to set up then take notes on the information! it might help to print out all your hardware info (system-->device manager-->print)

make sure you have all the correct cds and product keys ready and a bootdisk.

 

[starlifter]

Warning, Will Robinson.... Danger Danger!!


I recommend you have at least 2 tested and fully working floppy boot disks, complete with FDISK, SYS, and FORMAT files on them. Floppies are notorious for screwing up, and if you have no 2nd computer to make boot disks while your formatted one is "down", then better to be safe than sorry.

You really will be better off with a clean install .

 

[Pliny The Elder]

If your BIOS allows it, you can boot, and install, from a cd...but a good, working floppy sure is easier to work with...at least, I think so. (BTW, when you make a boot floppy in 98, it doesn't put FORMAT on it, for some inscrutable reason...there's plenty of room to add it, though...it's in the C:\Windows\Commands folder)

 

[damunzy]

Originally posted by Pliny The Elder
If your BIOS allows it, you can boot, and install, from a cd...but a good, working floppy sure is easier to work with...at least, I think so. (BTW, when you make a boot floppy in 98, it doesn't put FORMAT on it, for some inscrutable reason...there's plenty of room to add it, though...it's in the C:\Windows\Commands folder)

/PutsOn_starlifterHat
That is because MS sucks.
They like to miss the little details. Sometimes I think they do it on purpose to make you want to upgrade to their new OS even more.
/TakesHatOff

 

[starlifter]

If your BIOS allows it, you can boot, and install, from a cd...but a good, working floppy sure is easier to work with...at least, I think so

CD Boot is definitely nice. Floppy boot is good because it is pretty much universal, and you can control what you want on the floppy disk very easily. I use a lot of extra files that help in recovery of disasters, esp. disk editors & the like.

Make sure you have FDISK on the boot floppy, too... FDISK, despite its crude capabiltites, will allow you to create partitions on a disk. you need to set up your drive structure before formatting.... unless you just want your entire disk to be a single drive letter (e.g., C. I typically split a drive into about 7 partitions.

However, you can use Partition Magic at a later date to resize & create/delete/move partitions, even if you start with just one huge, mongo C: drive at first.

 

[starlifter]

by PH76:

Sometimes I think they do it on purpose to make you want to upgrade to their new OS even more.

Though they did not screw this particular thing up because of that reason, I happen to know (without speculation) that MS does indeed plan "screw ups" into their products, esp. the OSs, in order to force later upgrades and more income at a later time. This stuff is often planned strategically from high levels within the company, and often planned years in advance. I have seen Bill Gates himslef lie under oath in court about certain things. Stanley Sporkin (Federal Judge in the first trial and conviction of MS regarding Win95 about 5 years ago), but then officials in the Clinton Administration effectively set aside Sporkin's ruling, and let MS off the hook. Then the Clinton Admin "went after" MS about 2 years later in the case that more people are familar with, and even the semi-dopes prosecuting and judging that trial were getting annoyed as MS lying about these corporate practices.

 

[Pliny The Elder]

Win98 does put COMMAND.COM, FDISK, Autoexec.bat., and the CD generic drivers on the boot floppy, among some others. FORMAT you have to add to it...go ask bill why...I have no reason to disbelieve starlifter. It's the presence of those generic cd drivers that make a boot floppy easier to work with, as I always use 98Lite to install 98 with, and I have to switch cd's, as the cd with 98Lite on it isn't bootable...it's a pain. The 98 cd doesn't make a RAMDisk, when booting from cd. My floppy, or the cable, has died, and I do miss it so...sniff...boo...hoo...whaaa