xp dual boot question

[unclej]

hey folks..i just used the search function here and couldn't find the answer to my question so your help would be appreciated.

i was helping a friend out with his computer yesterday and ran into something new to me. he had picked up some really nasty spyware and also couldn't get on line all of a sudden. it was a gateway with pentium 4 that had xp home installed when he purchased it. i finally got rid of all the spyware but couldn't fix the issue with his not being able to get on line. i backed up all of his critical info and then started a new installation of xp from the disk that was provided with the purchase. it said that it would overwrite the existing os but didn't. i may have missed a prompt but for whatever reason when i was finished and started it for the first time i got a dual boot window. the new installation works perfectly but the old installation is still there. other than using up disk space i suppose it's not hurting anything but i'd like to know if there's a way to delete the old os without having to wipe the disk and start over.

thanks

 

[unclej]

*bump*

tap..tap..testing..testing..is this thing on?

i can't decide if i'm operating in stealth mode or if this just slipped by without anyone noticing. can anyone possibly direct me to a tutorial deleting a second operating system?

edited to say, "nevermind." i just found what i was looking for at the microsoft support area. i swear that i looked there first and couldn't find anything. anyway, for anyone that might need this in the future here's the link:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=888023

 

[David Lindon]

Did you not format the drive when you reinstalled? You could always edit the boot.ini file to stop the boot prompt.

 

[Kage]

Yeah you have installed two partitions by mistake.

One thing you could do is boot up from the drive you want Windows on and then in Windows you could format the other parition to use for data and whatever else, but without re-installing Windows I don't think there is a way to take out that partition unless you use a program like Partition Magic which makes this job easy though does cost you.

How much space is on each partition now then?

1. So after booting on the OS you want, Right click My Computer, and go to Manage.
2. Now, select Disk Management from the list

3. Choose the 2nd partition you want to format to remove Windows from it (it'll still be there, just without windows, and so without the dual boot option, and can have a few good uses)

4. Then right click the drive/partition (probably D) and choose 'Format' from the list. If it is Windows XP choose NTFS to format to, or otherwise choose FAT32. It'll now follow the steps to format the drive.

5. You can now restart, and you won't get the dual boot screen and D will be blank. You will now be able to maybe seperate your games or work files from the main machine just incase Windows goes belly up, and you have to format... this means you won't lose your data if it is on D and you wipe C

Warning: Do not choose 'Delete Logical Drive' from the list. Even though it'd remove the partition, you would not get the Gigabytes of space back on your original partition and so you'd lose space.

Hope this helps

 

[unclej]

no, i got lazy because i'm pretty sure that the install instructions said that it would overwrite the existing os..lesson learned.

and he may keep it the way it is..games on the second boot, business on the first. i was asking more for future reference than needing to re-do it. and if he does want it gone it appears to be a pretty straight forward fix. thanks for the input.

 

[Kage]

Well that partition won't go, and you'd still be able to use the drive. It just woudn't have Windows on it, and wouldn't dual boot.

If for tempory reasons you wanted to get rid of the dual boot anyway, go to the Control panel, System, Advanced. Then under Startup And Recovery, choose settings.
Now press Edit to modify the boot structure:

This is an example of a boot structure and what yours will probably be like:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

At the moment it is set to after 30 seconds boot the first partition, which is the first drive (Drive C).
You could just remove the 2nd partition to make it this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP professional" /fastdetect

and you'd be done

 

[unclej]

thanks kage..good info.