uninstall underlying OS

i have win 98 installed underneath xp. how do i get rid of it without affecting my xp setup at all?

 

can you be more specific. was this a pc with windows 98 that you used a windows XP upgrade cd on or did you just install windows XP to a different directory..

 

pc with win 98 on. then over-written with xp. then put 98 back on 'underneath' cos xp wasnt working well at the time. xp is now fine.

 

bump... erm help!?

 

*had win 98
*then installed xp with the CD so 98 wasnt there anymore
*then was havin problems with xp so reinstalled 98
*now wen i switch on i get a screen where i choose to either access win xp or win 98 (2 operating systems)
*i now want rid of 98

hope this helps?

 

Does 98 boot?

We need to know this.

 

sorry to be such a novice but what does 'boot' actually mean??

 

If you select windows 98 from the menu, does it load up?

 

sorry yeah it does. just as normal as if it were your only OS

 

Ok.

In XP: Go to start, run and type:

C:\boot.ini

Click ok.

Copy and Paste what it says here.

 

[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="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"

 

That boot.ini doesn't make sense.

You sure you got the whole thing?

There is no bootsect.dos loading in it, and there is no way for the boot.ini to hand off control to 98.

 

ok just tried it again and that is what comes up in its entirety!?

also just been onto the win 98 OS and everything is as it was when re-installed, except drive C which is exactly the same as it is on XP.

ie. when i change something in drive C in XP OS 'mode' it changes in win 98 aswell.

 

Ok, in windows 98, go to start, run, and type:

%systemroot%

Click OK.

What is the name of the folder that opens?

 

ok, it came up with the message 'cannot find file (or one of its components)'

!??

 

Ok...guess thats an NT only command. I hate 9x OSes

Well, the trick is to find what folder 98 is installed to.

So...

 

Do a search for systray.exe.

Find out where precisely its located.

 

ok....

systray.exe C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32
SYSTRAY.EXE C:\WINDOWS.000\SYSTEM

 

Wow, how did you get win98 to run on NTFS in the first place? What is that boot.ini file telling the computer to do because of your changes? If I am understanding this you are trying to reconfigure the boot,ini to only boot to xp? What happens to all of the WIn98 files? how can you nail jello to the wall and who is beckham.......... talk to me goose!

 

Delete the folder Windows.000

See if you can boot into 98.

If you can't, let us know.

We'll remove the remaining stuff then.

 

The drive has to be fat32, not NTFS.

 

ok but you assure me i wont lose anything (ie. hard disk files etc..) by deleting Windows.000 ???

 

... it contains 231 items

 

rename it if you feel uncomfortable. then delete it if you feel ok with it.

Then test it again (see if 98 boots).

This is the Windows 98 directory.

 

OHh so none of the winXP security stuff will work. Would it not be better to just reinstall XP on an NTFS partition than to get rid of win98.

 

ok well will it??

i renamed windows.000 and it will no longer boot.

 

the drive is FAT32 by the way.

 

Remove the bold line below from the boot.ini.

[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="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"


Do it from System Properties, Advanced Tab, Startup and Recovery Settings, Edit button.

You can delete the windows.000 folder, it wont hurt anything, but if you are concerned data is in there, then don't.

It won't hurt the system to delete it.

If you find a bootsect.dos file on C:\ delete it too.

 

How many homne users do you know that use the security in NTFS as it is?

Why not convert instead of formatting, if you are doing it soley for security reasons?

 

Only the NTFS stuff is not available.

Well if he doesn't want to dual boot anymore, then XP on NTFS is better than XP on FAT32. There are a couple of ways to do that. One would be a format/reinstall and the other would be using the convert command in XP.

Sounds like he just wants to be rid of 98 so Adryn's course of action is the least hassle for him.

 

yep done what adryn said now. anything else i need to do to complete this/wrap this up?
i have a file in C drive called 'win98' that contains files like 'tour' and 'DRIVER12.CAB'

delete that too?

 

yes.

 

ok so is any folder ending in '.000' related to win98. can i delete 'documents and settings.000' too??

 

Wait--just the windows.000 was related to 98.

 

As for Documents and Settings.000, you need to find out which is in use.

Go to start, right click on My Documents and choose properties.

What does the target say?

 

C:\Documents and Settings\Mr my surname \My Documents

C contains 'Documents and Settings' and 'Documents and Settings.000'

The latter contains nothing actually.

 

You can get rid of Documents and Srttings.000 if you have no data in there you care to lose.

 

ok so are we done with this, nothing else needs doing?

 

Not really

 

How about a reboot just to check things are kosher?

 

hi guys, thanx for all your help on this. things were kosher after a reboot. did a de-frag and here is a line from the log:

Fragments File Size Files that cannot be defragmented
6 106 MB \W98UNDO.DAT

should i/can i simply delete this??

 

...that is:

fragements = 6
file size = 106MB
files that cannot be defragmented = C:\W98UNDO.DAT

 

I believe that's a win 98 uninstall file. I'd nuke it. You might need to remove the read-only, hidden, and system attributes first if there.

 

any chance of a step by step to doing that?

 

1st try to delete it.

If Windows complains, right-click file, properties, uncheck the attributes, then delete. If windows still complains boot to Safe Mode and delete it.

 

ok i can't find the file??

de-frag had it as, C:\W98UNDO.DAT

 

Control Panel > Folder Options > View

Select 'Show hidden files...'
Unselect 'Hide file extensions...'
Unselect 'Hide protected operating system...'

 

okay thanx alanc. i have another problem though.

before i 'upgraded' from win98 to XP i had kazaa installed which gave me 360 'files' infected with the virus, W32.Netsky.B@mm

now, whenever i run a norton virus scan it identifies these files and tells me they are contained within the file, C:\undo\backup.cab

norton repair, quarantine and delete all fail on them.

i was wondering how i can manually get rid of them and if it is safe to do so??

 

That's an XP uninstall file. From this link:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=308008