delete dual boot

[martin14041]

Here is my problem: I first installed Windows XP (in NTSF) in dual boot with windows 98 SE. I liked it so I decided to replace windows 98 SE with it, but not knowing at the time how to remove XP I had installed in dual boot, I left it there and installed XP over 98 SE. So now I have the choice when I boot of 2 windows XP, obviously I want to remove the first one I installed (the one formatted in NTFS), but HOW??

I know I should be doing something to the boot.ini file but there is no boot.ini file on the system, I can only see what is written in it with msconfig.exe.

Anyone knows how to delete XP in dual boot, please help.

**XP is installed on two partition, at first on "G" I installed it, then on my "C" over windows 98 SE. Also, I have the option to see all file on, only boot file available is boot.ini.backup. I did a search (with all hiden file option "ON") and no boot.ini file.

 

[Lonman]

Are you saying you have XP installed on two partitions?

boot.ini is a hidden file so you'll need to open Windows Explorer> go to the "Tools" pull-down menu> Folder Options> View> select "show hidden files and folders." boot.ini will be in the root directory of your main boot partition.

If you have it installed on two partitions then you may need to do an fdisk to eliminate the NTFS volume (if it's on your primary partition) or format the partition to Fat32 (if it's in the extended, logical partition). Let us know how you get on.

 

[Lonman]

Ok, go to Control Panel> System> "Advanced" tab> "Starup and Recovery" settings button> right at the top is your bootloader settings, you can use this to stop using boot.ini altogether.

After you've turned on the option to show hidden files and folders, open Windows Explorer, highlight your C:\ drive. You should be able to see your boot.ini there. If not, also untick the "Hide Protected Operating System Files" box in the View folders options (just below the other option you checked earlier).

When you're satisfied that you're booting to C:\, you can just format your G:\ Drive back to Fat32.

 

[martin14041]

I got a big scare just a few moment ago but I was able to restart the computer in XP. This is what happened...

I did like Lonman suggested (thanks for the tip on this one!), went to system/advance tab, and deactivated the boot.ini (the 30 sec and the option below it). Then I booted with a windows 98 diskette (my windows XP diskette won't work, I get the message cannot load biosinfo.??? file), so anyway, I boot in dos, do Fdisk and delete the partition (G) with the first Xp installed on it. So I reboot and get the message that cannot start XP cause the file hal.dll is missing at root windows/system32/hal.dll. So I taught I was screwed, fortunately I had a Partition Magic emergency diskette, so I was able to use Partition Magic to format G in fat 32. So now when I boot and I look at the partition G info, it is in FAT32 (hidden), and I can see that there is nothing on G but it seems if I try to delete or move that partition, I will get the "cannot find hal.dll file" error message at boot.

So now the G drive is not visible anymore when I boot with the second Windows XP I installed, but I don't think I will be able to reallocate the free space on my drive to C...
What to do, what to do

 

[Lonman]

You should be able to get your unallocated space back with Partition magic. I'm really not sure about what fdisk did when you deleted your partition, but hopefully partition magic will pick it all up and add it to your main volume. No guarantees though. I only like using fdisk when i know it's okay to redo the whole drive. If i have data i don't want to lose, anywhere on the drive, i'll either back it all up and use fdisk, or use partition magic to do what i want done.

 

[martin14041]

This is what I think happened:
Once I deleted the partition G (it was the first partition on my hard drive), the the boot.ini file didn't make sens anymore cause of this: (actual boo.ini file below)


[boot loader]
timeout =0
default = multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft Windows XP ?dition familiale" /fastdetect
[any text]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft Windows XP ?dition familiale" /fastdetect


So, the system try to load what was on the partition 2 (partition 1 now gone, partition 2 is now 1 and partition 3 (my d drive) is now 2), i.e. nothing. This is probably why it wouldn't load. As soon as I reformatted my old G in fat 32, things were OK, windows XP was back on partition 2.

Still not sure what to do. I was thinking of changing the boot.ini file so that the default operating system is on partition 1, then delete the old G partition, I think I will wait for more tips.

 

[Lonman]

Might be a good time to redo the whole shootin' match with a clean installation?? Starting from scratch has it's bennies, it will eliminate a lot of doubt about future problems for one thing. Just a suggestion.

 

[martin14041]

Finally was able to delete the partition where my first Windows XP was installed. After modifying the boot.ini file so that the system loads XP on the first partition, I deleted the G and rebooted. Thing were a little weird at first, and I got a "blue screen of death" (the XP equivalent actually), telling me that it shut off my hard drive because of some problem. Anyway I tried to reboot and the motherboard wouldn't recogn. the hard drive. I turned the power off (with the power supply switch) and when I rebooted, it was OK. And the boot.ini file corrected itself, I had the option to boot in only one O/s, but I had a file missing so I reinstalled Xp (I used the repair option) and with partition magic, was able to redistribute the free space (my old G drive) to the C. So now it works just fine thank you!