Hi All, I reinstalled Windows XP on my machine but decided not to format, so I now have a dual boot with 2 versions of Windows XP on my machine. How do I remove the old Windows XP completely from my machine ? Any help is much appreciated.
You can fix it by using EasyBCD or with a BCD editor tool. You can find EasyBCD here http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/ . Another solution would be to use the msconfig command then you can delete one of the operating systems under the boot tab.
That would remove it from the boot screen, however I need to remove the system files as well. Is there anyway of totally removing the old windows xp ?
You can by removing the partition it was installed on by using disk management. The other option is to format and start with a fresh install, but we both know how much of a pain that is. Hey check this link out when you get a chance http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/210983-dual-boot-delete-os.html .
1st & This is the best option - reinstall by wiping whole drive & start again,then create system images as you add software & updates,then you'll have recovery images if later on you get virus or hardware failure. (never install two copies of xp on any computer by using the same serial key this will bring up flags at microsoft,luckily for you if it was beside the original you should be ok,just remember you DON'T have a finite amount of activations except on retail bought discs) BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANY CHANGES IN THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS CREATE PARTITION CLONE IMAGES & STORE THEM ON ANOTHER HDD,ALSO CREATE SYSTEM IMAGES BY BOOTING INTO TO EACH XP Assuming all xp's are on same hdd & xp that you want to keep is after the other,for easier understanding lets call xp you want to keep No2 2nd option - assuming xp No2 is on a primary partition it is possible to manually reconfigure the boot.ini to make it think it's on partition 1,then create a system image & recover it to where No1 XP was 3rd option is the worst & can take hours - Things will get real muddy now if you want to start moving partitions,so that XP No2 gets placed in place of XP No1 & after x amount of time assuming all went well it still may not boot change boot.ini so that XP No 2 is now identical to XP No1 Yours at the moment looks something like this [boot loader] timeout=5 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP No1" /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP No2" /fastdetect Note the text line below timeout = 5 this denotes default boot OS if none is selected when boot menu appears,so it boots to XP No2 if however you remove XP No 1 from the actual hdd & move XP No 2 in it's place,XP No 2 no longer resides on partition 2 it is now on partition 1,so change boot.ini to reflect this,since XP No 1 has been removed from the physical hdd there's no need to have XP No1 in the boot menu (boot.ini),so remove it like so [boot loader] timeout=5 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP No2" /fastdetect easeus todo backup v5.5,DO NOT UPDATE IT you will loose medium compression option in later versions https://mega.co.nz/#!sNlCBSTK!Hi2hMDgYerp0wPOBYFAhCXMlxXDj0WujzfQ2VQmQvVg minitool & easeus have free for personal use partition software you can use to move partitions,however like i said in option 1 reinstall is better
You should be able to go into msconfig and remove the dual boot. To delete the old installation all you have to do is find them and delete them.
