Computer and Software Support


How to remove a second installation of a Windows operating system from a partition

This is copied from Microsoft

Article ID : 888023
Last Review : November 9, 2004
Revision : 1.0
 

INTRODUCTION

This article describes how to remove a second installation of a Microsoft Windows operating system from a partition that is on your hard disk drive.

MORE INFORMATION

When you have determined that a second Windows folder exists on the same partition as your "working" Windows folder, follow these steps to remove the folder from the partition and to remove the startup selection when you start your computer.

Note Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

 

  1. Start the Windows operating system that you want to keep.
  2. To determine the Windows folder that you want to keep do the following
  3. Access Run or Search window
  4. Type %windir%
  5. Click on OK
   
  • Remember the filter that is opened. For example, the folder may be C:\Windows Note: This is your “working” Windows folder. Do not delete or remove this folder from the partition.
  • Open Windows Explorer.
  • Find the Windows folder that you want to remove. IMPORTANT Make sure that this is not the folder that you identified as your “working” Windows folder in step 2.
  • Right click the Windows folder that you want to remove
  • Click on Delete
  • Click on Yes to confirm the deletion of the folder.
  • Click Start
  • Right click My Computer
  • Click on Properties.
  • Click on the Advanced tab
  • Under Startup and Recovery, click on Settings
  • Under System startup, click on edit to modify the Boot.ini (will open in Notepad) Should look like Diagram A below.
  • Click on File
  • Click on Save As
  • Name it Boot.old (this way you will have a backup file in case of an error)
  • Click on OK
    •    
  • Click File
  • Click Exit
  • In the Startup and Recovery dialog box, under System startup, click Edit to reopen the Boot.ini file.
  • In the [boot loader] section of the Boot.ini file, identify and then delete the line of text for the Windows operating system that you want to remove. For example, if the Windows folder that you removed in step 4 was for the Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition operating system, remove the following line of text from the Boot.ini file: “multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0-“Microsoft Windows XP Home” /fastdetect”
  • Click File
  • Click Save
  • Click File
  • Click Exit
  • Click on OK
    •    
  • Restart the computer

    •  

    [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 Professional"
    /fastdetect
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Home"
    /fastdetect

    Diagram A

    APPLIES TO