deleting multiple os?

just delete the files and edit the boot.ini file to only have c:\ as a boot option (assuming you are running windows). If you are using a boot loader you need to wipe out the mbr and rebuild it.
 
how do i edit the boot.ini file? and what exact files do i need to delete? sorry i just dont want to make another mistake :)
 
give us the full info on your rig's set up. What OSes are installed and how did you install them? I take it you want to make sure there is no data loss? Can the other HD just be wiped and formatted or is there data on there?
 
there are two xp pro's installed, one on drive C, that has just about all my important data, and one on drive E, that doesn't really have too much data on it. it only has my music downloads, and a couple movies so i guess i could just reformat it. if i transfer that data to my C drive, should i just reformat it? will that fix the boot problem, will i no longer see both copies of xp when i boot?
 
What OS are you running on the primary? If you are running XP and have a full install disk for it generally that would be the alternate method other then using the disk management tool found in "Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management". There you double click on the disk management link to open a screen showing the drives detected on the system.

One more or less universal tool for deleting existing partitions on any drive as well as being able to create new ones is the Linux tool known as the Gnome Partition Editor. While XP if that is OS run has it's own disk management tool in the control panel and tools found in the installer when booting up from that I manage to keep a copy or two of the GParted Live for cd lying around for multi OSing drives here.
 
PC eye said:
What OS are you running on the primary? If you are running XP and have a full install disk for it generally that would be the alternate method other then using the disk management tool found in "Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management". There you double click on the disk management link to open a screen showing the drives detected on the system.

One more or less universal tool for deleting existing partitions on any drive as well as being able to create new ones is the Linux tool known as the Gnome Partition Editor. While XP if that is OS run has it's own disk management tool in the control panel and tools found in the installer when booting up from that I manage to keep a copy or two of the GParted Live for cd lying around for multi OSing drives here.
Click to expand...
im running the same os as the primary os too. i acutally installed them both from the same disk. i remember messing with this when i partitioned my hard drive a couple months ago. i dont have that partition software you mentioned, but reformatting should pose a problem. if i right click my ( E: ) in the disk management, it has a button that says "format." should i save what i need and just reformat the E drive? and will this delete everything the last os install actually installed? (including the boot sequence)
 
If you installed XP twice while both drives were plugged in that will mean your mbr will have had changes depending on which installation went first. If you installed to the second drive after the first you can edit the boot.ini file to remove the single entry made there with notepad. You first have to right click on the boot.ini to uncheck the read only and click apply there and then edit that with notepad and choose the save as under the identical name.

The disk management tool is easy enough by referring to the help section under disk management. The following instructions are found there under the contents directory's help topic to explain the method.

To delete a partition or logical drive
Using the Windows interface
  1. Open Computer Management (Local).
  2. In the console tree, click Disk Management. Where?
    • Computer Management (Local)
    • Storage
    • Disk Management
  3. Right-click the partition, logical drive, or volume you want to delete, and then click Delete Partition.
important.gif
Important
  • When you delete a partition, all data on that deleted partition or logical drive is lost.
  • You cannot recover deleted partitions or logical drives.
note.gif
Notes
  • To open Computer Management, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management.
  • You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings might also prevent you from completing this procedure.
  • You cannot delete the system volume, boot volume, or any volume that contains the active paging file or crash dump (memory dump).
  • You cannot delete an extended partition unless the extended partition is empty. All the logical drives in an extended partition be deleted before you can delete the extended partition.
Using a command line
  1. Open Command Prompt.
  2. Type: diskpart
  3. At the DISKPART prompt, type: list disk
    Make note of the disk number of the disk from which you want to delete the partition.
  4. At the DISKPART prompt, type: select disk n
    Select the disk n from which you want to delete the partition.
  5. At the DISKPART prompt, type: list partition
    Make note of the number of the partition that you want to delete.
  6. At the DISKPART prompt, type: select partition n
    Select the partition n that you want to delete.
  7. At the DISKPART prompt, type: delete partition
important.gif
Important
  • When you delete a partition, all data on that deleted partition or logical drive is lost.
  • You cannot recover deleted partitions or logical drives.
ValueDescriptionlist diskDisplays a list of disks and information about them, such as their size, amount of available free space, whether the disk is a basic disk, and whether the disk uses the master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition style. The disk marked with an asterisk (*) has focus.select diskSelects the specified disk, where n is the disk number, and shifts the focus to it.list partitionDisplays the partitions listed in the partition table of the current disk.select partition nSelects the specified partition and gives it focus. If no partition is specified, the select command lists the current partition with focus.delete partitionOn a basic disk, deletes the partition with focus. You cannot delete the system partition, boot partition, or any partition that contains the active paging file or crash dump (memory dump).
note.gif
Notes
  • To open a command prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
  • You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings might also prevent you from completing this procedure.
  • You cannot delete the system volume, boot volume, or any volume that contains the active paging file or crash dump (memory dump).
  • You cannot delete an extended partition unless the extended partition is empty. All the logical drives in an extended partition be deleted before you can delete the extended partition.
  • You cannot delete partitions on removable media using DiskPart.
  • For more information about DiskPart, click Related Topics.
Related Topics
 
ok quick question in modifying the boot.ini file. which one should i delete? i'm not sure, these are the 2 that come up:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

and when i delete it, i just save the notepad under the same title right?
 
.::DuD3::. said:
there are two xp pro's installed, one on drive C, that has just about all my important data, and one on drive E, that doesn't really have too much data on it. it only has my music downloads, and a couple movies so i guess i could just reformat it. if i transfer that data to my C drive, should i just reformat it? will that fix the boot problem, will i no longer see both copies of xp when i boot?
Click to expand...

That will get rid of it, you still need to rebuild the boot.ini file. You can right click on my computer and go to properties, then click the advanced tab, then click the start up and recovery button, then click the button that says edit booting manually. this will open up the boot.ini file, and by default it should look like this:
Code: 
[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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Simply delete the lines containing the second install, save and reboot, should fix the problem. If now we can rebuild it from the command line but you have to boot into recovery console.
 
[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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

The above is how the default boot.ini file should look like. The view below is how is it looks when editing from the second drive here where you substitute XP Home for XP Professional.

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

Note thet "Disk #0" seen as "rdisk(0)" refers to the default installation even though that is on the second drive. "(0)" is the drive that installation is on. Even though the installation is XP Pro the primary XP Home still loads as default from the second drive. For your default primary notice the change of order as well as the "(0)" instead of "(1)" following the "rdisk" which represents read from disk. Unfortunately you copy and paste here the "S" on Windows becomes "WINDOW S".
 
tlarkin said:
That will get rid of it, you still need to rebuild the boot.ini file. You can right click on my computer and go to properties, then click the advanced tab, then click the start up and recovery button, then click the button that says edit booting manually. this will open up the boot.ini file, and by default it should look like this:
Code: 
[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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Simply delete the lines containing the second install, save and reboot, should fix the problem. If now we can rebuild it from the command line but you have to boot into recovery console.
Click to expand...
yeah i just tried deleting the second one, but it sent me straight to the new copy of xp pro that was installed earlier. i think i need to delete the partition(2) right? because i deleted the partition(1) and it sent me to the wrong os.
PC eye said:
[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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

The above is how the default boot.ini file should look like. The view below is how is it looks when editing from the second drive here where you substitute XP Home for XP Professional.

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

Note thet "Disk #0" seen as "rdisk(0)" refers to the default installation even though that is on the second drive. "(0)" is the drive that installation is on. Even though the installation is XP Pro the primary XP Home still loads as default from the second drive. For your default primary notice the change of order as well as the "(0)" instead of "(1)" following the "rdisk" which represents read from disk. Unfortunately you copy and paste here the "S" on Windows becomes "WINDOW S".
Click to expand...
the only thing is they are both xp professional. im sorry if i didn't make it clear earlier. but if i delete the partition(2) in the boot.ini file, that should load to the right copy right? and should i correct the boot.ini file THEN delete the E: partition, or should i delete the E: then the boot.ini file (or does it matter). im sorry if im beating this to death, but i appreciate all the help :D
 
dude

ya it goes in chronological order, meaning the first installation is 1, 2nd is 2, etc.

The problem is, is there is a whole other registry on your second drive, once you get the boot loader fixed, back up data and nuke that drive.
 
tlarkin said:
dude

ya it goes in chronological order, meaning the first installation is 1, 2nd is 2, etc.

The problem is, is there is a whole other registry on your second drive, once you get the boot loader fixed, back up data and nuke that drive.
Click to expand...
lol thanks man, i appreciate it. im going to drop an atomic bomb on that drive :D
 
ok 1 last question i promise. i corrected the boot.ini file, but when i rebooted it still loaded with that page and i could choose from:
windows xp professional
windows default
now is it doing this only because i haven't deleted the copy of windows yet?
and when i go to delete the E: partition (the partition that has the windows that i want to delete) i get a warning saying that it is still in use, and that i can force the deletion of the partition. But it says "WARNING: Forcing a deletion might cause unexpected errors in the application that is using this partition." do i want to still force the deletion of the partition?
 
are you saving the config file after modifying it? Also in that system properties menu you must make sure you select the default OS, its the same menu you hit the edit button on to edit the bootni file.
 
tlarkin said:
are you saving the config file after modifying it? Also in that system properties menu you must make sure you select the default OS, its the same menu you hit the edit button on to edit the bootni file.
Click to expand...
dang it, i found one number that was wrong, fixed it, and it should reboot fine now.

but should i go ahead and force the deletion of the partition?
 
PC eye said:
The above is how the default boot.ini file should look like. The view below is how is it looks when editing from the second drive here where you substitute XP Home for XP Professional.
Click to expand...

.::DuD3::. said:
the only thing is they are both xp professional. im sorry if i didn't make it clear earlier. but if i delete the partition(2) in the boot.ini file, that should load to the right copy right? and should i correct the boot.ini file THEN delete the E: partition, or should i delete the E: then the boot.ini file (or does it matter). im sorry if im beating this to death, but i appreciate all the help :D
Click to expand...

Apparently you are since you only read part of the previous post. The only boot.ini file you should be concerned with is the one found on the C drive which would be the primary that you will continue running. But the inclusion in the previous post was to show why you are seeing two listings for XP Pro while already having edited the one on the primary.

You are still loading off the second drive since that installation was done while the primary was still plugged in. The primary's mbr was effected as seen in the 2nd's drive's copy of the boot.ini file here. But once you have the primary's boot.ini file corrected as the default should look vaporize E to see the default returned to the primary.
 
PC eye said:
Apparently you are since you only read part of the previous post. The only boot.ini file you should be concerned with is the one found on the C drive which would be the primary that you will continue running. But the inclusion in the previous post was to show why you are seeing two listings for XP Pro while already having edited the one on the primary.

You are still loading off the second drive since that installation was done while the primary was still plugged in. The primary's mbr was effected as seen in the 2nd's drive's copy of the boot.ini file here. But once you have the primary's boot.ini file corrected as the default should look vaporize E to see the default returned to the primary.
Click to expand...
ohhhh ok i see. i think everything is fixed now. boots are perfect and i just fixed the E: partition. i greatly appreciate all the help :)
 
You can modify the boot.ini at any time for various reasons. Here I lowered the default load from 30 to 5 seconds to see the default load faster. When going to load Pro I can quickly move to that to see that installation load. Either selected will see Windows load faster with the boot time reduced. :D
 
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