Windows XP on both C: and D:. I want only 1.

[Redd Fox]

How do I get rid of Windows XP on my smallest drive, D:?
or that startup menu that says choose a system: Windows
XP or Windows XP? I tried a couple of times with
disasterous results. I wound up having to activate
Windows XP over the internet four times already! My
computer works great now (except for one problem not
related to this). But, when I do a virus scan, it has to
scan those extra files on D:. I just don't need it or
want it but my computer can't seem to live without two.
What a greedy ....! :=)

[R. C. White]

Hi, Redd.

Two simple steps:

1. To get rid of the second copy of WinXP and recover the GB or more of
disk space, just boot into the WinXP on C: and delete D:\Windows, including
all the subdirectories and files.

2. To clean up the C:\boot.ini file and eliminate the opening menu, click
Start | Run and type msconfig.exe into the box and press Enter. Click the
boot.ini tab and then Check All Boot Paths... This should offer to delete
the line that runs WinXP from D:; say yes. Click the General tab before
closing msconfig to make sure that the Normal startup button is still
selected.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"Redd Fox" > wrote in message
...
> How do I get rid of Windows XP on my smallest drive, D:?
> or that startup menu that says choose a system: Windows
> XP or Windows XP? I tried a couple of times with
> disasterous results. I wound up having to activate
> Windows XP over the internet four times already! My
> computer works great now (except for one problem not
> related to this). But, when I do a virus scan, it has to
> scan those extra files on D:. I just don't need it or
> want it but my computer can't seem to live without two.
> What a greedy ....! :=)

[Redd Fox]

Thanks, RC. I'll (shudder) try that out. Whataheck.
MicroSoft should be used to me activating Windows XP by
now. :=)
>-----Original Message-----
>Hi, Redd.
>
>Two simple steps:
>
>1. To get rid of the second copy of WinXP and recover
the GB or more of
>disk space, just boot into the WinXP on C: and delete
D:\Windows, including
>all the subdirectories and files.
>
>2. To clean up the C:\boot.ini file and eliminate the
opening menu, click
>Start | Run and type msconfig.exe into the box and press
Enter. Click the
>boot.ini tab and then Check All Boot Paths... This
should offer to delete
>the line that runs WinXP from D:; say yes. Click the
General tab before
>closing msconfig to make sure that the Normal startup
button is still
>selected.
>
>RC
>--
>R. C. White, CPA
>San Marcos, TX

>Microsoft Windows MVP
>
>"Redd Fox" > wrote in message
...
>> How do I get rid of Windows XP on my smallest drive,
D:?
>> or that startup menu that says choose a system: Windows
>> XP or Windows XP? I tried a couple of times with
>> disasterous results. I wound up having to activate
>> Windows XP over the internet four times already! My
>> computer works great now (except for one problem not
>> related to this). But, when I do a virus scan, it has
to
>> scan those extra files on D:. I just don't need it or
>> want it but my computer can't seem to live without two.
>> What a greedy ....! :=)
>
>
>.
>

[Redd Fox]

It didn't work. msconfig.sys didn't give me an option to
remove D:. Also, I had a problem with deleting Windows
before, when I was stuck on drive D:. After I deleted
everything I could, on the C: drive, my system started
acting quirky. When I went to restart the computer, it
wouldn't let me. It gave me a message saying Windows is
still busy working with files. Yeah, right! I think
those two twins have a thing for each other. :=) That's
cool. Maybe I'll wake up one morning and find a PDA
setting next to my desktop. :=)

I guess I'm going to leave it the way it is. I'll
probably never use all the free space I have on C:; about
32 GB! I just wanted to speed up the anti-virus and make
MicroSoft happy. Well -- ol' Norton didn't complain a
bit over the extra workload and finished in 15 min.s.
MicroSoft can have my extra copy if they can go in and
take it out without being attacked by its twin. :=) I
ain't touching it. I'm afraid C:\Windows is really the
jealous type. :=)

Ah, sometimes I miss the good ol' days of MS DOS and
Debug.exe and writing tight coded programs. :=)
>-----Original Message-----
>Hi, Redd.
>
>Two simple steps:
>
>1. To get rid of the second copy of WinXP and recover
the GB or more of
>disk space, just boot into the WinXP on C: and delete
D:\Windows, including
>all the subdirectories and files.
>
>2. To clean up the C:\boot.ini file and eliminate the
opening menu, click
>Start | Run and type msconfig.exe into the box and press
Enter. Click the
>boot.ini tab and then Check All Boot Paths... This
should offer to delete
>the line that runs WinXP from D:; say yes. Click the
General tab before
>closing msconfig to make sure that the Normal startup
button is still
>selected.
>
>RC
>--
>R. C. White, CPA
>San Marcos, TX

>Microsoft Windows MVP
>
>"Redd Fox" > wrote in message
...
>> How do I get rid of Windows XP on my smallest drive,
D:?
>> or that startup menu that says choose a system: Windows
>> XP or Windows XP? I tried a couple of times with
>> disasterous results. I wound up having to activate
>> Windows XP over the internet four times already! My
>> computer works great now (except for one problem not
>> related to this). But, when I do a virus scan, it has
to
>> scan those extra files on D:. I just don't need it or
>> want it but my computer can't seem to live without two.
>> What a greedy ....! :=)
>
>
>.
>

[R. C. White]

Hi, Redd.

Yeah, I thought I would miss MS-DOS, too, but the "DOS" window emulates
MS-DOS so well that I seldom notice the difference. For my uses, it really
is "a better DOS than DOS". ;<) What I really miss is the REAL Norton
Utilities, like DiskEdit. :>(

If you really want to clean up your system, you need to understand
Microsoft's dual-boot system. It works generally like this, whether you are
running multiple copies of the same Windows version (WinXP+XP) or mixing
versions (Win98+Win2K+WinXP).

Booting starts in the first primary partition of the first HD, almost always
Drive C:, which is the System Partition. This System Partition must contain
the NT-style boot sector, plus the few "system files" (C:\ntldr,
C:\ntdetect.com and C:\boot.ini). The computer's BIOS reads the boot
sector, which loads ntldr, which puts boot.ini's menu onscreen to let you
choose which Windows to boot this time. When you choose (or time expires),
it looks wherever boot.ini points to find x:\Windows (the WinXP "boot
folder"), and ntdetect.com starts loading WinXP from there.

Boot.ini can contain multiple lines under [operating systems], each pointing
to a different boot volume and a boot folder on that volume. Boot.ini does
not use "drive" letters; it refers to physical drives and volumes (primary
partitions and logical drives in extended partitions - what we often
inexactly call "drives") on those HDs. The key part of each line under
[operating systems] is rdisk(#), which refers to the physical drive number,
starting with zero, and partition(#), meaning the volume number, starting
with one on each physical drive. Then there is the boot folder name on that
volume, usually \WINDOWS, except for WinNT and Win2K, which use \WINNT, by
default. (An upgrade, as opposed to a clean install, often inherits the
prior name; that's why my WinXP boot folder is \WinNT, because I upgraded
from Win2K.) After the \WINDOWS is a label in quotes identifying the
Windows version. This label is only for us humans; the computer pays no
attention to it, so we can edit it to say whatever we want. In your case,
you probably should edit one to include "C:" and the other to include "D:"
so YOU can tell them apart; the computer won't notice. After the label may
come some switches, such as /fastdetect, but we won't worry about those
today.

You can look at your own boot.ini in several ways. One is by clicking the
boot.ini tab in msconfig; another is by going to System Properties |
Advanced | Startup and Recovery Settings, and clicking the Edit tab near the
top of the window, which opens C:\boot.ini in Notepad. Msconfig lets you do
limited editing; Notepad lets you edit to your heart's content.

Your C:\boot.ini probably contains two lines under [operating systems],
saying something like:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect

The only difference is the rdisk(#). If I've understood you so far, the
rdisk(0) is your first HD and rdisk(1) is your second. Since each HD has
only a single partition, the one on rdisk(0) is Drive C:, the one on
rdisk(1) is Drive D:. You need to delete the line that refers to rdisk(1);
then boot.ini will no longer offer you a choice when booting. When only a
single choice is available, the opening menu will not appear and the only
option (rdisk(0), Drive C:) will boot with no delay.

Then you still need to delete D:\Windows - including all files and folders -
to reclaim the disk space on D:.

Note that Windows will not obey your order to commit suicide. If you are
booted to D:\Windows, then it will not allow you to delete D:\Windows,
because that's its own Boot Folder. But to C:\Windows, there's nothing
special about D:\Windows, so you can easily delete that one when booted to
C:\Windows. This behavior is not new; even MS-DOS won't delete it's own
Command.com, or format Drive C: unless we boot from a floppy.

> After I deleted
> everything I could, on the C: drive, my system started
> acting quirky. When I went to restart the computer, it
> wouldn't let me.

Depending on just what got deleted, you MAY need to do an in-place upgrade
to make sure that your remaining C:\Windows is "up to snuff". Instructions
are in this KB article:
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q315341

As it says, this is not intended as a time-saver. You'll need to visit
Windows Update as soon as you get back online (with your firewall and
antivirus activated first, of course) to be sure you have SP1 and other
fixes. But it should preserve all your installed applications (except those
you installed while you were booted into D:\Windows) and data - and some of
your tweaks. Plan on about half a day.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"Redd Fox" > wrote in message
...
> It didn't work. msconfig.sys didn't give me an option to
> remove D:. Also, I had a problem with deleting Windows
> before, when I was stuck on drive D:. After I deleted
> everything I could, on the C: drive, my system started
> acting quirky. When I went to restart the computer, it
> wouldn't let me. It gave me a message saying Windows is
> still busy working with files. Yeah, right! I think
> those two twins have a thing for each other. :=) That's
> cool. Maybe I'll wake up one morning and find a PDA
> setting next to my desktop. :=)
>
> I guess I'm going to leave it the way it is. I'll
> probably never use all the free space I have on C:; about
> 32 GB! I just wanted to speed up the anti-virus and make
> MicroSoft happy. Well -- ol' Norton didn't complain a
> bit over the extra workload and finished in 15 min.s.
> MicroSoft can have my extra copy if they can go in and
> take it out without being attacked by its twin. :=) I
> ain't touching it. I'm afraid C:\Windows is really the
> jealous type. :=)
>
> Ah, sometimes I miss the good ol' days of MS DOS and
> Debug.exe and writing tight coded programs. :=)
> >-----Original Message-----
> >Hi, Redd.
> >
> >Two simple steps:
> >
> >1. To get rid of the second copy of WinXP and recover
> the GB or more of
> >disk space, just boot into the WinXP on C: and delete
> D:\Windows, including
> >all the subdirectories and files.
> >
> >2. To clean up the C:\boot.ini file and eliminate the
> opening menu, click
> >Start | Run and type msconfig.exe into the box and press
> Enter. Click the
> >boot.ini tab and then Check All Boot Paths... This
> should offer to delete
> >the line that runs WinXP from D:; say yes. Click the
> General tab before
> >closing msconfig to make sure that the Normal startup
> button is still
> >selected.
> >
> >RC
> >
> >"Redd Fox" > wrote in message
> ...
> >> How do I get rid of Windows XP on my smallest drive,
> D:?
> >> or that startup menu that says choose a system: Windows
> >> XP or Windows XP? I tried a couple of times with
> >> disasterous results. I wound up having to activate
> >> Windows XP over the internet four times already! My
> >> computer works great now (except for one problem not
> >> related to this). But, when I do a virus scan, it has
> to
> >> scan those extra files on D:. I just don't need it or
> >> want it but my computer can't seem to live without two.
> >> What a greedy ....! :=)

[Redd Fox]

Thanks for the info. There's a guy named
rick/"nutcase"/rogers here who told me just what you told
me. So, I felt a little more confident and deleted
everything on D: except pgefile.sys. Then I edited
boot.ini from the System folder in Control panel. It all
took a couple of minutes. Now everything is working
great (except for my lost multimedia audio controller.
That's my next project).

All this was over a virus. At the time, Norton couldn't
fix it so I went and bought Wndows XP because I was
notified that the virus was in my restore files and my
backup partition which was in D:. I hadn't made a backup
CD yet so I figured I was in big trouble. I think those
virus creators should be imprisoned for life on an island
with no electricity.

>-----Original Message-----
>Hi, Redd.
>
>Yeah, I thought I would miss MS-DOS, too, but the "DOS"
window emulates
>MS-DOS so well that I seldom notice the difference. For
my uses, it really
>is "a better DOS than DOS". ;<) What I really miss is
the REAL Norton
>Utilities, like DiskEdit. :>(
>
>If you really want to clean up your system, you need to
understand
>Microsoft's dual-boot system. It works generally like
this, whether you are
>running multiple copies of the same Windows version
(WinXP+XP) or mixing
>versions (Win98+Win2K+WinXP).
>
>Booting starts in the first primary partition of the
first HD, almost always
>Drive C:, which is the System Partition. This System
Partition must contain
>the NT-style boot sector, plus the few "system files"
(C:\ntldr,
>C:\ntdetect.com and C:\boot.ini). The computer's BIOS
reads the boot
>sector, which loads ntldr, which puts boot.ini's menu
onscreen to let you
>choose which Windows to boot this time. When you choose
(or time expires),
>it looks wherever boot.ini points to find x:\Windows
(the WinXP "boot
>folder"), and ntdetect.com starts loading WinXP from
there.
>
>Boot.ini can contain multiple lines under [operating
systems], each pointing
>to a different boot volume and a boot folder on that
volume. Boot.ini does
>not use "drive" letters; it refers to physical drives
and volumes (primary
>partitions and logical drives in extended partitions -
what we often
>inexactly call "drives") on those HDs. The key part of
each line under
>[operating systems] is rdisk(#), which refers to the
physical drive number,
>starting with zero, and partition(#), meaning the volume
number, starting
>with one on each physical drive. Then there is the boot
folder name on that
>volume, usually \WINDOWS, except for WinNT and Win2K,
which use \WINNT, by
>default. (An upgrade, as opposed to a clean install,
often inherits the
>prior name; that's why my WinXP boot folder is \WinNT,
because I upgraded
>from Win2K.) After the \WINDOWS is a label in quotes
identifying the
>Windows version. This label is only for us humans; the
computer pays no
>attention to it, so we can edit it to say whatever we
want. In your case,
>you probably should edit one to include "C:" and the
other to include "D:"
>so YOU can tell them apart; the computer won't notice.
After the label may
>come some switches, such as /fastdetect, but we won't
worry about those
>today.
>
>You can look at your own boot.ini in several ways. One
is by clicking the
>boot.ini tab in msconfig; another is by going to System
Properties |
>Advanced | Startup and Recovery Settings, and clicking
the Edit tab near the
>top of the window, which opens C:\boot.ini in Notepad.
Msconfig lets you do
>limited editing; Notepad lets you edit to your heart's
content.
>
>Your C:\boot.ini probably contains two lines under
[operating systems],
>saying something like:
>multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional"
>/fastdetect
>multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP
Professional"
>/fastdetect
>
>The only difference is the rdisk(#). If I've understood
you so far, the
>rdisk(0) is your first HD and rdisk(1) is your second.
Since each HD has
>only a single partition, the one on rdisk(0) is Drive
C:, the one on
>rdisk(1) is Drive D:. You need to delete the line that
refers to rdisk(1);
>then boot.ini will no longer offer you a choice when
booting. When only a
>single choice is available, the opening menu will not
appear and the only
>option (rdisk(0), Drive C:) will boot with no delay.
>
>Then you still need to delete D:\Windows - including all
files and folders -
>to reclaim the disk space on D:.
>
>Note that Windows will not obey your order to commit
suicide. If you are
>booted to D:\Windows, then it will not allow you to
delete D:\Windows,
>because that's its own Boot Folder. But to C:\Windows,
there's nothing
>special about D:\Windows, so you can easily delete that
one when booted to
>C:\Windows. This behavior is not new; even MS-DOS won't
delete it's own
>Command.com, or format Drive C: unless we boot from a
floppy.
>
>> After I deleted
>> everything I could, on the C: drive, my system started
>> acting quirky. When I went to restart the computer, it
>> wouldn't let me.
>
>Depending on just what got deleted, you MAY need to do
an in-place upgrade
>to make sure that your remaining C:\Windows is "up to
snuff". Instructions
>are in this KB article:
>How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of
Windows XP
>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-
us;q315341
>
>As it says, this is not intended as a time-saver.
You'll need to visit
>Windows Update as soon as you get back online (with your
firewall and
>antivirus activated first, of course) to be sure you
have SP1 and other
>fixes. But it should preserve all your installed
applications (except those
>you installed while you were booted into D:\Windows) and
data - and some of
>your tweaks. Plan on about half a day.
>
>RC
>--
>R. C. White, CPA
>San Marcos, TX

>Microsoft Windows MVP
>
>"Redd Fox" > wrote in message
...
>> It didn't work. msconfig.sys didn't give me an option
to
>> remove D:. Also, I had a problem with deleting Windows
>> before, when I was stuck on drive D:. After I deleted
>> everything I could, on the C: drive, my system started
>> acting quirky. When I went to restart the computer, it
>> wouldn't let me. It gave me a message saying Windows
is
>> still busy working with files. Yeah, right! I think
>> those two twins have a thing for each other. :=)
That's
>> cool. Maybe I'll wake up one morning and find a PDA
>> setting next to my desktop. :=)
>>
>> I guess I'm going to leave it the way it is. I'll
>> probably never use all the free space I have on C:;
about
>> 32 GB! I just wanted to speed up the anti-virus and
make
>> MicroSoft happy. Well -- ol' Norton didn't complain a
>> bit over the extra workload and finished in 15 min.s.
>> MicroSoft can have my extra copy if they can go in and
>> take it out without being attacked by its twin. :=) I
>> ain't touching it. I'm afraid C:\Windows is really the
>> jealous type. :=)
>>
>> Ah, sometimes I miss the good ol' days of MS DOS and
>> Debug.exe and writing tight coded programs. :=)
>> >-----Original Message-----
>> >Hi, Redd.
>> >
>> >Two simple steps:
>> >
>> >1. To get rid of the second copy of WinXP and recover
>> the GB or more of
>> >disk space, just boot into the WinXP on C: and delete
>> D:\Windows, including
>> >all the subdirectories and files.
>> >
>> >2. To clean up the C:\boot.ini file and eliminate the
>> opening menu, click
>> >Start | Run and type msconfig.exe into the box and
press
>> Enter. Click the
>> >boot.ini tab and then Check All Boot Paths... This
>> should offer to delete
>> >the line that runs WinXP from D:; say yes. Click the
>> General tab before
>> >closing msconfig to make sure that the Normal startup
>> button is still
>> >selected.
>> >
>> >RC
>> >
>> >"Redd Fox" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> >> How do I get rid of Windows XP on my smallest drive,
>> D:?
>> >> or that startup menu that says choose a system:
Windows
>> >> XP or Windows XP? I tried a couple of times with
>> >> disasterous results. I wound up having to activate
>> >> Windows XP over the internet four times already! My
>> >> computer works great now (except for one problem not
>> >> related to this). But, when I do a virus scan, it
has
>> to
>> >> scan those extra files on D:. I just don't need it
or
>> >> want it but my computer can't seem to live without
two.
>> >> What a greedy ....! :=)
>
>
>.
>