HELP PLZ, Two Operating systems on same hard disk!!!
Saturday, August 16, 2003 by alp65 | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Hi, I have 2 operating systems on my pc, one of them is a busted down one that doesnt work, how do I delete it totally and get it off the selection window, it keeps choosing it as default and the operating system that is we want to delete totally is taking up space on the c drive but we cant find any files, can someone please tell me how to completely delete the other operating system,
Thanks
Alp
Thanks
Alp
Apocalypse_67
Reply #2 Saturday, August 16, 2003 2:08 PM
Reply #2 Saturday, August 16, 2003 2:08 PM
If you have the OS in 2 different partitions of the hard disk, try deleting the entire partition that has the OS you dont want.
But as Phoon said, I think you'll be better off making a back up of your programs and important files and format the entire disk and start from scratch.
But as Phoon said, I think you'll be better off making a back up of your programs and important files and format the entire disk and start from scratch.
Phoon
Reply #3 Saturday, August 16, 2003 2:29 PM
Reply #3 Saturday, August 16, 2003 2:29 PM
The problem with wiping out just the "evil" partition is that the MBR of the hard drive is written to by the other os I believe...I THINK you would have to get that little detail out of the way too.
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #4 Saturday, August 16, 2003 2:32 PM
Reply #4 Saturday, August 16, 2003 2:32 PM
Partition magic is great and simple to use.It will delete the partition and allow you to redistribute the space again.
hashonboat
Reply #5 Saturday, August 16, 2003 5:02 PM
Reply #5 Saturday, August 16, 2003 5:02 PM
alp65 I had written solutions for different scenarios for you but my window refreshed and my fingers are tired.
What os's do you have installed?
On which partitions are they installed?
which one was installed 1st and which 2nd?
And which one do you not want?
This info is needed to figure what can be done.
About the booting thing. You can go to the root of your C: drive and in your explorer folder options unhide protected operating system files and hidden files.. Then you can edit the boot.ini to choose which operating system you want as default and you can even remove the reference to the os you dont want. (it doesn't remove the os just the choice of selecting it)
What os's do you have installed?
On which partitions are they installed?
which one was installed 1st and which 2nd?
And which one do you not want?
This info is needed to figure what can be done.
About the booting thing. You can go to the root of your C: drive and in your explorer folder options unhide protected operating system files and hidden files.. Then you can edit the boot.ini to choose which operating system you want as default and you can even remove the reference to the os you dont want. (it doesn't remove the os just the choice of selecting it)
IPlural
Reply #6 Saturday, August 16, 2003 5:09 PM
Reply #6 Saturday, August 16, 2003 5:09 PM
hashonboat, has the correct idea, some back ground information is indeed called for here.
citats
Reply #7 Saturday, August 16, 2003 5:50 PM
Reply #7 Saturday, August 16, 2003 5:50 PM
What program is being used to chose which OS to boot to?
as well as all the Q's hashonboat is asking.
the easiest way would be with Partition magic. Especially if your not really good with computers. Don't read any more if your not at least an intermediate computer user.
however it is possible to fix all your problems with a win98 start up disk ... (this is assuming the OS you wish to keep is a windows OS)
b4 you do this make a back up of all critical files... documents etc.
also understand that you must make some serious changes to accomplish what you want. First you need to know the size of the partition that you wish to keep. You can find this out from with in the OS While you are in the OS you want to keep give your hard drive a descriptive name like "winXP" or some other identifing name.
after booting with the startup disk "type fdisk at the a: prompt"
first thing you need to do is set active the partition you want to boot to.
Chose option 2. Set active partition
you will know which partition to set active by the name you gave it and use the size to confirm you have the right partition. following the instructions set the partition active.
exit fdisk using the esc key
when back at the a: prompt type "fdisk /mbr"
by setting the partition active and running the mbr command the master boot record will now direct the computer to boot the partition that you marked as active.
you still have wasted space from the other OS
Using fdisk again you can go in and delete the other partition however depending upon whether it is a primary or logical partition the procedure will vary. I would like to wait for you above asked for info first.
If you are using XP and it is XP's boot menu that you see. You can change the default os to boot to as well you can remove others from the boot menu or chose not to even show a boot menu.
this can be found by
press the "Win Key + Pause/Break"
chose the "advanced" tab then "start up and recovery" settings button.
as well as all the Q's hashonboat is asking.
the easiest way would be with Partition magic. Especially if your not really good with computers. Don't read any more if your not at least an intermediate computer user.
however it is possible to fix all your problems with a win98 start up disk ... (this is assuming the OS you wish to keep is a windows OS)
b4 you do this make a back up of all critical files... documents etc.
also understand that you must make some serious changes to accomplish what you want. First you need to know the size of the partition that you wish to keep. You can find this out from with in the OS While you are in the OS you want to keep give your hard drive a descriptive name like "winXP" or some other identifing name.
after booting with the startup disk "type fdisk at the a: prompt"
first thing you need to do is set active the partition you want to boot to.
Chose option 2. Set active partition
you will know which partition to set active by the name you gave it and use the size to confirm you have the right partition. following the instructions set the partition active.
exit fdisk using the esc key
when back at the a: prompt type "fdisk /mbr"
by setting the partition active and running the mbr command the master boot record will now direct the computer to boot the partition that you marked as active.
you still have wasted space from the other OS
Using fdisk again you can go in and delete the other partition however depending upon whether it is a primary or logical partition the procedure will vary. I would like to wait for you above asked for info first.
If you are using XP and it is XP's boot menu that you see. You can change the default os to boot to as well you can remove others from the boot menu or chose not to even show a boot menu.
this can be found by
press the "Win Key + Pause/Break"
chose the "advanced" tab then "start up and recovery" settings button.
SelfExiled
Reply #8 Saturday, August 16, 2003 11:56 PM
Reply #8 Saturday, August 16, 2003 11:56 PM
I think it depends on what program you used to create the other operating system. I use system commander 7 and I have no problems. I did have to configure my WinXP boot.ini to ignore the other operating system and I used System Commander to hide the partitions for the others operating system. Maybe you could re-start the problem OS in safe mode and try to repair the problem. I recently had that problem. I installed EZ skins on my Win98 system and it contained massive spyware that crashed my Win98 OS. I just re-started in safe mode and removed it. The boot.ini is a good way to go too, if you want to stop WinXP from using Win98. I would also consider using Administrative tools, Computer Management and then disk management. You can delete the partition there too. But, I would definitely make a backup of important files first.
BX
Reply #9 Sunday, August 17, 2003 12:15 AM
Reply #9 Sunday, August 17, 2003 12:15 AM
Man this is very EZ............Supposin that u r using Win XP..........right click on My Computer and Choose "PROPERTIES" and in properites select "ADVANCED" from there select settings for startup and recovery and from Combo Box select Default Operatring System and then set timeout 2 zero (both combo boxes) and after doing dat use Partition Magic and Select the Partition of that Ghost OS............and FORMAT it..........any probleemo...........no probleem 4 me 
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Reply #1 Saturday, August 16, 2003 1:49 PM
Unless you fdisk and format the hard drive, thus wiping everything out you may be stuck. You might try Partition Magic, but be aware that anything you do will possibly lead to you having to start from scratch from a blank HD.