removing dual boot 2000

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I am dual booting 2k and xp on my home pc. I no longer want to run 2k (I'm becoming really comfortable with xp) but can't figure out how to completely uninstall win 2k to free up my hard drive.

Any suggestions?

I have a xp install cd but no 2000 cd.
 
I may be wrong since I've never dual booted a machine but I think all you have to do is edit boot.ini and remove the reference to Win2k and delete the data from the win2k partition.
 
if you could tell us what partitions you have, and in what order, etc, that would be useful. In some situations that is as simple as formatting a partition and then editing boot.ini to remove the redundant entry. however if the drive is your C: drive, you would have to go through the process of making it bootable again after formatting it. you will need a backup of the files on your c: root directory, and a windows XP CD.
 
Even if win2k was on his C: partition he would not have to format it to completely remove win2k - the nt bootloader and the boot.ini are totally irrelevant - Once booted in XP, removing win2ks root directory effectivelly totally removes it. Just make sure that boot.ini is properly configured beforehand. You probably want to remove the Program Files and Documents and Settings directories of that partition too unless XP has things installed there as well.
 
Thanks for all the advice!

I have noticed that xp has brought over a lot of programs and files from 2k. I think I have 2k and xp in the same partition but
I'm not certain (how do I figure that out?. I've tried (and am still willing to do) a full reinstall of xp to just start fresh but I do not have enough room on my hd to allow for this (aacording to the xp install disk).

Soul Harvester, I like what you're saying. I've just never worked that deep in windows (removing root directories and such). Any advice?
 
Did you install Windows XP on C: ? Did you install Windows 2000 on drive C:? When you are using Windows XP AND 2000, are your programs and data mostly on C:? This is a good indication that you installed them on the same partition....

All you have to do is remove the command from the boot loader (C:\boot.ini, which is a hidden/system file) and then delete the Windows 2000 "C:\WINNT" folder. While it does not clean up EVERYTHING, it will remove the OS itself, which I'm sure is the majority of wasted space.
 
Removing Dual Boot install

If you've got your Windows 2000 install on a separate partition, the removal is fairly routine.
Simply boot into XP and delete the (eg) D:\WINNT folder.
Then remove the reference to the windows 2000 install on the C:\BOOT.INI file -
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
**MAKING SURE THAT XP IS THE DEFAULT OS**

You can then remove the WINNT remnants, such as SVI and the user folders., or simply format the partition, since any programs installed under Windows 2000 will be obsolete.

If you've got the Windows 2000 install on the same partition as your XP install, it's slightly different. Initially, try deleting the C:\WINNT folder after booting into XP. It may not allow you to do so, as there may be XP system files referenced within C:\WINNT.
If this is the case, the easiest wasy to delete the C:\WINNT folder
is to boot into DOS using a Windows 9x Start-up disk, and delete it from there. Restart and boot into XP (you should still be given OS options at this point).

Again, edit the boot.ini file from within XP, ensuring XP is the default OS.
At this point, depending on how you configured the dual boot layout, you may find that the user files are common or shared between XP & 2000. If this is the case, you'll have to manually weed out the Windows 2000 files and folders no longer needed, such as 2000's start menu, application data, etc.
The SVI -System Volume Information - folder will probably be shared between the OS's, and if this is the case, just leave it.
If there are two SVI folders, you may run into trouble deleting the old, unneeded Windows 2000 one. If you have any bother with it, such as being denied access to it etc, right-click on it and click the Sharing tab, and check the 'share this folder' box, calling the folder SVI to allow network shares. Then you can -in theory, delete it as well.

After all this activity on the C: drive it's also advisable to run a disk check and a defrag afterward.

BTW-I question the wisdom of removing the dual boot XP/2000 setup. For all the space a cut-down 2000 install takes up, its sometimes a lifesaver if XP develops problems to be able to access XP's files through a separate OS. It's got me out of the sh*t a couple of times.

Any bother, let me know.
 
how to change read-only to read and write privilege on boot.ini?

I have 2 win2k installed on 2 drives, one of them is broken which is the first choice to boot. I then go edit boot.ini; however, I was not able to sve the changed file because the pop-up window says, this is read-only system file that I don't have right to change it.

How can I change the previelge on this file?

I tried start->run->msconfig, it says no this file.

I used search, both files were not able to be found; but I can oipen boot.ini. Any other solutions?
 
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