Xp & ME on one drive! Please help ..

[futurewarriores]

Hi everyone I installed xp but still have all my millenium folders and files & I am running out of space all the time on my HD. Is there any way to fix this without loosing all my programs & data? Do I hav tocompletely format and start again?
I couldnt seem to get it to upgrade so I initially installed it on a seperate partition cause i needed to use it urgently for compatability reasons. I was continually getting low disk space errors so installed it again on c. I couldnt get it to install from within windows ME would only work booting from cd.
Your help is appreciated,

 

[tifc8lraz]

Formatting would be the best thing to do to utilize all of the space in the hard drive. How big is it (in gb)?

 

[futurewarriores]

Also when I boot my system I have three options windows xp pro on two lines and windows. Only the top one works, the second one relates to the xp pro I initially installed on the partition d: and the windows is the original ME version. How can I change this to go directly to xp pro ?

 

[futurewarriores]

only 20gig

thanks for responding - I am loving this site. I have only 20gig - 1 gig is partitioned as D:

 

[SNGX1275]

To remove the boot option that doesn't work, right click on My Computer (in XP) and go to properties. Then go to the advanced tab, and then click on the startup and recovery settings button. Then click edit on the system startup section. They are listed in the order you see when you boot. Remove the one that doesn't work (the whole line). Then go to file save, and then close it. Click OK on all the boxes and reboot.

It is a good idea right when you click edit to actually save that file as boot.ini.old or something before you edit it, otherwise if you screw up you may not be able to get back to a working Windows very easily. Don't get too scared though, its just always nice to have a backup.

 

[futurewarriores]

Any other suggestion b4 I format?

Hi I am going to format my c drive in about 5hours and install xp from scratch but I am spewin cause i have lost some disks for a couple of my favorite photo editing programmes - nameingly adobe photo deluxe which i love using, so if anyone knows a way i can get rid of the old windows me without formating, please let me know.:hotbounce
Thanks to user SNGX1275 for your help with the multiple windows option issue I was having - that worked and all is great in that regard now - not that it will matter if i format i suppose

 

[SNGX1275]

If you can still boot into a working Windows ME and you also have XP installed to the same partition ME is on I don't know of any good way to just get rid of ME. Its STRONGLY recommended to NOT to install 2 versions of Windows to the same partition.

So formatting is your best option, but you will lose all your programs you have installed for both XP and ME. I'd suggest biting the bullet on PhotoDeluxe and hoping you can find the disk later.

Have you tried Picasa from Google? Its free and from what I remember about PhotoDeluxe from years ago they do pretty much the same thing as far as editing, and Picasa also manages your photos.

What I'd suggest is getting all your personal files, favorites, mail, ect backed up. Then do a fresh install of XP, during the text part of the install it asks where to install it to, I'd go through and hit D to delete all those partitions you see. Then C to create a new one, make that NTFS and use the full amount of disk space. Then install XP to that partition. If its an upgrade it will ask for proof you own 98, 98se, ME, or 2000 so have one of those disks handy.

Good luck.

 

[gbhall]

better option

A far, far better option is to buy a new hard disc drive to replace your existing one. They are very, very cheap (don't buy a SATA though, your motherboard may not support it: you should get a bog-standard IDE)

First remove your old drive and put the new one in it's place. When you have freshly formatted your new drive (boot from XP install CD first), and installed XP, then you can also add in your old drive as a slave and just drag-n-drop all your old data to the new, (retaining the old drive as a backup also).

If you are a complete newbe you might need a little advice while doing this, but it is really, really easy....

Lastly, and possibly best from your point of view, you will be doing nothing at all to the old drive, and can simply pulg it back in at any time.