How to uninstall Windows 2000 on a dual-boot system

[Mike Lewis]

I have a dual-boot system which is set up as follows:

- Main operating system is Windows 98. This is the one I use for all my normal work.

- Second operating system is Windows 2000 Professional. I don't use this for "real" work: just for experimenting and messing around.

I've now decided I'd like to upgrade my main system to 2000. I have a Win 2000 Pro upgrade CD. My idea was simply to upgrade my Win 98 partition. That way, I would keep all my applications and settings. In due course, I would remove the existing Win 2000 partition.

However, when I tried to use the CD to upgrade the 98 partition, it told me that it could not do so, because Win 2000 was already installed (quite correct). The only choice it gave me was to do a clean install of 2000, which I didn't want because I would have to re-install all my apps.

So, how can I get round this? The solution seems to be to remove the existing instance of 2000. Can anyone tell me how to do that? I don't mind losing the applications and data in the 2000 partition. Can I simply delete the files in the partition? Or delete the entire partition. Or what?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

My Visual Foxpro web site:

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

My Crystal Reports web site:

http://www.ml-crystal.com

 

[lesgray]

If you have more than one drive or a CDR-W, you could use something like Norton's Ghost or another imaging program to image your 98 partition, then wipe the drive clean with fdisk/format and paste the 98 image back on.

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com

 

[Mike Lewis]

Les,

Thanks for your reply. However, I'm not sure I understand what you are suggesting. Are you saying that I can copy all my Win 98 applications, settings, data, etc. to another drive (which I've got)? Then, I wipe both the existing Win 98 and Win 2000 partitions. Then, copy back the ghosted Win 98 image. And finally install Win 2000 on top of that.

If I've got that right, it would probably be worth my buying Norton's Ghost to achieve it. I just wanted to check that I've understood what you are suggesting.

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

My Visual Foxpro web site:

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

My Crystal Reports web site:

http://www.ml-crystal.com

 

[lesgray]

Yes, that is correct. You can read more about Ghost at:

http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/features.html

THere are other programs that do the same thing, like Drive Image, I only brought up Ghost because I use it myself. The nice thing about an image is if you bungle it the first time, then you can start all over again as long as you don't erase the image. The pasted back image will be an exact duplicate of the system the way it was at the time of imaging. Also great as a backup since with Ghost Explorer you can look inside an image and pull out individual files if you need to.

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com

 

[Mike Lewis]

Les,

Thanks for the clarification. I now understand what you are suggesting. I had been hoping there would be a simpler way of hiding the Win 2000 partition -- by playing with the boot record, perhaps -- but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'll give your strategy a try.

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

My Visual Foxpro web site:

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

My Crystal Reports web site:

http://www.ml-crystal.com

 

[wolluf]

Mike,

You can hide the 2k partition -

http://www.boot-us.com

for example has tools to do this (you may need to use its 'true hiding' option) - though the problem may be that your 98 installation will have a 2k boot sector (I'm not sure what the upgrade is checking to decide 2k already installed) - from when you installed the dual boot.

Also - if you're intending staying with 2k for a while, you will be much better off backing up, wiping the drive and doing a clean install - yes even though it means reinstalling everything. Otherwise you're almost certain to have problems going forward as a result of the 98 'residue'.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Wolluf,

Thanks. I'll investigate the tools you suggested.

I take your point about starting with a clean install. There's a lot to be said from starting with a clean slate. It's just the thought of re-installing all the apps, setting up all the configurations (email accounts and so forth) .... Still, I'll consider it.

Thanks for your input.

Mike


Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

My Visual Foxpro web site:

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

My Crystal Reports web site:

http://www.ml-crystal.com

 

[lesgray]

I'd have to agree with wolluf as to wiping the drive. I periodically (once a year) wipe my drive and start again. Sure its a pain to reinstall all the apps, but you know, do that a couple of times and you really start thinking -hmm do I realy use that ever? Can't program x do that almost as well for the one time I use that each year -hmmmmm..... When was th elast time I played that game?

Your email configuration is usually pretty easy. Its getting the addresses and messages exported that is important. Make sure thats done and your document folder is saved and it should go pretty good.

If you have a Win2K upgrade disk, you'll need to insert your WIn98 disk into the CD Drive at the appropriate time.

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com