Ok, I know this probably isn't the place to ask, but I know there are some nerds on the org and I really need your help.

I was running Windows XP Professional but despite all my efforts (virus scans and all sorts) I decided it was time to go back to scratch and install the new XP media edition I picked up a few days ago. It gave me the option of updating or doing a clean install so I took the latter option, thinking the old OS would be deleted. Alas, now I have two options upon start-up. How do I delete my XP professional?????

There are a myriad of other concerns, like how to wipe my C drive and leave my F drive alone. Clicking on C drive suggests it's empty as there are no files or folders shown (including hidden ones), yet somewhere there are 4GBs of files there. I want them gone as all the stuff that was there was from my old XP professional stuff. I wanted a clean start, not the lingering spectre of my frustrating former times with this piece of Thai junk!!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know I'm not showing pictures of my ass or anything and therefore this thread will likely die very quickly, but please help if you can.

2 views so far and no replies.

Either two very bored non-nerds took a peek or two unhelpful geeks.

Pleeeeease!








I'll be your best friend edit
[Edited 11/26/04 5:08am]

Format the partition XP Professional is on? If you still get two options after that on start up but the partition has been formatted then you can go to start > settings > control panel > system > tab "advance" > startup and recovery...edit the startup options file manually.

JoweeCoco said:

Thanks. Thing is, all my stuff before pretty much was on the C drive, which is FAT32. For the new media edition I chose NTFS. What I've basically done is to get into my XP pro and click on C drive and delete everything in it. Now there's nothing showing, but of course now I can't get into it anymore as files are missing. On the start up I now have only the one choice. I tried to reformat the C drive but it didn't work. I just want the old OS gone.

I'll look into the startup options, thanks.

Hold up a sec. I clicked to edit start up options manually and I got a notepad document. Do you mean I just delete the relevant section?

This will just delete the option from start-up though, but it'll still be there on my computer right? Where is the 4Gb that's what I want to know. Everything for the new XP media edition is on the F drive.

Can I uninstall the driver for the C drive?

Faux said:

Yes, delete the entire line that refers to XP Pro.



How come you can't format c?

JoweeCoco said:

Right now I'm trying to. Before I did it NTFS, was that why it didn't work? Now I'm just sticking to FAT32, whatever the fuck all this means!

Excellent! Nothing on the C drive now. I guess everything is cool now, but will I still have two start-up options and is the XP pro still lurking?

Faux said:

If the partition is empty I doubt there's anything left of XP Pro. Guess you'll find out what happens when you reboot.

JoweeCoco said:

Actually, I just thought it was empty because I clicked on properties and it was one nice-looking complete pie.

Now I see that it's still formatting.

I am a happy man though, I must say. Computer is running so much better at the moment and the net is pretty quick even though I'm only connect at 50k. I've just bought a 512k modem which should be working in the next few days so that'll be nice. I can't really do much better here.

Wow, this thread is rockin' now!

No, couldn't format jowee, the 4Gbs is still there!

Can't I uninstall the driver for the C drive???

When you reinstall Windows XP, it also gives you an option to delete any existing partitions, which is what you could have done, then go through with a fresh installation of WinXP.

Faux said:

http://www.cyberwalker.ne...es-xp.html

Faux said:

About the ass picture - I posted mine and the thread still died.

About formatting, I still keep a floppy disk with win 98 startup. So I usually just go to dos mode and format my C drive the old fashion way, before I re-install or install a new operating system.

Heavenly said:

I don't think I can do this, but even if I did I wouldn't know if I could or not.

I guess it's not a big deal, but I am wondering what exactly this 4Gbs is. My father had XP family and I did a full system restore on his computer no problem. There was an option - all non-computer people friendly in that nice XP-looking kinda way. I thought my computer would be the same, but it's not.

I'm running windows XP media edition from Phanthip Plaza for $5. It came with some dodgy program for avoiding the 60 day registration thing.

Tom said:

I didn't have this option - it was basically update or do fresh. I thought the same thing but it simply wasn't there. Could it be because it's XP Media Edition - it seems an odd thing actually - it has service pack 2 included. It is a copy by the way. The problem is not with this one anyway, but rather the old one. Thanks for your efforts though.

I definitely can't format the C now, it ain't having it.

Faux said:

fdisk the bitch!

JoweeCoco said:

This what I need jowee, but sounds complicated. Hang on though, I've already backed up all the music, programs and stuff I wanted from XP pro before I installed the media edition, so I should be ok right? Is there any way I can get rid of all of it and simply do the media edition again?

JoweeCoco said:

What's that? I don't mind undoing everything and starting the Media Edition installation over again, but I worry I might end up with 3 XPs!!!!

Why partition like this? Pisses me off. Can I get rid of that and have just one?

Is being connected to the internet a bad idea when I'm trying to format too?

...
[Edited 11/26/04 6:11am]

What I'm wondering is, how come you can surf&post here when your puter is not working?



Google for win98 bootdisk. use it to start your pc. select the option including cd-rom support.
Try format c: /u (the /u is for unconditional, reboot with cd-rom support and clean install winXP from cd-rom

PS you cannot uninstall a harddisk driver, it comes with the OS

AlfofMelmak said:

My computer is working better than ever in some ways. The internet in particular is much better than before and all the drawing and hardware acceleration problems are gone. I could just ignore the fact that I have two Windows Xps on my computer I guess, but it's really bugging me. I did as jowee said and manually changed the start-up setting so that now I'm only offering XP media edition. What this has achieved is not really clear!!!

I'm not going to try to follow the link jowee gave me and see what happens.

Thanks everyone, it's been nice knowing you.

Just want to quickly say thank you to Jowee and the guys who helped me out last night. Jowee, I followed the instructions at the link you gave me and it worked a treat. Running sweet as a nut now, so thank you very much!

Isn't the org a great resource sometimes.

Faux said:

Cool. BTW, you're not going to be my best friend now, are ya?
[Edited 11/26/04 22:43pm]