I have a question about How do I uninstall Windows?:

Hi, I have two os on my hard drive Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional i would like to get rid of Windows 2000. I was trying to Formant the hard drive but it keeps saying: (Windows cannot format this drive quit and disk utilities or any program using this drive, make sure that no window is displaying the contents of the drive. Then try Formatting again). I did what it said, i try again and the same message pop up. Can any one help or give me other solution to my problem. Your help is hilghly appreciated. Thanks

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Need more info. If you only have one hard drive and only one partition and you have both OS's installed in the same partition, you made a mistake already. You would be running one of the OS's on that disk while you were trying to format it. A real bad idea. Why not just stop using Windows 2000. If you don't want it to appear in the boot list at startup, there are ways of doing that. If the default OS is XP, you could just edit the hidden file on the C disk called boot.ini. Just remove the line for Windows 2000. Once you do that, you could probably delete the WINNT directory, if you wanted to save some space. If they are in the same partition, you have a tangled mess. They are both using the same "Program Files" and "Documents and settings". To clean up everything you would have to do a clean install of XP. Xp setup will let you format everything and then you could install XP cleanly. Of course you would be starting over from square one.


On Tuesday, January 7, 2003 at 11:13 am, Dione J wrote:
>I have a question about How
>do I uninstall Windows?:

>
> Hi, I have two os on my hard drive Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional
>i would like to get rid of Windows 2000. I was trying to Formant the hard drive but
>it keeps saying: (Windows cannot format this drive quit and disk utilities or any
>program using this drive, make sure that no window is displaying the contents of
>the drive. Then try Formatting again). I did what it said, i try again and the same
>message pop up. Can any one help or give me other solution to my problem. Your help
>is hilghly appreciated. Thanks
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Is there more than one partition? If so, is XP on one and 2000 on the other? Unless there is more than one partition and XP is the only one on the C: drive, you won't be able to format from within Windows. You need to find a local friend who knows something about computers to help you...


On Tuesday, January 7, 2003 at 11:13 am, Dione J wrote:
>I have a question about How
>do I uninstall Windows?:

>
> Hi, I have two os on my hard drive Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional
>i would like to get rid of Windows 2000. I was trying to Formant the hard drive but
>it keeps saying: (Windows cannot format this drive quit and disk utilities or any
>program using this drive, make sure that no window is displaying the contents of
>the drive. Then try Formatting again). I did what it said, i try again and the same
>message pop up. Can any one help or give me other solution to my problem. Your help
>is hilghly appreciated. Thanks
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I hope that you have them on separate partitions if they are both on C: format and start fresh
if I am not mistaken XP will keep boot files on the system root so even if XP is on D: and 2000 is on C: XP will not allow you to remove the files
regards, Adam Bradley


On Tuesday, January 7, 2003 at 11:13 am, Dione J wrote:
>I have a question about How
>do I uninstall Windows?:

>
> Hi, I have two os on my hard drive Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional
>i would like to get rid of Windows 2000. I was trying to Formant the hard drive but
>it keeps saying: (Windows cannot format this drive quit and disk utilities or any
>program using this drive, make sure that no window is displaying the contents of
>the drive. Then try Formatting again). I did what it said, i try again and the same
>message pop up. Can any one help or give me other solution to my problem. Your help
>is hilghly appreciated. Thanks
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

How can i clean install XP again? Thanks a lot for your help.


On Tuesday, January 7, 2003 at 11:58 am, Steve B wrote:
>Need more info. If you only have one hard drive and only one partition and you have
>both OS's installed in the same partition, you made a mistake already.
>You would be running one of the OS's on that disk while you were trying to format
>it. A real bad idea. Why not just stop using Windows 2000. If you don't want it
>to appear in the boot list at startup, there are ways of doing that. If the default
>OS is XP, you could just edit the hidden file on the C disk called boot.ini. Just
>remove the line for Windows 2000. Once you do that, you could probably delete the
>WINNT directory, if you wanted to save some space. If they are in the same partition,
>you have a tangled mess. They are both using the same "Program Files" and "Documents
>and settings". To clean up everything you would have to do a clean install of XP.
> Xp setup will let you format everything and then you could install XP cleanly.
>Of course you would be starting over from square one.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I've got the same problem. I want to delete windows 2000 Professional and keep windows 2000 ME. Exactly how, step-by-step, do I accomplish this? Your help is much appreciated. Thanks. -BRu

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Saving one OS is another question, but as to how to remove one is: Restart and press delete several times to enter setup. Set first boot to floppy, and insert a win98/me startup floppy, when computer boots to floppy drive, format program is on startup floppy, so Type: format C: at the prompt. Assuming the OS you want removed is on C drive :) Otherwise use the Correct drive letter, and it will be gone. Clean install is another issue but now is much simpler. ms


On Thursday, August 7, 2003 at 1:32 pm, brownbra wrote:
>
>I've got the same problem. I want to delete windows 2000 Professional and keep windows
>2000 ME. Exactly how, step-by-step, do I accomplish this?
>Your help is much appreciated. Thanks.
>-BRu

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You cannot format from within windows. create a windows 98 boot disk and run fdisk to format the partition. If you have ntfs it will say unknown partition but it will still format.


On Tuesday, January 7, 2003 at 11:13 am, Dione J wrote:
>I have a question about How
>do I uninstall Windows?:

>
> Hi, I have two os on my hard drive Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional
>i would like to get rid of Windows 2000. I was trying to Formant the hard drive but
>it keeps saying: (Windows cannot format this drive quit and disk utilities or any
>program using this drive, make sure that no window is displaying the contents of
>the drive. Then try Formatting again). I did what it said, i try again and the same
>message pop up. Can any one help or give me other solution to my problem. Your help
>is hilghly appreciated. Thanks
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have had the same problem with "windows cannot format this drive" and I am NOT running Windows 2000 on the same partition I am trying to format. I have deleted everything visible and hidden on the disk and tried killing every possible process and uninstalling every possible application. I have run format from the Disk Manager with all other windows closed and from the desktop with only the Format window open. I have run "format" in the command line and used the /x modifier to try and force the recalcitrant drive to unmount so that it can be erased. Nothing works, and if there is a trick to get around this glitch I have not found it on the web. I was lucky enough to miss out on Windows 98 and DOS, so I don't have the "luxury" of going to all the trouble of building a '98 boot disk and then using fdisk to zap my drive (which perhaps should be renamed "f***edisk") So don't be suprised if you end up with the same problem and the only advice you get is, "you fool, you can't erase the drive that contains your operating sytem!" In the end the only thing which saved me was making a bootable "killdisk" (get the code at www.killdisk.com.) Without jury-rigged freeware, every non-Linux PC in the world would be toast within a year. As a longtime Mac user I am happy to crow about the fact that the most rich and powerful computer company in the world seems to be incapable of writing software to reformat drives running their own filesystem. Every day and in every way, WINDOWS IS A PIECE OF JUNK. To all those in denial: you're why they're still in business.


On Tuesday, December 30, 2003 at 1:56 am, Fatboy210 wrote:
>You cannot format from within windows. create a windows 98 boot disk and run fdisk
>to format the partition. If you have ntfs it will say unknown partition but it will
>still format.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

There is a way to remove a second OS on the same partition according to microsoft. I am not sure if it removes everything of the OS you are removing, but I did this and have had no adverse effects so far. I had windows xp on the same partition as windows 2000 and no longer wanted the windows 2000 OS, I too searched for a while to no avail, came across this forum several times. To remove a OS from the same partition as another OS paste this link in your browser and follow the instructions there. support.microsoft.com/?kbid=888023


On Thursday, August 7, 2003 at 1:32 pm, brownbra wrote:
>
>I've got the same problem. I want to delete windows 2000 Professional and keep windows
>2000 ME. Exactly how, step-by-step, do I accomplish this?
>Your help is much appreciated. Thanks.
>-BRu

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

when you start up your computer, press the keyboard button to get into the BIOS menu; often it is the del key. go into the menu labeled "boot" and make sure the cd player is at the top of the list (the windows xp install cd should be in the drive). disable booting from the harddrive. exit and save, and it should come up with a windows installation which will allow you to format and clean install. the menues will tell you how to format, and since windows isn't running yet it will allow you to format both windows xp and windows 2000.


On Tuesday, January 7, 2003 at 11:13 am, Dione J wrote:
>I have a question about How
>do I uninstall Windows?:

>
> Hi, I have two os on my hard drive Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000 Professional
>i would like to get rid of Windows 2000. I was trying to Formant the hard drive but
>it keeps saying: (Windows cannot format this drive quit and disk utilities or any
>program using this drive, make sure that no window is displaying the contents of
>the drive. Then try Formatting again). I did what it said, i try again and the same
>message pop up. Can any one help or give me other solution to my problem. Your help
>is hilghly appreciated. Thanks
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

i have two operating system on my computer xp and 2000 i want to remove one of them. so i need help.
>

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