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View Full Version : Running 2 OS at once, how can I delete one??



bhoy100
07-01-2008, 12:22 AM
Hi, I have XP Home and XP Pro on my PC, I was having real probs with Home so I upgraded to Pro, thing is now when I reboot it gives me the option of 2 OS, I want to delete the Home edition, how do I go about this without affecting the new Pro Edition?

Declan
07-01-2008, 03:52 AM
Try add/remove program's and see if Windows Home Edition is there if it is remove it. But as with anything serious i recommend that you backup important data to an external device. Try this method before you start to go into deleting partitions.:goodluck:

little_pob
07-01-2008, 11:02 AM
You should have backed-up your data, then deleted the partition containing the XP home.

Anyway, there is a quick fix, or a more difficult fix.

Quick fix: Boot XP Pro. Check your boot.ini file: Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery. Under System Startup, click Edit. It should look something like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows XP Home" /fastdetect
Click Start, and then click Run > cmd. Type bootcfg /?. The help and parameters for BOOTCFG.exe will display. At the command prompt, type:
bootcfg /delete /ID#
Where # specifies the boot entry ID that you want to be deleted from the operating systems section of the BOOT.INI file (e.g. 2 for XP Home in the quoted example).

The more difficult fix involves the above then deleting the partition containing XP Home, then repartioning the XP Pro installation so that it uses the whole hard drive. All this can be done using a program called partition magic. After that, it would be worth defragmenting the hard drive a couple of times.

In all honesty it would probably be quicker to back up important documents, favourites and saved data from any games, format (deleting both partions) and reinstall XP Pro.

pande_monium
07-01-2008, 01:52 PM
In all honesty it would probably be quicker to back up important documents, favourites and saved data from any games, format (deleting both partions) and reinstall XP Pro.

And is by far the safest option as well. Your drivers/etc paths won't get screwed up.

Nice one lil_pob. Thanks.