i'm an idiot

[SVO-1]

for some reason i THOUGHT i wanted to be able to boot into w98se as well as w2k. i had a guy set up a dual boot thing for me. he said it was a waste of disk space but did it anyway since that's what i wanted. now, 3 weeks later, i also think it was a waste. i don't want to hear him say "I TOLD YA SO" if i ask him to undo it for me. so, can someone tell me an easy way to uninstall the partition and w98se without disturbing ANYTHING in w2k ???

[Norm]

There is NO easy way.

Is Win98 on C: drive? Or the Primary Partition?

[SVO-1]

i have a 20gig & a 40gig. the 20gig is divided into "C" & "D" <10gig each>. w98se is on "C" & w2k is on "D". the 40gig is "E" just for data storage.

[Norm]

Here's what I would do in your position. Not necessarily the best plan, nor is it what others would do, but it'll work, and let you keep Win2K intact.

First off, you need to have Win2K as the first choice in the boot option (usually set by default when Win2K is installed) Make sure before you do the next step.
Edit the file called boot.ini in the root of c: Change one line to read (timeout=0). So you won't get a boot option to boot to Win98 anymore.

Then boot into Win2K and delete any files on the Win98 partition, but DON'T delete any files in the root of C:, just all the folders or directories. Win2K has put a few files in the root of C: that it MUST have in order to boot, so don't delete any, just to be safe.

You can then use the Win98 partition for any files/folders you want.
If you want to get back to ONE big partition you'll need to uninstall Win2K, Fdisk to remove all the partitions, Exteneded and Primary(non dos partition too if you've converted to NTFS), Format and do a reinstall.
It's easier to just do the above first part of my post..

[SVO-1]

O M G - that sounds intimidating. that's over my head i think. i believe i'll just leave well enough alone. let me ask you this, could i just decrease the size of that partition to regain most of the space and just leave w98 there ? ? ?

[Norm]

You might be able to regain space using Partition Magic, if you have it. I'm not all that familiar with PM though, maybe someone else can help you there.

BUT - If your PC normally boots to Win2K (as the default) the above method isn't all that tricky really. Read it over a couple of times, just be sure not to delete any files in the root of C: that's all. When you're in Win2K you can delete all the Folders on C: drive, no problems there. No need to edit the boot.ini either, you can just leave it as is. When you boot up and see the options page, just pick Win2K all the time.

[SVO-1]

when my pc 1st starts to boot up, it gets to a point where i pick what OS i want to use. w2k is default. i have like 30 seconds to pick w98 or it automatically boots into w2k.

[Norm]

Originally posted by SVO-1
when my pc 1st starts to boot up, it gets to a point where i pick what OS i want to use. w2k is default. i have like 30 seconds to pick w98 or it automatically boots into w2k. Find boot.ini on C: drive, open it (it opens in Notepad), and edit the line to read timeout=0 instead of timeout=30, and you won't get that page anymore to pick the OS.

Then bootup into WIn2K and delete all the folders on C: drive, but like I said, NOT any files in C: just folders.
I could make a list of the files Win2K needs to boot that are on C:, but just leave all files alone and you'll be safe.

By deleting the Windows folder and the Program Files folder on C:, you'll gain lots of space. The files on C: don't take up much room at all.

[Joe]

boot into win 2k and format the 98 partition in windows by right clicking the dirve in my Computer and selecting "format"

Once its formatted it will be free disk space for you to use... remember that if you are using a third party boot program you might want to make sure to delete the partition on it as well as format so it doesnt load that every time...

If you are using win 2k boot manager just go into properties and turn off the boot loader.

[SVO-1]

OK - i'm gonna try it. i'll be back later <hopefully> - LOL.

[SVO-1]

i'm back norm - all seems OK. thanks 4 the help.........