How to remove a single O/S?

[BadBadNeil]

I have a dual boot system. Win2k in NTFS and Win98 in Fat32. Each OS is on a separate hard drive.

Well I am sick of windows 98 and want to just keep my win2k as it is but remove the windows 98 and reformat it as NTFS so it can be used just as a storage drive for win2k.

Would reformatting the drive from fat32 to NTFS remove the OS? If not how would I just basically clear the drive and convert it to NTFS with leaving my win2k setup and drive as is? Also what is the best way to reformat my drive?

Thanks!

[sm8000]

I would boot to Win2k, open Disk Management, and format the partition 98 is installed on. That ought to clear it. Also remove any reference to the option to load it in your boot.ini file. You could also format it from fdisk, or manually delete the Windows folder and format it.

[BipolarBill]

You had better not nuke the first drive! The bootfiles are there. You'll lose BOTH!

If Win98 is on the first drive, just remove all folders on it - leaving the loose files.

[gjimene2]

he didn't loose both. He just lost win98

boot of the cd, choose repair, and hit

fixboot
fixmbr

have fun, I've done this before for a couple of clients.:cool:

[BadBadNeil]

Hmmm.....
Thanks for the response:

few quick questions: I used disk management when i built this comp from scratch, how do you access it again its been a while?

so i could just select all the folders on drive C: (win98) and just delete them all while in win2k and that should remove it then convert the drive to NTFS?

is anyone positive the booting won't be messed up? is the boot.ini located in the system folder for win98?


boot of the cd, choose repair, and hit

fixboot
fixmbr

what exactly does this do?

Thanks!!

[BipolarBill]

If you lose BOOT.INI, Win2K setup won't be able to find the installation. You would have to recreate the BOOT.INI file manually.

Just delete the folders and then convert to NTFS if you like.

[sm8000]

You can access Disk Management by running diskmgmt.msc. The boot.ini file you want to edit will be located somewhere in the system folders of Win2k.

[BadBadNeil]

cool, i'll give it a whirl when i get home and pray i guess that it starts.


Thanks

[gjimene2]

fixboot and fixmbr is to fix your boot and to fix your master boot record. I forgot to mention what Bill said, if you lost your boot.ini file, then you're toast unless you write one up yourself, which isn't that hard.