Need some advice on the best way to proceed, I have a "dual boot" set up right now...

[Up2Late]

...on my computer where I can boot to my old OS, WindowsXP Home Edition (Upgrade), or WindowsXP Professional Edition (OEM). I just want to get rid of the Home Edition, but the normal ways of doing that don't seem to be an option.

Here's the problem, for years I've been trying to fix all the hundreds of bugs that 2 Hard Drive crashes in 2003 and 2004 caused, but about two months ago, I just gave up and decided to start over with an OEM version of WindowsXP Pro on my D: drive, so now, I've transfered over all of my files and am ready to un-install WindowsXP Home Edition, but Windows won't let me!

The "Goto Add/Remove Program and click on WindowsXP in the list" entry isn't there and when I try to reboot in "Safe Mode with the Command Prompt" option the thing never actually finishes booting, it just keeps hitting the hard drive like it's booting, but it doesn't finish. I left it to boot last night while I was sleeping (probably 6 to 7 hours), but when I woke up, it was still booting!

So then I tried booting normally and in "Safe Mode" and using the Command Prompt, but that didn't work either! It said something like, "Un-install can not be completed, because **** files are missing..." or something along those lines.

So this is what I'm thinking of doing. First, Deleting the reference to the Home Edition from the "Control Panel>System Properties>Startup and Recovery>System Startup list and then Deleting the files in my old C:\Windows folder, what do you think?

Would that work?

I don't need the old WindowsXP Home Edition OS anymore and just want it gone.

[MyNameGoesHere]

1. Well... You have a real mess there.

At this point this is what i would do.

Back up and save all data i want to preserve.
Make sure i have a valid install disk for the OS i want to use.
Do a COMPLETE NEW INSTALL.
Restore my data.

[Up2Late]

2. That's pretty much what I've already done...

...and at this point, most of my problems are now gone. But now, I just need to figure out the best and safest way to recover the disk space that the old WindowsXP Home Edition (Upgrade) is taking up.

Also, some of my programs that I re-installed to my new OS on the D: Drive (WindowsXP Pro SP2 OEM) I just left where they were, but some of the others (programs that were less important or less complex) I uninstalled from the C: drive and then re-installed to the D: Drive.

Some of the programs I just re-installed to the D Drive and have not yet un-installed them from the C: Drive. Some, it was because they had little data to save, but some were just too screwed up and wouldn't let me uninstall them due to missing or messed up program files.

I suppose I should go though the install/uninstall list again and see what else I can uninstall, but as far as the old WindowsXP OS on the C: Drive, I'm pretty much stuck as to what to do.:shrug:

Btw, this is a computer that I built (and re-built) myself over the years.

[CK_John]

3. Look for file boot.ini (on both systems) this file can be alter with notepad to select booting. Also

if you Right click on MYComputer and select manage in menu and then disk management in the tree options you will see all your partition info. This will let you add, delete, format any partition on your drives.

Use the Help function, it has a good tutorial for info.

Since you have multiple systems check out both before making any changes.