synche Posted March 8, 2010 Report Share Posted March 8, 2010 My computer wouldn't boot up at all, not even in safe mode. I put in the xp disk and I installed (not trying) a second separate windows xp, which is labeled WINDOWS.0 in explorer. The "original" xp installation, labeled WINDOWS in explorer, still shows up in the boot menu and when I try to boot with it, it doesn't, as originally stated. I want to get rid of the non working installation to free up the space.What should I do? Can I just delete the WINDOWS folder? I don't know enough and was afraid to just delete. Please help.Thank you. Oops, I posted this in the wrong section. I don't know how to move it. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted March 9, 2010 Report Share Posted March 9, 2010 These things that you identified as 'WINDOWS' and 'WINDOWS.0' - are these folders or partitions? Can you post a screenshot of your Windows Explorer if you are unsure?One of the above should contain a 'boot.ini' file - can you post the contents of it, and state where you found it?Anyway, wait with deleting anything until this is all sorted out.P.S. I moved the topic to the correct folder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synche Posted March 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2010 WINDOWS and WINDOWS.0 are folders. I searched and found boot.ini.backup files in WIN/pss and WIN.0/pss. No result for just boot.ini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seshomaru Samma Posted March 9, 2010 Report Share Posted March 9, 2010 Open Explorer navigate to where it shows the Windows folders you were talking aboutPress the Print Screen key on your keyboard (usually near the scroll and pause keys, sometimes written as Prnt Scrn) , nothing will happen. Open 'paint' and press CTRL+v , this should paste a screenshot of explorer into paint. Save that image as jpg and upload it here. Also to view boot.ini, you need to go to control panel > folder and uncheck " hide protected operating system files ", the boot.ini should be in the root of your system ,usually C: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted March 9, 2010 Report Share Posted March 9, 2010 If it was me I would format and reinstall from scratch. Then I would make a full back up[ to a separate hard drive, just in case of problems later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drluggo Posted March 9, 2010 Report Share Posted March 9, 2010 Unless you pruposely created a separate partition with a dual boot, you can only have one verion of Windows installed at a time. I believe that when you install a copy of Windows over Windows without going through the process of reformatting, Windows creates a backup of your old installation and puts it in a folder. I think this folder is normally named Windows.old, not Windows.0. Anyway, are you sure that you are not just seeing this backup folder? It is probably fairly large and can be deleted unless you are trying to recover something from the old install of the OS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artist Posted March 9, 2010 Report Share Posted March 9, 2010 If it was me I would format and reinstall from scratch. Then I would make a full back up[ to a separate hard drive, just in case of problems later.Not everyone is that confident - me included..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synche Posted March 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2010 The "boot" file was located on c:\ and contained this:[boot loader]timeout=3default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetectmulti(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetectmulti(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetectS. Samma, The c:\ folder contains Documents and Settings folder, WINDOWS folder and WINDOWS.0 folderandsome, I am trying to avoid reformatting and reinstalling. I've done it many times, especially with the old '98.drluggo, it may be a backup, right after I first "installed" I checked properties of the two WIN files. They were both about 1.2 gb although they had different number of files and folders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 This boot.ini file is a bit confusing; you seem to have two partitionswith two entries (WINDOWS and WINDOWS.0) for Windows XP Profor Windows XP HomePlease give us a partition layout.Also, on the first partition, what is in these folders WINDOWS and WINDOWS.0 ? It is surely not two Windows installation in one partition.What do you do with Windows XP Home? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synche Posted March 10, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 This boot.ini file is a bit confusing; you seem to have two partitionswith two entries (WINDOWS and WINDOWS.0) for Windows XP Profor Windows XP HomePlease give us a partition layout.Also, on the first partition, what is in these folders WINDOWS and WINDOWS.0 ? It is surely not two Windows installation in one partition.What do you do with Windows XP Home?I have two partitions, my C:\, which contains both WINDOWS and WINDOWS.0. The other partition is labeled F:\ and it also contains a WINDOWS folder that is much smaller (400meg vs.2.3gig)than the versions on C:\, which I assume is the Home. WINDOWS is the older version, which if I select to booot from the boot menu, doesn't boot. The WINDOWS.0 is the newer, just installed version boots. Unless one is a backup, there are two separate installations on one partition. But the backup would be have just been created, and that is the version that boots, which could mean it's not a backup.Home edition, it just installed (didn't try, but fwiw, my dad's computer also came with the option to boot from Pro or Home too.)when I originally installed XP. I've never used it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 I would like to make one more thing clear before we can suggest that you can safely delete one of the folders.Open Windows Explorer and type %WINDIR% [Enter] into the address bar; where does it take you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synche Posted March 10, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 I would like to make one more thing clear before we can suggest that you can safely delete one of the folders.Open Windows Explorer and type %WINDIR% [Enter] into the address bar; where does it take you?It takes me to C:\WINDOWS.0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 Then I would say that you can safely delete the C:\WINDOWS folder. You should also remove the line in the boot.ini file that references that WINDOWS folder:[boot loader]timeout=3default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS.0="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetectmulti(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetectmulti(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetectTo be on the safe side, I would recommend that you take a full backup of your system before you proceed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synche Posted March 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2010 I deleted the WINDOWS folder and everything seems to be working fine. Thank you all very much for your assistance. I greatly appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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