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General discussion

Removing Windows Dual-Boot

Feb 3, 2004 4:22AM PST

I have a PC with a partitioned hard drive that is currently set to dual-boot Windows ME and Windows 2000 Pro. The C: drive is the ME drive, while Win2K is on the D: drive. How do I safely remove Windows ME and return the free space to the Windows 2000 partition? Can I then rename the drive back to C: ?

Discussion is locked

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No supported method of moving Windows 2000 exists.
Feb 3, 2004 5:08AM PST

There are a few write-ups about this but the bottom line is that Windows NT, 2000, XP and for the forseeable future of Windows, Microsoft has not provided any indication that there is a supported "this will work" method for what you propose.

The only supported method is to backup what you can't lose and start over, then restore from backup.

Bob

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Once you secure what you can't lose.
Feb 4, 2004 12:16AM PST
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=292175 shows an in-place install that I've used to ressurect a Windows 2000 install that was moved from a non-booting IDE channel to Primary and Master.

YMMV and there will be no refund after the movie has begun.

Bob
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Re:Removing Windows Dual-Boot
Feb 5, 2004 6:19AM PST

Would agree with Bob - there are various techniques for trying to do this (which may well succeed - I have managed it on test machine, just to see if it could be done), but all at least as much trouble as backing up and clean installing - which also has the benefit of a clean start.

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Re:Re:Removing Windows Dual-Boot
Feb 15, 2004 6:20AM PST

The way to do it is simply uninstall the ME on Drive C:. It would leave that drive with all space on it accessible to any program, data or access to 2000. Once you uninstall it, you will have to run the repair from the W2K cd operating system disk to reestablish the MBR and NTLDR boot loader in the first sector of the boot drive ( C: ).