Dual Boot Catastrophy

[lward1]

I'm not sure what the heck the customer has done but here goes, as I have never ran into this yet.

Customer was running Win 2000 Pro. Either they or someone else installed Win XP Pro SP2 on top since its gives the option to select either at start up.

My question is (their question is) how do I remove the Win 2000 pro so it's just XP without loosing all their programs and settings.

If I go into Cocuments and Settings I can see all the users from both OS but the XP users dont have all the correct subfolders and Apps from Win 2000 like Office apps and customer apps. The Apps show up in C: Program Files but not in like the Documents or Start Menu.

Both of these OS look to be OEM installs according to Key finder.

I thought about just wiping and reloading but the customer cant seem to find a lot of the programs that were installed in Win 2000.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Les

 

[TimeCode]

I thought about just wiping and reloading but the customer cant seem to find a lot of the programs that were installed in Win 2000.

Then this may be an expensive but very valuable lesson for them to learn...

1. Don't use other people's software.
2. Keep all of your own discs in a safe and logical place.
3. Don't muck with what you don't know.

 

[lward1]

Tim,

I agree 100%. I've got a couple of solutions to try, and if not I'll just reinstall XP.

Thanks,

Les

 

[seedubya]

Sorry to tell you lward1, but it's not an option. They'll either have to put up with the status quo or find the software. Nothing else will work.

 

[Blues]

I think it could be done but it would take more effort then its worth in addition I would be suspicous that this software, including one or both of the OSes, to very likely be pirated.

 

[lward1]

Thanks for the replys,

Windows XP Pro passes WGA and I can download SP3 from MS website, but I have not done that yet, so I know XP is legit.
I was thinking about moving the desktop items and startup items to the XP accounts then under system properties > advanced > startup recovery settings I can lower the time to choose OS to 0 instead of 30 and make sure the default OS is set to XP and just leave everything else. I'll try that if it dont work I'll just wipe and reinstall and se if they can find there apps.

Thanks again,

Les

 

[abe]

I don't think you can lower the timeout to 0 I belive it won't go lower then 3 . but you can just remove the boot option from the
from the boot.ini

 

[lward1]

Thanks for all the help,

They jast want to leave it as is until they can try and find all the apps they want to install.

I just lowered the choose OS time and it will boot into XP without asking which one.

Les

 

[thor999]

I don't think you can lower the timeout to 0 I belive it won't go lower then 3 . but you can just remove the boot option from the
from the boot.ini

You are correct, three is the lowest. But its a fast three!

 

[l337]

if your new to boot.ini editing easybcd is a great help

 

[Pc Fixed Right]

disable xp from startup and recovery modify boot.ini restart comp
delete windows xp folder
get windows xp upgrade coa
install windows xp upgrade on windows 2000 enjoy

or sell them a computer with xp already on it and get them a bunch of open source software to replace their "stone age" software
-sell them the benefit of improved efficency etc....