Remove Win2K/XP manually on a dual-boot
When you install Windows 2000/XP to a new folder or partition on an existing Windows 9x/ME/2000 system, you can dual-boot between the two. Windows 2000/XP Setup modifies the boot sector to load the Windows 2000 boot loader at boot. The boot loader gives you the option of booting either Windows 2000/XP or Windows 9x/ME/2000 depending on the selection you make from the boot menu, which is defined in the Boot.ini file.
If you decide that you no longer want to use Windows 2000/XP on the computer, you can keep the system as it is, deleting the system folder but continuing to use the boot loader to boot Windows 9x/ME/2000.
A cleaner solution, however, is to remove all Windows 2000/XP files, including the boot loader. To do so, boot the computer to Windows 9x/ME and insert a blank, formatted diskette in drive A. Then, open a DOS prompt and execute this command: SYS A:.
This copies the system files to the diskette so you can use it to boot the computer to a DOS prompt. You can also format the disk through the GUI and choose the option to copy the system files to it to create the boot disk.
Next, copy the files Sys.com, Format.com, and Fdisk.exe to the diskette. Boot the computer using the diskette, and then execute this command: SYS C:.
This overwrites the existing boot files and restores the Windows 9x boot loader. Then you can remove the Windows 2000 folder and the boot files Ntldr.exe, Boot.ini, Ntdetect.com, Arcsetup.exe, and Arcldr.exe from the computer. If Windows 2000 is installed in a different partition, use Fdisk to remove the Windows 2000 partition or Format to reformat it for use with Windows 9x.
