A friend has recently bought a new laptop and has aksed me to "clean-up" her very old PC so that her kids can use it for accessing the internet and playing games. That is all she wishes the PC to do. As part of this process I will take out old programs and files.

Currently it has Win 2000 Pro as the OS, which I think is a bit too complex for her needs. It also takes quite long to load up. She also has a copy of Win 98SE, which I think would do the trick for what will be a very basic set-up.

My question is how do I load Win 98SE on her PC. Do I need to remove Win 2000 Pro first and , if so, how do I do that short of formatting the hard disc.

Thanks

Gareth

In all honesty, I wouldn't bother trying to uninstall programs and files (which sometimes doesn't work as well as you would hope) and then install Windows 98 onto a PC that already has an operating system. You would be much better off formatting the hard disk and starting again with just what you need on there. Also bear in mind that, if Windows 2000 is running on an NTFS partition, you actually CAN'T install Windows 98 on that anyway - it doesn't support it. If this is the case, you'll need to use FDISK to remove the partition and re-create it before you can format the hard disk.

Hope that helps

As always many thanks for the very useful advice.

In looking at the issue again this does seem a lot of effort simply to replace one OS with an older OS. In the re-installtion process I would also need to put back the wireless system which operates quite successfully in her house. Three PCs working off the wireless network. I remember installing this the first time around and because none of the PCs were wireless-enabled it was a bit of an effort!

If I decide to retain the Win 2000 Pro perhaps you can advise me further. For some reason the PC has two copies of Win 2000 Pro. I believe one of the installations might not be fully successful so it may be more advantageous for me to try to identify the "rogue" installation and remove it. Can you advise how I go about removing this installation?

Thanks again

Gareth

If the 2 installations have been installed into the same directory (e.g. C:\Winnt), then you're stuck with them. Have a look in the C:\Boot.ini file (you'll need hidden files switched on) to see if this gives you any clues as to where the problem one is.

The Boot.ini file also shows the timeout period for the menu that appears on startup asking you which Windows installation you want to load. You can decrease the timeout period to make it accept the default option more quickly (or set it to zero to completely hide it).

There isn't an uninstall process for Windows unfortunately, even for a second copy. The best you can do is identify the appropriate directories and delete them. I wouldn't fancy doing that though - it may well cause other unexpected problems.

If it were cleanly installed, should the PC be good enough to run Windows 2000 better than Windows 98? e.g. Is it a Pentium III system with more than 128Mb RAM? If it's only a Pentium II or it only has 64Mb RAM, then Windows 98 will run better on it. Sounds like the PC is in quite a mess to try and sort out. Go on, make your choice about which OS you want and then format the PC and start again!

Many thanks again. My difficulty is that the PC is in Cardiff and I am an exiled Welshman in London!! Anyway, I do know that there is just one directory (i.e. "C") i.e. no partition, which I now understand makes it very difficult to delete the rogue installation. Unfortunately I will not know the Pentium or the RAM until I go down to Cardiff.

I will certainly not try to delete individual files just in case! I will try your idea to reduce load-up time and see if that works. If not, I will format and load Win 98SE, hoping that the wireless re-installation goes according to plan.

Many thanks for such straightforward and helpful advice. As I always say this is the best website for IT advice on the planet

Gareth

Make sure you have all of the appropriate drivers / software for the wireless LAN before you wipe the PC! If you had problems the last time you did it, it would also be worth checking the manufacturer's web site to see if there are any improved drivers or installation programs available now.

I will close this thread off for now to let everyone know that it's currently resolved but, if you would like further advice on it once you get to look at the PC, let a moderator know and we'll re-open this topic for you

P.S. All the team like being here (for free) but it's hard work so thanks for the morale boost

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