[Cliffy3]

My Father's computer has three XP Home Edition operating syestms and only uses one. The machine is running very slow and has very little space left on the only hard drive. Any help in deleting the two unused operating systems would be very much appreciated.

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Welcome to Geeks to Go

Well the easiest solution to your problem would be to get a partition editor, delete and format over the partitions that the OS's are on that you don't currently want anymore... Then expand your current Windows OS to the max on your HDD...

To do this:

First back up all the data in your computer you want to keep...
(there is a possibility some of the data could get lost or corrupted in this process...Of moving and expanding partitions)


Then:

Download Easeus Partition Editor (EPM) from my signature below...
(This is a free program for the Home user)

Once you download it install it to the version of Windows you want to keep...

You want to know what the name of the partition is that you want to keep...
Click Start> My Computer Most of the time windows will be the C: drive but you should have a C: E: and and F: drive with your windows partitions on it...
Navitgate to the C: drive the look in the Program Files folder, look for EPM
If EPM is in the folder, then note what the "name" of the drive is... If it is not in that drive continue through the other drives doing the same thing. what ever drive the program is in is the one you want to keep.

Now that you know what the name of the drive is that your windows is on:

Start the program: EPM

locate the partition that Windows is on (That's the one you want to keep.) Remove (delete) the other two...

When you are sure that you have selected the proper partitions to remove click apply...

Now you should just have the partition that you are working from... But now you need to expand it...

Right click on the remaining partition... Expand it to the size you want...When you are done click apply and the partition will be expanded to the designated size...

Good luck. let me know how it works out...

Edited by cbarnard, 26 December 2009 - 10:57 AM.

[cbarnard]

Welcome to Geeks to Go

Well the easiest solution to your problem would be to get a partition editor, delete and format over the partitions that the OS's are on that you don't currently want anymore... Then expand your current Windows OS to the max on your HDD...

To do this:

First back up all the data in your computer you want to keep...
(there is a possibility some of the data could get lost or corrupted in this process...Of moving and expanding partitions)


Then:

Download Easeus Partition Editor (EPM) from my signature below...
(This is a free program for the Home user)

Once you download it install it to the version of Windows you want to keep...

You want to know what the name of the partition is that you want to keep...
Click Start> My Computer Most of the time windows will be the C: drive but you should have a C: E: and and F: drive with your windows partitions on it...
Navitgate to the C: drive the look in the Program Files folder, look for EPM
If EPM is in the folder, then note what the "name" of the drive is... If it is not in that drive continue through the other drives doing the same thing. what ever drive the program is in is the one you want to keep.

Now that you know what the name of the drive is that your windows is on:

Start the program: EPM

locate the partition that Windows is on (That's the one you want to keep.) Remove (delete) the other two...

When you are sure that you have selected the proper partitions to remove click apply...

Now you should just have the partition that you are working from... But now you need to expand it...

Right click on the remaining partition... Expand it to the size you want...When you are done click apply and the partition will be expanded to the designated size...

Good luck. let me know how it works out...

Edited by cbarnard, 26 December 2009 - 10:57 AM.

[Cliffy3]

Thank you for the response. Unfortunatly they are all on one partition...

[Broni]

Back up your data and go for fresh install.

[The Skeptic]

The fact that the three installations are on one partition makes things easier and less risky. There are two steps that you have to take:

1: Modify boot.ini file.

2: delete the unused windows folder like you delete any other folder.

Here is link to a Microsoft page that shows you how to backup and edit boot.ini

[Cliffy3]

Thank you for all the help.

I do not want to start fresh since it is not my machine and don't know where everything has been saved that would be lost or what is important.

And Unfortunatly the Bootcfg.exe utility is only available in Windows XP Professional. This utility is not available in Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.

Any other ideas?

[The Skeptic]

In the link that I mentioned, close to the bottom of the page, is written that the procedures apply both to XP professional and XP home edition. Basically what you have to do is to find the file and edit it, as instructed.