The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Summary
This article describes how to remove Windows NT or Windows 2000 from your computer.
Before you start deleting, be sure that you know where Windows NT or Windows 2000 is installed, what you want to remove, and how hard disk partitions and formatting are. Then use the information in one of the following sections of this article:
Remove Windows NT or Windows 2000 from the boot sequence
Remove the primary NTFS partition
Remove Windows NT or Windows 2000 files
Note: If the hard drive contains To use a partition of the NTFS file system, remove the partition in Windows NT or Windows 2000 before removing Windows NT or Windows 2000 from the boot sequence.
Removing Windows NT or Windows 2000 from the boot sequence
There are two ways to remove a Windows NT or Windows 2000 boot sector from your computer:
If you want to go back to the original MS-DOS configuration, start MS -DOS, then type sys c:. This command will replace the Windows NT or Windows 2000 boot sector with an MS-DOS boot sector and allow your computer to boot MS-DOS. The following files will be left in the root folder and can be deleted after executing the sys c: operation:
Pagefile.sys
Boot.ini
Ntldr
Ntdetect.com
Ntbootdd.sys
Note: The Ntbootdd.sys file will only be installed if a SCSI host adapter is installed on Windows NT or Windows 2000.
If you want to go back to the original Windows 95 or Windows 98 configuration, you can also start your computer with a Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98 boot floppy and then use the sys c: command.
If you want Ntldr to remain on disk, you can start MS-DOS without prompting by changing the way you start the operating system and timeout values. To do this, please start the "System" tool in the "Control Panel", click the Start/Close tab, click MS-DOS in the "Startup" box, and then in the Show list n seconds box Type 0.
Note: If the primary partition has been converted to NTFS, there is only one way to get back to autostart MS-DOS, which is to reformat the drive and reinstall MS-DOS. If this is the case, please see the next section.
Deleting a Primary NTFS Partition
In general, modifications to a bootable NTFS primary partition will not succeed for the following reasons:
MS-DOS 5.0 and 6.0 do not recognize NTFS partitions. The MS-DOS Fdisk program reports NTFS partitions as OS/2 High Performance File System (HPFS) partitions.
You cannot modify or delete an NTFS primary partition within such a partition.
To remove or modify the NTFS primary partition, use one of the following methods:
Start MS-DOS version 6.0 with a floppy disk and press RETURN to continue installing MS-DOS 6. When prompted, choose Remove Files.
Initialize Windows NT installation from a floppy disk or CD-ROM. When prompted, press P to delete the partition.
Use the Delpart tool (Delpart.exe) to remove NTFS partitions. The Delpart tool is only available from the Microsoft Windows NT 3.1 Resource Kit. This tool is not included with the Windows NT 3.5, 3.51, or 4.0 Resource Kit. The Windows NT 3.1 Resource Kit can be downloaded from the following Web site:
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/reskit/nt31/i386/reskit.exe
booting OS/from a floppy disk 2 1.x and run its Fdisk program. To delete a partition, specify the /D option.
Deleting Windows NT or Windows 2000 Files
You can free up disk space by deleting the Windows NT or Windows 2000 files by deleting the following folders.
Windows NT 3.51 and earlier
Users
Win32app
Winnt
Note: Winnt folder names may have other variations. Windows NT or Windows 2000 can be installed in the same folder as Windows 3.1. If this is the case, you should only remove the System32 folder under the Windows folder.
Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000
Users
Winnt
Note: Winnt folder names may have other variations. The following folders are used by Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows 95. Therefore, Windows 95 can only be removed if it is not running and you do not want to keep its installation:
Program Files
Recycled