How to completely remove Windows XP from your computer. How to remove a second Windows from a computer? Formatting your hard drive
If you notice that Windows XP is crashing, errors appear frequently, certain programs start poorly or do not open at all, then you may need to reinstall the system, for which you need to uninstall it first. In addition, Microsoft made an official statement that official support for this version of the operating system will end in 2014. Consequently, users may experience problems associated with using the system, one of which is the lack of updates, which is unlikely to have a good effect on the operation of the OS. If these or other reasons made you look for information on how to remove Windows XP and install Windows 7, then you have come to the right place.
Removing windows xp
First you need to go to the My Computer section. Here you need to select the hard drive on which the system is installed and right-click on it. From the context menu that opens, select Formatting. The next step is to select the file system of the partition to be formatted, as well as the cluster size.
In cases where deeper cleaning is required, the selection next to the Quick cleaning item is deselected. You can start the process by clicking the Start button. If you want to leave important documents or programs and only delete the system, you will need to select system folders and delete them using Del.
You can also perform this operation using a boot disk. Moreover, this can be done directly when installing another version of the OS. To do this, insert the disk and turn on the computer. To get into the BIOS press Del. Go to the BOOT section, where we set the boot priority to disk. You can save the settings using the F10 button.
After this, system files will begin to be copied from the disk. The system will prompt you to select the partition where the installation will take place. During its process, you will have the opportunity to format partitions, delete unnecessary folders, etc. To do this, you just need to press a button that the system will prompt. In addition, Windows xp can be uninstalled from the Control Panel, for which you need to go to the Uninstall or install programs section.
As you can see, everything is quite simple. However, in some cases, even if you want to install a new version of the OS, you can leave windows xp as a second operating system. This will allow you to use two systems on your computer. If you still need to delete one of them, do not forget to remove information about it in startup. You will already learn how to view and change startup in Windows 7 from this
Sometimes users install a new Windows 7, but forget to remove the old one. There is nothing critical about this, but old Windows takes up a lot of space. This article contains information on how to remove old Windows 7.
There are several ways to remove old Windows:
1. Removing old Windows using Disk Cleanup
You need to run Disk Cleanup. You can find it through "Start". Click “All Programs”, then “Accessories”, then “Utilities” and find the required component in the list.
It is the “Previous Windows installations” item that we need. Select the checkbox if it is not there and click OK. When asked about permanent deletion, answer “Delete files.” After some time, the old Windows 7 files will be deleted.
2. Removing old Windows without programs
If for some reason the program cannot be found or there are problems with it, you can remove it from Windows manually. To do this, find the folder Windows.old and set the rights necessary for deletion.
Go to the folder properties (RMB - Properties) and go to the "Security" tab
Click on "Advanced". On the "Owner" tab, select the current user and check the box for "Replace owner of subcontainers and objects" and click "Apply".
Now on the “Permissions” tab, select the account that you made the owner of the folder and change it (the “Change” button)
A window appears with Permission element, where we put a check mark where highlighted in the screenshot below. Then click OK and with a safety warning.
After the manipulations have been done, it will be possible to delete the Windows.old folder without difficulty and the question of how to remove old Windows 7 is resolved.
3. Removing old Windows by formatting the disk
This method is more drastic, but as they say, “fail-safe.” The bottom line is that you need to boot from the installation disk or flash drive and start installing clean Windows. At the time of selecting a disk, you will need to delete all partitions, partition the hard drive again and format all partitions. This way we get a clean system, without any signs of old operating systems.
Attention! This method will delete all data that is on the computer, so it is recommended if you don’t mind it.
Quite a lot has been written about how to install Windows:
.
and others...
But there is still little written about how to remove Windows, and there is no such article on my website yet. We will correct this oversight.
I won’t go into why you needed to do this, but to the question “ Is it possible to uninstall Windows?"I will answer in the affirmative.
I warn you in advance that if you just want to delete the Windows and Program Files folder, and that’s it, then this will not be correct!
Correct removal of the Windows operating system involves formatting the disk () with the system installed on it.
The fact is that if this is not done, then in the future such situations may arise that there will be OS conflicts. For example, the keys will conflict.
Therefore, before you start deleting, make sure to save all important files and data on another partition of your local disk or on an external one.
This instruction can be divided into two subcategories: when you have an operating system on one disk partition () and when there is another local disk with data and without an OS.
The removal process in this case goes like this.
If you boot under a boot disk (Live CD), then format the partition using standard Windows tools (the link is given above) from under the loaded OS.
If you boot from the installation disk, then there will be a window with a choice of the disk where to install Windows. This is where you need to choose Formatting:
Well, then either install or cancel - it’s up to you.
How to remove the second (old, unnecessary) windows?
This applies to the case when you have more than one local disk, and one already has the OS installed. Here the actions are similar to the previous deletion. Format the disk with the “unnecessary” Windows installed using standard tools of the system itself or using additional programs. After this, neither the old Windows nor all the files will remain. Formatting is what it is...
In conclusion, I would like to add the following.
Yes, you can take the lazy route - delete Windows files and all folders, and you can also install a new OS on top of an existing one (this is also possible) or install it on the same disk, but then there will be a lot of problems. Therefore, think carefully about whether you want a fresh new system and start from scratch, or whether you leave the old one and then suffer from conflicts.
Often, when installing a new operating system, users forget to remove the old one or format the disk. In such cases, when loading the operating system, a window appears on their screen with a choice of operating system, which is very inconvenient, since it only confuses the user. Moreover, in most cases one of the presented operating systems is not working.
How to remove a second Windows 7 from a computer
In such cases, you should remove the unnecessary distribution from your hard drive. This task is completed in several stages:
- removing the operating system from boot options;
- deleting the Windws.old folder from your hard drive.
Note! These actions are relevant for bothWindows 7 and later versions (Windows 8, 10).
Let's look at each of the processes in more detail.
To remove the reflection of a non-working distribution from the loading screen, the user will need to perform the following steps:
After correctly completing all the above steps, the system will ask you to restart your computer. The user must click on the button labeled “Reboot” and wait for the system to restart.
During the next boot, the system will not provide a choice of OS, but will automatically download the working distribution.
Removing the Windws.old folder from your hard drive
A directory called Windows.old is created automatically by the system when installing a new OS if the installation was carried out without formatting the hard drive. This folder is used by the system to restore the previous distribution. The directory size in most cases ranges from 2 to 15 GB, which is very unpleasant. To free up disk space, the user must perform the following manipulations:
If all steps were completed correctly, the folder occupying space will be deleted.
Read effective ways to delete an old folder in the article -
Alternative ways to remove a second Windows 7
It is worth noting that the second folder with old Windows 7 can be deleted in another way. To do this you need:
Important! Without emptying the Recycle Bin, the deleted file will still take up space on your hard drive.
To delete the folder with the old distribution, you can also:
- select a folder;
- Press the key combination “Shift+delete”.
In this case, the folder will be deleted permanently, bypassing storage in the trash. It is important to note that this removal method will never allow you to restore the previous version of the distribution.
Conclusion
The process of installing the Windows 7 operating system over the previous version is necessary only if the user wants to keep all the programs and settings installed earlier, or use the second OS as an additional one and use it freely, switching between OSes. In other situations, it is better to format the disk during installation. This will reduce the effort and time required to perform the above operations. It is also possible, when reinstalling the OS, to format the disk partitions, thereby deleting the .
Video - How to remove a second Windows 7 from a computer
If a person is looking for an option on how to remove Windows 7 from a computer, then most likely he needs to clean the computer from the old version of the operating system. Residual data will load the computer's hard drive. And this is a great way to free him.
Removing the old operating system
Removing an old operating system is carried out in two stages: first you need to clean your computer of residual files. They are concentrated in a folder Windows.old. You also need to erase the record of the previous OS from the boot file boot.ini.
Step 1: Removing the Windows.old folder
The main part of the files from the previous version of the "seven" will be stored in the directory Windows.old. Erasing it can free up more than 10 GB of hard drive memory. But you shouldn't delete the folder directly. In this case, you should use a special function.
Go to the main directory of your computer and open the properties of the system partition. Then click "Disk Cleanup". And then "Clear temporary...". Select all the items and click "OK".
Then open Command Prompt with administrative capabilities. Enter a request there with the following content:
rd /s /q c:\windows.old
If a message appears with the text “It’s not possible...”, then the directory Windows.old no longer exists. 
Stage 2: Removing the system from boot.ini
But information about the previous OS version may still be stored in boot.ini. This is the name of the system boot file. It shouldn't be edited directly either. Use the msconfig utility. It is convenient to run it through the window "Run". Go to the tab 
There should be a single line indicating the current OS. If this is not the case, then remove the unnecessary elements. As a result, there should be one record left. 
