The Second Time Around

Q: I recently reformatted my hard drive to install Windows 2000. I didn’t make a partition on the hard drive. The problem is that I accidentally installed Windows 2000 twice. I know this because when I start my computer I get a black and grey screen that asks me which operating system that I want to use to boot up my computer. Both of the operating systems that I have to choose from are Windows 2000 and the old operating system on this computer was Windows 98. So, it looks like I installed 2000 twice. It isn’t a problem for me, but other people use the computer and I don’t want to confuse them. How do I remove one of the Windows 2000 operating systems?
Samuel
A: This happens to people quite frequently. I can understand why you would want to remove one of the operating systems, especially if it may confuse other users. However, there is no problem with having duplicate operating systems on the same hard drive at the same time; in fact, there are some inherent benefits to consider before reverting to a one operating system computer.
Having a dual boot computer can provide you with a safeguard in the event that you have a major problem with your primary operating system. You can simply move copies of your files from the inoperable operating system to the functional one. There is a way to keep the extra operating system without having to worry about the computer offering to boot from more than one operating system. First, you need to open the Control Panel from the start menu. Next, open the icon named System. Choose the Advanced tab. You should see an option named System Start Up or System Start up and Recovery. Select the Settings button. The first settings that you should see are the default operating system and the amount of time that you want to display the list of operating systems to boot the computer. Since both of the operating systems on your computer are the same, it doesn’t matter which one you select as the default. It is important that you ensure that the box next to the time to display the list of operating systems is not checked or that you set the time limit to 0 seconds. This way there will not be a boot option to confuse other users. If you ever need to switch operating systems, you only need to go back to the Systems Start Up section and change the default operating system.
If you still want to have only one operating system on your computer you can reformat the hard drive and reinstall the operating system. There are several ways to remove the extra operating system, but reformatting the hard drive is the easiest method, although it can be time consuming. It is important to backup any files or information that you currently have on your computer and that you want to transfer to the new operating system.