win 2k uninstall prob

[crater]

hi all.

I've got a prob(weird one).
I installed win 2000(upgrade from 98se) the other day with a fat32 format . And now I would like to dual boot it with win 98me.
Here's the prob. comes in. After reading a few help files I decided that I would have to re-format my hdd and then partition it (since it wasn't partitioned before)
When I went to format the hhd a message came up that reads as such:
"format cannot run because the volume is in use by another process, format may run if this volume is dismounted first.
ALL OPENED HANDELS TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID
would you like to force a dismount on this volume?(y/n)"

I say yes then another message comes up :
" cannot lock the drive, the volume is still in use"

I exited out of all running prog(even uninstalled all but the basics that come with os) Then tried again with the same results.

any ideas out there why I can't format my hdd?

os>>win 2000 pro (logged on as admin)
cpu>>800mhz
256mb ram
drive is formatted in Fat32

[LRC]

You cannot format a volume that is in use. Period.

If you want to dual boot then the first thing to do is create a partition for the new OS. Use Part. Magic for this and to format. Install Win98me (?) on the new partition. At this point you will not be able to boot into Win2K. Boot from the Win2K CD and select the repair option, manual, repair boot sector. Now you will be able to select the OS at boot-up.

There are numerous tutorials available on the web that give more detailed instructions on dual booting. Do a Google search.

[nolonemo]

Do you have your old Win98 rescue/boot disk? Boot from the floppy and format the drive from the DOS prompt.

Or how about booting into MS-DOS mode (not sure how you do this in Win2000, in Win98, you hit F8 during boot and choose "command prompt" or such from menu. In Win 98, go to \windows\command directory to find format.com file to run

I'm assuming you want to format your HD and reintall everything.

[nolonemo]

You don' t need to format the whole drive. Use partition magic (search in the forum to find), which will let you create a partion out of the unused space on your HD. Then you can install Win2k into that.

[crater]

sorry guys been away for awhile.

well your right nolonemo I put win 98v startup disc in and was able to reformat entire drive. Thanks thats what I was trying to do.

Now for to big but.

I reinstalled win 98se then uped to 2k useing the patitioning tool in win 2k as LRC said. It worked for awhile then system became very unstable. I think it was do to both os's installed in same partition, witch I know is not good. So I used fdisk to see the partitions ,guess what only one there, confirming my thought.
So back to reformating hdd, (but first I deleted the partition) formated disk back to a systems disk (format c:/s) and a fat32 instead of ntfs. Reinstalled win 98 But this time (when uping to 2k) I clicked new install instead of upgrade(I really don't mind puting in new settings) but the damn thing still upon reboot asked me witch os I want to start?(And yes both are still there)

As for now I would like to just boot 2k (the hell with dual boot) at least until I get puter running right. But I can't just install 2k because it is a upgrade disk.

[crater]

ok for now had to reformat reinstall everything but it would seem to be working so far.

thanks for the suggestions, it really helped.

crater

[nolonemo]

Hey crater,

I just set up a dual boot Win98 and Win2k last weekend. You have to use fdisk (or partition magic, easier) to set up at least two partitions on your HD (I actually set up one partition for Win98 OS, one for Win2k, an some others for apps, games and video).

Then install win98. Then install Win2k. Choose the "clean install" option. Then during setup, when you get the options screen with the gears icon in the middle, click on that and choose the option to tell it which partition you want to install Win2k to. You have to have the two OS in different partitions.

Once installed, when you boot, you can choose between Win98 and Win2k. Only thing to watch out for is that if you have Win2k convert any partitions to NTFS, Win98 won't be able to see them. What I did was to set aside one partition for my legacy apps, the ones that will only run under Win98. That partition and the Win98 partition (C are formatted FAT32. All the others are NTFS.

IF I boot to Win2k, it sees all the partitiions. If I boot to Win98, it sees only the two FAT32 partitions. BTW, you have to install drivers under each OS (eg, I had to run my motherboard driver CD after booting into Win98 and after booting into Win2k.

Hope this helps some.

[sushii]

Crater,

you can also tackle your problem with Partition-magic. But you can NEVER format a volume in use . U can also use a bootmanager.

sushii

[nolonemo]

One more thing. My understanding is that the upgrade disk is the same as the "full" OS -- the only difference (I think) is that it takes a different key. Find some different Win2k serials and try them out -- might work to get you a standalone install.

[crater]

thanks for the help guys

but now I've even got bigger probs. My puter seems to want to reboot WHENEVER it wants to? I'm running 2K and it seems to get ALOT of errors like :explorer get alot then it whats me to close and restart prog. but sometimes it reboots in the middle (just out of the blue) could this have something to do with 2k or have I not got something straight when I repartitioned?

It(puter) has also lost it retention for passwords and my favorites and has even deleted some progg. that I had installed.
It hasn't completely got rid of them there still in my program files dir. but it did erase them from my desktop, now I try to run them & sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

I just bought this puter and I'd really like to know whats goin on with it. Just in case I have to send a nasty e-mail to the seller, cause it still is under warrenty for about one more week.
about all I can tell ya about pc is it's
800mhz
p3
256 ram
20 g hard drive
sound almost like a hardware prob. more than software but what do I know, If I knew I would'nt be ask'n