ACCESS DENIED

[yousuf]

wen i try n delete documents and settings of a previous operating system it says cannot delete ACCESS DENIED.
How do i delete it.

Tanx in advance

[Lion7718]

You got 2 OSs running?

[yousuf]

not both i had longhorn decided i diddnt want it no more manually tried uninstalling using xp pro tried to delete docs n settings then iget cannot delete ACCESS DENIED

[Lion7718]

Originally posted by yousuf
not both i had longhorn decided i diddnt want it no more manually tried uninstalling using xp pro tried to delete docs n settings then iget cannot delete ACCESS DENIED

Documents And Settings (Folder) is a major part of XP, I don't think it can be deleted.....your going to have to wait for LPDad or gbread to see this thread

[yousuf]

cant no1 help me

[gbread49]

Hi yousuf.........Well, I'm not that familiar with the Longhorn OS. Did you have it installed on the same partition as WinXP Pro ( C:\ drive if you only have one partition) or did you have it installed on a separate partition?

In other words did you install it over your existing WinXP Pro? If that is the case, I would venture to say that there are numerous Registry entries referring to Longhorn and other files/configuration settings that were changed.

I did some quick research and could really not find anything about uninstalling this monster (to get your system back to the original state). From what I did read there are some features that CANNOT be uninstalled (or so it appears).

This may not be the answer you are looking for, but in this case the best thing to do might be to just do a complete reformat of your HD and reinstall WinXP Pro.....

[yousuf]

the thing is i cannot format due to various reasons
I have 2 HDD's
c: is 80gb new install of Win XP pro
d: is 30 gb trying to uninstall new install of longhorn (linux mandrake will be installed later)


thats the states of my hdd's
if anyone can help me PLEEEZ HELP

thanx for trying to help bread

[gbread49]

Give me a little bit of time and I'll get back with you.....

[gbread49]

Ok...just so I'm not confused.....*L*.... I may be way off base with this, but from the info you have given its about all I can come up with. If this is not right, just disregard..... *L*

You have WinXP Pro on your Primary drive... C:\ (80GB)

and..........

you have Longhorn on your Secondary drive... D:\ (30GB)

You were trying to manually uninstall Longhorn from the Secondary drive via the Primary (WinXP) drive??????

I'm presuming that you were able to "see and access" the secondary drive from the primary. (through Windows Explorer and that you were trying to delete the files from there)... If so, that is a problem in itself. In a "dual boot" setup such as that, there can only be ONE operating system "visible/running" at any given time. If both OS's are visible then they will conflict with each other. In other words, if you are booted into WinXP Pro, the drive that Longhorn is on should be hidden.....you shouldn't be able to see it in Windows Explorer......

If you can see the secondary drive in Windows Explorer, you cannot delete the Longhorn files/directories from inside WinXP Pro because WinXP Pro "thinks" the files are part of its own, therefore the "access denied" error.

Now you want to "clean" the secondary drive??????

Before doing any of the below, you need to check one thing. You need to check the "boot.ini" file in WinXP Pro to see if there is any reference to Longhorn. The boot.ini file is located in your C:\ root directory. It may be hidden, so if it is, go to Windows Explorer/Tools/Folder Options/View.....scroll down until you find "Hidden Files and Folders", expand this and change the setting to "Show Hidden Files and Folders". Also, a little further down, find the entry "Hide Protected Operating System Files", uncheck this...Now you should be able to see all hidden files.

Find the "boot.ini" file in your C:\ root directory and open it in Notepad. It should look something like this:
_____________________________
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\ = "Microsoft Windows"
_____________________________
If there is any reference to the "Longhorn" installation under the [operating systems], BACKUP the file, I'd recommend backing it up on a floppy disk. If something does go array, you will have a backup of the file that you can edit if need be.

Moving on.......................

There really shouldn't be any problem reformatting the secondary (30GB) drive. This can be done from DOS, using a Windows Startup disk. You will need to use a Win98/SE boot disk...(NOTE: You can make a Startup Boot disk through WinXP, however, it will not work for what you want to do because it does not contain the necessary DOS files. WinXP creates essentially a WinME startup disk! Surprize!!!)

Anyway, if you have not used DOS before or the "format" command line utility, here is how......You need to know the drive letter of your Secondary HDD......

Start your computer with the Win98/SE boot disk in the floppy drive. This may take a minute or two to get to the A:\ prompt. Once it comes up type in..........

format drive: (drive being the letter of the drive you want to format, so if your secondary drive is D:\ drive, you would type.......)

A:\format d:

You will get a warning message, to proceed with formatiing press "Y"...Then press Enter.

All data on that drive will be erased...It may take awhile to do this, based on the size of the drive.

Thats it, the drive should now be clean............

Whew, hope this helps to solve your problem.....*L*...If not, we will figure out something else.....

[yousuf]

hmm thanx for da info ill give it a try