China DOS Union

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--


Summary
This article briefly describes some available methods for removing a Windows 2000 upgrade and restoring Microsoft Windows 95/98.

Note: The procedures described in this article are not a method for restoring a Windows 95/98 installation. This process requires you to reinstall Windows 95 or Windows 98 and all programs.

List of "More Information".

Is the file system FAT/FAT32 or NTFS? If it is NTFS, please see the "Remove NTFS" section.


Do you want to keep your files? Please see the "Rename Folders" section.


Is it installed in the Windows folder? Please see the "Rename Folders" section.


You have already backed up all files. Please see the "Delete Windows 2000 Files" section.


Do you need to free up space to install Windows 95 or Windows 98? Please see the "Free Disk Space" section.






More Information
If you backed up all data before installing Windows 2000, or if there is no data that needs to be kept, you can reformat the computer hard disk and then reinstall Windows 95 or Windows 98. To reformat the hard disk, please see the "Remove NTFS" section of this article.

Important: Formatting deletes all files and data on the disk. Only after all files you want to keep have been backed up should you format the disk.

The first issue is to determine which file system is being used. To do this, follow these steps:

Double-click My Computer.


Right-click a disk, and then click Properties.


Find the "File system" item.


Note: If the disk uses the NTFS file system, there are very limited ways to restore the system to Windows 95 or Windows 98. Windows 95/98 cannot read or recognize NTFS, and you also cannot use Windows 2000 to convert the disk to a FAT or FAT32 file system. Therefore, the boot disk and the drive where you want to install Windows 95/98 cannot use NTFS.

Microsoft does not provide support for any third-party solution that converts NTFS to a FAT or FAT32 file system.

If the drive uses the FAT file system, you can install any operating system on it. If the drive uses the FAT32 file system, you can install Windows 95 OSR2 or a later operating system.

Next, you must check how much free disk space is available. Please check the Windows 95 or Windows 98 documentation to determine how much disk space is required.

Create or find a Windows boot disk that contains a CD-ROM driver so that you can access the CD-ROM drive.

Note: If you cannot access the CD-ROM drive, you may have to copy the Windows 95 or Windows 98 installation files to the local hard disk for installation. This requires more disk space.

Start the computer with a Windows 98 or Windows 95 boot disk. Verify that you can read the CD-ROM drive, and then run the SYS C： command from the MS-DOS prompt:

Note: This command will move the boot files to drive C： and copy the boot sector. After running this command, you will no longer be able to boot Windows 2000.


Rename Folders
If you install Windows 95 or Windows 98 on the drive where Windows 2000 is located, you must rename the following folders to prevent conflicts in Windows 95/98.

Note: If the hard disk has already been reformatted, you do not need to rename any folders.
Program Files
For example, at the MS-DOS prompt type the following command:
ren c:\progra~1 c:\files.old
Windows
For example, at the MS-DOS prompt type the following command:
ren c:\windows c:\windows.200
Remove NTFS Drive
To remove the NTFS file system, reformat the hard disk to use the FAT or FAT32 file system.

If the computer supports booting from CD-ROM, you can use the "Recovery Console" on the Windows 2000 CD-ROM to complete this step; otherwise use the four Windows 2000 boot disks. Reformatting or repartitioning the disk will delete all data on it, so be sure to back up all data beforehand.

To use the "Recovery Console", follow these steps:
Start the computer using the Windows 2000 CD-ROM or boot disks.


When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press F10.


In the "Recovery Console", select the installation, and log on with the Administrator password.


Type map , and then press ENTER.


Note the drive you want to reformat.


Type format x : /fs:fat32 , where x is the drive letter of the drive you want to format, and FAT32 is the file system to use.


Type y to confirm your choice. When the formatting process is complete, type exit to restart the computer.


Note: The drive letters in the "Recovery Console" may be different from those in Windows 2000.
Free Disk Space
If there is not enough disk space, you can delete the following files and empty the following folders:
Empty all Windows 2000 Recycle Bins.
In Internet Explorer, delete all Temporary Internet Files and clear the History files.
Delete the Pagefile.sys and Hyberfil.sys files.
Delete Windows 2000 Files
The following files are located in the root directory of the drive used to start the computer, and are marked as hidden files. In most cases this is the C： drive, that is, the first drive letter among all hard disks. To delete Windows 2000 system files, follow these steps:
Open "Windows Explorer".


On the View menu, click Folder Options.


On the View tab, click Show all files, and then click OK.


In the root directory of drive C： or the boot drive, delete the following files:


Boot.ini
Ntbootdd.sys
Ntdetect.com
NTLDR
On the drive where Windows 2000 is installed, if the following files exist, delete them:


Hiberfil.sys
Pagefile.sys
If the following folders exist, delete them:


Windows
Program Files
Documents and Settings
Run the Windows 98 or Windows 95 Setup program
To run Windows Setup, start the computer with a Windows 98 boot disk or a boot disk containing a CD-ROM driver. After switching to the CD-ROM drive, type the following command lines, and press
ENTER
after each line
sys c:
f :\setup.exe
where f is the drive letter of the CD-ROM drive. There should be a Setup.txt file on the Windows 95 or Windows 98 CD-ROM with instructions on how to run Setup. There are also more installation instructions in the getting started guide included with Windows 95 or Windows 98. For additional information about installing Windows, click the following article numbers to view the corresponding Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:
Q221829 How to install Windows 98 on a computer with no operating system
Q193902 How to install Windows 98 into a new folder
Q187632 How to create a Windows 98 boot disk that supports FAT32
Q232681 Windows 98 Second Edition updated the Setup.txt file
For a link to the online Windows 98 Second Edition Readme.txt file, see the following
Microsoft Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows/readme/Win98se/w98sereadme.asp
For a link to the online Windows 98 Readme.txt file, see the following Microsoft Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows/readme/98/Windows_98.asp