If I had a gun...well, I'm about ready to use it on me. Two "expert friends (?) installed W2K and now nothing works including my $400+ printer. I've tried the "budja' (page unavailable it says). One suggestion is too lengthy for my own memory, and I don't want to reformat my C. My 98 CD2edition is useless. I've also uninstalled everything of W2k and I'm on a time schedule to print a form that will prevent me from being evicted on Jan.2. If you think a man can't cry, you don't know how desparate I am.
Please HELP!

Copy your 'time schedualed' form on to a floppy and get you 'expert' friends to print it out... They got you in this mess.

OR

Write it out using the good 'ol pen and paper.

Use an ordinary boot CD or flop (and adjust bios to boot only from it) then, in Dos use any Dos browser and delete WNNT dir, autoexec, config.sys, ...
Then install win 98.
Win 2000 is realy ok but you shoud first of all find the drivers you need for every hardware you may have,first of all the modem so you can use it and find other drivers on the net.

Sorry, crying man, but i think you are going to have to wipe out your harddrive and re-install win98.

2000 doesn't allow itself deleted, that's the beauty of it (beauty????)

find an fdisk on an old 98 recovery disk, get on with that and redo the thing from scratch.

Your expert friends should have checked out the HCL. found on microsoft website

Am i right or am i right??? opinions anyone??

Try this:

How to Manually Remove Windows 2000 and Restore Windows 95 or Windows 98 (Q250456)

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The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 , Professional

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SUMMARY
This article describes how to remove a Windows 2000 upgrade and restore Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98.

NOTE : The procedures that are described in this article are not a method of recovering a Windows 95 or Windows 98 installation. This procedure requires you to reinstall Windows 95 or Windows 98 and all your programs.

The following topics are contained in the "More Information" section of this article:

Is the file system FAT/FAT32 or NTFS? If NTFS, see the "Removing NTFS" section.

Do you want to save files? See the "Renaming Folders" section.

Is Windows installed in the Windows folder? See the "Renaming Folders" section.

You have all your files backed up. See the "Removing Windows 2000 Files" section.

Do you need to free up space to install Windows 95 or Windows 98? See the "Freeing Up Disk Space" section.

MORE INFORMATION
If you backed up all of your data before you installed Windows 2000 or you do not have any data that needs to be retained, you can reformat the hard disks in the computer and reinstall Windows 95 or Windows 98. To reformat the hard disk, see the "Removing NTFS" section in this article.

WARNING : Formatting a disk deletes all the files and data. Format a disk only if all of the files that you want to keep are backed up.

Identify which file system you are using. To do this, follow these steps:

Double-click My Computer on the desktop.

Right-click the disk you want, and then click Properties .

Look for the File System entry.

NOTE : If the disk is using the NTFS file system, your options for returning to Windows 95 or Windows 98 are limited. Windows 95 and Windows 98 do not read or recognize NTFS, and you cannot convert the disk to use the FAT or FAT32 file system. The bootable disk you use and the drive on which you want to install Windows 95 or Windows 98 cannot use NTFS.

Microsoft does not support any third-party solutions for converting NTFS to FAT or FAT32.

If the drive is using the FAT file system, you can install any operating system. If the drive is using the FAT32 file system, you can install Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2) or later.

Check how much disk space is available. Check your Windows 95 or Windows 98 documentation to determine the amount of disk space that you need.

Create or find a Windows Startup disk that contains CD-ROM drivers so that you can gain access to the computer's CD-ROM drive.

NOTE : If you cannot gain access to the CD-ROM drive, you may need to copy your Windows 95 or Windows 98 installation files to your local hard disk. This requires additional disk space.

Start your computer by using the Windows 98 or Windows 95 Startup disk. Verify that you can read the CD-ROM drive, and then run the sys c: command from the command prompt.

NOTE : This command transfers the boot files to drive C and copies the boot sector. After you run this command, you can no longer start Windows 2000.

Renaming Folders
If you install Windows 95 or Windows 98 on the same drive on which Windows 2000 is installed, you need to rename the following folders to prevent possible conflicts in Windows 95 or 98.

NOTE : If you reformat the hard disk, you do not need to rename any folders.
The Program Files folder

For example, type the following command at the command prompt:
ren c:\progra~1 c:\files.old
The Windows folder

For example, type the following command at the MS-DOS prompt:
ren c:\windows c:\windows.200
Removing NTFS Drives
To remove the NTFS file system, reformat the hard disk to use the FAT or FAT32 file system.

You can do this by using the Recovery Console tool on the Windows 2000 CD-ROM if your computer supports a bootable CD-ROM or by using the four Windows 2000 Startup disks. Reformatting or repartitioning a disk deletes all the data on it, so make sure you back up your data.

To use Recovery Console to reformat a drive, follow these steps:
Start the computer by using the Windows 2000 CD-ROM or the Startup disks.

When the "Welcome to Setup" screen is displayed, press F10.

In Recovery Console, choose the appropriate installation and log on by using your Administrator password.

Type map , and then press ENTER.

Note the drive you want to reformat.

NOTE : The drive letters may be different in Recovery Console than in Windows 2000.

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

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

Freeing Up Disk Space
If you are running low on disk space, you can delete the following files and empty the following folders:
Empty all Windows 2000 Recycle Bins.

In Microsoft Internet Explorer, delete all temporary internet files and clear the history files.

Delete the Pagefile.sys and the Hyberfil.sys files.

Removing Windows 2000 Files
The following files are hidden files that are located in the root folder of the drive that is used to start the computer. Typically, this is drive C, which is the first drive letter that is available for hard disks. To remove the Windows 2000 system files, follow these steps:
Start Windows Explorer.

On the View menu, click Folder Options .

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

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

Boot.ini
Ntbootdd.sys
Ntdetect.com
NTLDR

On the drive on which Windows 2000 is installed, delete the following files if they exist:

Hiberfil.sys
Pagefile.sys

Delete the following folders if they exist:

Windows
Program Files
Documents and Settings
Running Windows 98 or Windows 95 Setup
To run Windows Setup, boot your computer by using the Windows 98 Startup disk or a bootable disk that contains your CD-ROM drivers. After you gain access to the CD-ROM drive, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line
sys c:
x :\setup.exe
where x is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive. There should be a Setup.txt file on the Windows 95 or Windows 98 CD-ROM that explains how to run Setup. There are additional instructions for Setup in the Getting Started guide that is included with Windows 95 or Windows 98. For additional information about installing Windows, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
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 Startup Disk that Supports FAT32
Q232681 Windows 98 Second Edition Updates Setup.txt File
For a link to the Windows 98 Second Edition Readme.txt files online, see the following Microsoft Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows/readme/Win98se/w98sereadme.asp
For a link to the Windows 98 Readme.txt files online, see the following Microsoft Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows/readme/98/Windows_98.asp

Presuming it's all fat32...; and that you're stuck with the W2K boot-loader from the failed W2K install attempt...

I'm also presuming you went the 'upgrade' route rather than a clean install (W2K to its own folder/location)?

Boot with a '98 boot-disk and at the a:>\ prompt type:

sys c:

and press Enter.

Then run '98 set-up/install and install to current C: primary partition.

(If you had W2K in its own space, and did not 'upgrade' the '98 folder to W2K then you should be able to run '98 again as it was before W2K wrecked the scene...; i.e. you should not need to re-install '98. But from what you say thus far I'm inclined to think this is not the case...?)

Once '98 is in (and running OK) you can locate and delete the W2K/NT files (including the pagefile.sys - if it managed to create it) via Explorer.

You will/should also be able to access data and print etc. and run '98 as before. BUT FIRST you will have to re-install apps. if you are (re-)installing '98 afresh!

You don't actually 'need' to run the " sys c: " routine as suggeseted initially; '98 set-up will reset the W2KNT style boot-loader to the '9x/ME/DOS version anyway. But doing it first ensures it goes. Once you have reset the boot-loader, you can use either the del or deltree commands to delete W2K folder off the drive, and also the pagefile.sys - if it's there (instead of using Explorer from a re-installed '98); and then (re-)install '98 (and its apps.).

As long as you have sufficient space on the C: partition '98 can go alongside the bodged/wrecked '98/W2K folder - or whatever it is at this time.

Important thing is to (re-)install '98 to its 'own' folder - and perhaps clearly identify it - e.g. win98 (as opposed to the default windows?) in order to be sure which folder(s) you are deleting when you do delete the failed/crashed version(s).

Are you sure you are using the corrrect url for budja? This is the corect link - and it works for me...

http://www.budja.com/w2k/uninstall_w2k.html

The routes I have suggested above will allow you to preserve data, avoid a reformat (and loss of data, or a need to back it up) - provided you have sufficient space on the drive to allow a parallel (re-)install of '98. If there is 'not' enough space then you 'have' to lose (ie.e delete via the del or deltree commands) the exising W2K folder (after you have run the " sys c: " command) and then you can re-install '98 afresh...

Once '98 is back in OK - defrag the drive to tidy up the mess...

IF your failed W2K install set things to ntfs then getting out of the mess is somewhat more involved. If this is the case post back and perhaps a solution or two can be offered?

Finally: your experience again indicates very clearly why it's wiser to set up a dual/multi-boot for trying out an 'new' to you OS. It allows you a means of return to the one(s) that work for you; and can run all that do safely.

Also when next you go for W2K - verify the system is truly W2K compliant; run the chkupgrd.exe util off the W2K CD.