Why two Windows Folders in Local Disc?

Hi brown,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft community

****From your issue description, I understand that you are having two windows folders in local disc. Please let me know if you are not facing this issue.

Did you format and install windows or parallel installation on the same drive?

Usually when you don’t format the drive and perform installation you will get windows O folder. If you have backed up all your data, I would suggest you run disc cleanup.

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

Note: When you run disc cleanup on hard disk by searching your disk for files that you can safely delete. You can choose to delete some or all of the files.

Hope this information is helpful and do let us know if you need further assistance with Windows in future. We will be glad to assist.

Hello Vijay. Not sure what you mean by "if you are not facing this issue" as I am. Because my system  crashed and I could not get any thing on the screen, I used my recovery cd but was unable to access the menu to be able to choose either a repair or re-install or format the drive. Nothing showed on the screen until the process started on its own and I don't know which option it was using. When it finished. there were so many things going wrong afterwards, I used the recovery disc again and managed to get the menu and chose re-installl.

Afterwards though, I used a back up to install things I had lost during the install process and I am not sure if I did something wrong.

I have used "disc clean up" but it has not cleared the Windows O file in Explorer. Would it be safe just to delete them? Brian

It's because you have done a parallel installation, you now have two Windows XP installation and you could still access the original installation by adding it to the Boot.ini file.  These parallel installations were more common during the NT4 era and were mainly used for debuging  and for troubleshouting a non-booting installation or for disaster recovery of personal files.  Unless you can successfully repair the original installation via the parallel one and due to the nature of shared folders on Windows installations parallel installations tend to be problematic to maintain and are prone to problems, it is not recommended to use these installations in a productive environment or for your day to day usage.  I strongly recommend that you backup your personal files and that you reinstall Windows again, this time opting to format the drive onto which Windows will be installed.

John

Hello John. I can find no option to format. Where can I find it?

When you boot the computer with your Windows XP CD you get this option early in the setup at the disk/partition selection screen  (after you press F8 to accept the EULA).  Select the partition onto which you want to install Windows and format it NTFS.  If you are using OEM factory restore/recovery  disk follow the instructions from the manufacturer.

John