WINNT /D Does Not Delete System Files

Last reviewed: February 13, 1995
Article ID: Q123286

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 3.5
Microsoft Windows NT Server version 3.5

SYMPTOMS

The following error message appears when you attempt to run WINNT.EXE with the /D switch (for example: WINNT /D:C:\WINNT) to delete Windows NT:

   Setup was unable to open the log file named below.

   C:\WINNT\SETUP.LOG

   Setup is unable to remove Windows NT files from the specified directory.

If you copy the SETUP.LOG file from the %SYSTEMROOT%\REPAIR directory (where it resides with Windows NT version 3.5) into the %SYSTEMROOT% directory (in this example, C:\WINNT), the following error message appears:

   Setup is unable to find the Repair.WinntFiles section in the
   setup log file named below.

   C:\WINNT\SETUP.LOG

   Setup is unable to remove Windows NT files from the specified
   directory.

CAUSE

WINNT.EXE is looking for the SETUP.LOG file in the %SYSTEMROOT% directory, where it resides with Windows NT version 3.1, instead of %SYSTEMROOT%\REPAIR, where it resides with Windows NT version 3.5. WINNT.EXE is also looking for the section names as they exist under Windows NT version 3.1; for example, Repair.WinntFiles, which is actually named Files.Winnt with Windows NT version 3.5.

WINNT.EXE /D is designed to delete Windows NT system files from %SYSTEMROOT%. It is not designed to delete the entire directory structure, nor is it designed to delete the boot files or modify the boot sector.

RESOLUTION

As a workaround, you can manually remove Windows NT by proceeding with the following.

NOTE: The following assumes that your system is currently configured to start into Windows NT or MS-DOS (that both are startup options) and that your system partition is using the FAT file system. If your configuration differs from that just mentioned, do not proceed with the following. Instead, contact Microsoft Product Support for other uninstall/configuration options.

Start your system from an MS-DOS bootable floppy disk that contains the file SYS.COM.
From the A:\ prompt, type "sys c:" (without the quotation marks).
Start your system from the hard drive to ensure that the system starts from the hard drive into MS-DOS.
Use the MS-DOS ATTRIB command (for example, ATTRIB -r -h -s <filename>) to remove the read only, hidden, and system attributes from the following files, found in the root directory of your system partition:
```
      BOOT.INI
      BOOTSECT.DOS
      NTBOOTDD.SYS (if it exists)
      NTDETECT.COM
      NTLDR
```
Delete the files mentioned in step 4 above and the file PAGEFILE.SYS.
Delete the directory %SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32 and %SYSTEMROOT%\REPAIR.
Optionally, you can also delete the USERS and WIN32APP directories, found in the root directory, provided there are no important user files located there.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Windows NT version 3.5. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Additional reference words: prodnt 3.50 deinstall
KBCategory: kbnetwork kbbug3.50
KBSubcategory: ntsetup

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Last reviewed: February 13, 1995
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