Old OS Appears in Startup Menu When You Upgrade to Windows 2000

ID: Q227299

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

SYMPTOMS

When you perform an upgrade from Windows 95 or Windows 98 to Windows 2000 Professional and Setup is interrupted during text-mode (while files are copying), Microsoft Windows continues to be displayed in the Startup menu.

Although Windows 95/98 still appears in the Startup menu, after you complete Windows 2000 Setup and restart your computer, you are unable to boot into your previous version of Windows.

One of the following error messages may be displayed:

Windows 95:
Non-System disk or disk error
Replace and strike any key when ready

-or-

Windows 98:
The following file is missing or corrupted: COMMAND.COM
Type the name of the Command Interpreter (e.g., C:\Windows\Command.Com)

You may also receive the following warning and missing file errors:

Warning: Windows has detected a registry/configuration error. Choose, Command prompt only, and run SCANREG.
The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\Windows\Himem.sys
The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\Windows\DBLBUFF.SYS
The following file is missing or corrupted: C:\Windows\IFFSHELP.SYS
The following file is missing or corrupted: WIN.COM

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because Setup deletes and moves the Windows 95/98 files just prior to the beginning of the copy process. After the file copying phase of Setup has started, the files marked to be deleted are removed from the system. At this point, you are unable to boot into Windows 9x.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, restart the Windows 2000 upgrade process by selecting "Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Setup" from the Startup menu.

If you desire to return to the previous version of Windows, you must reinstall that version.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information about upgrading issues, please click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q198698 No Uninstall Available After Upgrading to Windows 2000

Q217210 Multi-Booting Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 95/98, MS-DOS

Q232123 Cannot Upgrade Windows 95/98 Systems That Dual Boot Windows 2000

Q228986 Some Files Are Missing After Upgrading Windows 95/98

Additional query words:

Keywords :
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb