thanks for the info guys, but may not have made my self clear. I reinstalled xp and inadvertenly started to install another copy. on the same partition. the second copy is only half installed. This is the one I would like to remove. now I'm wondering if I insert the disk and finish the install it that will make it easier to delete? other wise will just leave as is. I finally got all the backedup records back on the new xp, and I really don't want to have to fight that problem again.