Appendix H Removing the OpenVMS Operating System

If your system disk has multiple system-specific roots, boot the system and execute SYS$MANAGER:CLUSTER_CONFIG_LAN.COM to remove all roots except the one from which you are booted.

Shut down and boot from the distribution media or from a system disk other than the one from which OpenVMS is being removed. Then do one of the following:

Enter the following DCL commands:

$ DEFINE/NOLOG PCSI$SYSDEVICE target-disk
$ DEFINE/NOLOG PCSI$SPECIFIC target-disk:[SYSx.]
$ DEFINE/NOLOG PCSI$DESTINATION target-disk:[VMS$COMMON]

where:

If the disk also contains layered products that were installed using the PCSI utility, HP recommends that you remove them as well. Remove any layered products before using the PRODUCT REMOVE VMS command.

Use the following command to remove all the products at once. Select the layered products you want to remove from the menu.

$ PRODUCT REMOVE * /REMOTE

Use the following commands to remove individual products:

$ PRODUCT SHOW PRODUCT/REMOTE
$ PRODUCT REMOVE product-name /REMOTE

Enter the following DCL command:

$ PRODUCT REMOVE VMS /REMOTE

Because the PRODUCT REMOVE command does not delete certain files, review the target disk to determine whether you want to delete, move, or archive the operating system files that still remain on the disk.

Following are lists of the files that the PRODUCT REMOVE command does not delete:

As you examine the preceding lists of files, you might want to archive, rather than delete, the following files:

Also, if you previously removed layered products, those products might have created additional files that you might want to delete, move, or archive.

Review the target disk for the directory structures [VMS$COMMON...] and [SYSx...] that remain after you remove the OpenVMS operating system. You might want to delete these directories.

Note that the directories [SYSx]SYSCOMMON.DIR (in all [SYSx]) are aliases for the file [000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR. Do not delete these SYSCOMMON.DIR files. Instead, use the SET FILE /REMOVE command as follows:

$ SET FILE /REMOVE [SYS*]SYSCOMMON.DIR

After you execute this command and delete, move or archive all the files in [VMS$COMMON...], you can delete [000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR. Then you can delete, move, or archive the files in each [SYSx] directory.