remove unwanted custom site definitions,features, custom master pages,web templates from 14 hive

Question

hi,

 i have a win srvr 2008 r2, with sp 2010/ vs 2010  installed . already some one has  installed  so many custom site definitons, web temapltes,  etc in that server.i dont know, due to this reason, i am not able to work with site collcetions, sites. activating  publishing infra  features etc. am getting sometimes server error in appln, feature not activated, with error  correlation_id etc...

i assume that because of the existence of those custom defintions may be causing d error.is  it true? if yes, i wanna  remove those custom site definitions, custom master pages, web templates etc. plz help me to delete all those.any  commands or source codes  available to remove those.

also it has  folder  called 12 in the same server along with 14. so does this means that the user who has used my machine also installed moss 2007 s/w  also? if thats tru should  i remove the 12 hive ? if i remove /simply delete the 12  hive will this cause any issue  to my 14 hive or any of my sp 2010 settings.

So, am thinking of

1) running the config wizard again-- will this resolve my issue

 OR 

2)   removing the entire SP 2010 s/w.and then reinstall again,

 should this remove all those  custom site definitions already created?

any help is  appreciated 

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shankar

Answer 1

Hi Shankardas,

  Sounds like you are in a messy situation. If you are just planning to use this machine for development, I would suggest you start with a clean slate (new OS installation) and install SharePoint 2010 from scratch.Troubleshooting existing issues is most likely going to cascade into new issues. 

At least performing a new installation you will also have the knowledge of doing an installation and time worth spent.  So that would be your best option.

Anand

Answer 2

Hi,

You may remove the sites by using Central Administration or PowerShell.

Here is one article on deleting a site collection can be referrred to.

Delete a site collection (SharePoint Server 2010)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262392.aspx

Hope that helps.

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Ivan-Liu

TechNet Community Support

Answer 3

hi Ivan,

i know how to delete  the site collections using CA UI and powershell, or  programmatically.

what my question was since some1  else has installed many  custom site definitions which is  unwanted  as far as i am concerned.i know i cant simply delete the folders in the 14 hive's  sitetemplates folder.so is there any powershell scripts or a sharepoint api to remove all those custom site definitions/web templates. also  i am unable to implement FBA,as it throws some error and throws the server error in appln when i activate the sharepoint publishing infrastructure . would like to know whats the  root cause of all these errors.

is that my SP 2010 corrupted? i tried running the sp prod config wizard multiple times , but even after doing that i am getting the same kind of errors. am having win server 2008 r2 os  and  vs 2010 an  sp d  and 2010 office proff.plus 2010 [ 64 bit ]., german language pack.when i installed the german language packs the  config wizard started  auto. and thrown the  error config. db failed .etc ...

Also fyi, the machine has windows azure sdk installed. so in order to work smoothly with sp 2010 shud i go ahead with formatting the hard disk and  install win srvr 2008 r2 as again from scratch as mentioned by Anand.

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trutrutr

Answer 4

Yes. I would say that would be the best way to go. 

Anand