Member Avatar for grgreen

Hey guys. I've got a 120 GB HDD w/ 2 equal partitinos. I have XP and all data on the C: drive. D: drive is empty. I want to install Vista on the D: drive in a dual boot scenario. I need to keep XP. I mainly want to just check Vista out and see how it runs.

However, what if I should want to get rid of Vista? Normally you can't delete the system partition, but can you ifyou are not currently running the system.

Example, if i wanted to delete the partition with Vista, I couldn't do it while running Vista. But if I was funning XP on a sperate partiton could I then delete the Vista System partition using Disk Management?

Mainly, I want to have the option of getting rid of Vista without having to reinstall XP over everything.

Thanks!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by willcomp

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Short answer: yes — you can install Vista on D: and later remove it without reinstalling XP, but the exact steps depend on which boot loader is active after the Vista install. is right that if XP's old loader stays in charge you can just remove the Vista partition and tidy up the XP boot entries. is also right to warn that Vista commonly places its boot files on the active/system partition and replaces the boot mechanism, so you may need to restore XP's boot files afterward.

How to check which loader is in use:

  • Look in the root of C:. If you see ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini then NTLDR (XP) is present.
  • If you see bootmgr and a \Boot\BCD store then Vista's boot manager is present.
  • In Disk Management the partition labeled "System" is the one holding boot files.

Removal options (safe sequence):

  • If NTLDR controls boot: boot XP, use Disk Management to format D:, then remove the Vista entry from C:\boot.ini (or run bootcfg /rebuild) after backing up boot.ini.
  • If Vista's boot manager controls boot: remove/format D: from XP, then restore XP's loader from the Windows XP Recovery Console. Typical Recovery Console steps are:
fixboot c:
fixmbr
copy D:\i386\ntldr C:\
copy D:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
bootcfg /rebuild

(D: above is the CD/DVD drive letter in Recovery Console; adjust as needed.)

Final notes and cautions:

  • Always have the Windows XP CD or recovery media before installing Vista.
  • Back up important data or image the disk first.
  • If unsure, tools such as EasyBCD (or the VistaBootPro tool mentioned earlier) make editing/removing BCD entries easier than manual Recovery Console work.

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Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

If you have XP on C: and Vista on D: then you don't have to reinstall anything. Just boot up on XP and reformat the d drive. The only problem I see with that is that you will still have the duel-boot menu. You need to edit the boot.ini file found in c:\ root directory. Here's the one on my computer

;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /FASTDETECT /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN

Not certain what you have to do to that file to remove the Vista option, but whatever you do make sure you have another copy of boot.ini before editing it.

Member Avatar for grgreen

Perfect! That's what I was thinking but wanted the confirmation. Thanks a lot!

Member Avatar for willcomp

The Vista boot loader will install on the XP partition (current boot partition) and will replace boot.ini as boot loader. It will remain after Vista is removed.

I highly recommend installing VistaBootPro in XP to easily edit Vista boot options. It runs in either XP or Vista.

http://www.vistabootpro.org/

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