Uninstall Vista RC1

[swker98]

Ive had Vista RC1 installed on a different hard drive since rc1 came out and im presented with two options when starting my comp. Windows vista or Older version of windows.

now ive read some ways to uninstall vista but i dont want to brick my xp install while doing this. I know vista has a new boot loader as well, is there any way that someone knows works that wont kill my xp


thanks

 

[swker98]

bump it up

 

[SNGX1275]

Should be able to just do a fixmbr or whatever that is in XP to get XP's bootloader back, vista will be absent from the boot list then, and then just physically delete the Vista install from the other disk. Worst case you do a repair install of XP.

 

[swker98]

would http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060622/installing-and-uninstall-vista-beta-2-for-dual-boot-with-xp/ work to get rid of the vista boot loader


also just keep in mind i have xp on one hdd and vista on a different drive not partition

 

[SNGX1275]

Perhaps, but it seems quite a bit more complicated that what I suggested. Having them on seperate drives shouldn't be an issue. I figured they were based on your post, if anything having them on seperate drives is easier to deal with.

I'll see if I can bring in 'backup' for this thread to get you sorted out.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

If your goal is to remove Vista from the loop and just use XP as your primary OS, I'm not sure why you don't just do as SNGX suggested.

Boot into the Recovery Console on your XP CD and run the "fixmbr" and "fixboot" commands. That should sort the boot menu and allow you to enter XP. Boot into Windows XP and if you want to remove Vista from the other HDD go to Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc > and you should see the Vista drive here and be able to delete/create partitions on that drive.

*Edit*

If it's any easier on you, instead of booting into the Recovery Console and entering commands, you can just run a repair installation of XP...

 

[swker98]

i tried to run an app called vistabootpro which eliminated the choise screen and supposedly removed vista bootloader but under system start up and recovery i still have

;
;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



in any case ill just do the fixmbr in the recovery console, it can be any xp disk right, i dunno if i can find my original i do have an older SP disk tho

thanks for the help i appreciate it

 

[SNGX1275]

Yes, any XP disk should work.

 

[swker98]

thanks guys i used fixmbr and fixboot and it works, i didnt exactly find out how to restart once it was done in recovery so i used a hard reboot, this shoundent matter should it?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Nope, doesn't matter. In the future, you can just enter "exit" and it should reboot your system.

 

[swker98]

under msconfig and windows system start up and recovery i still have

;
;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

as the boot thing but windows said it had repaired it

 

[swker98]

whoops i might have done it wrong i did the repair in the c:\windows\ insted of the d:\windows\

the d drive is the cd and c is the windows drive

i did the fixboot fixmbr under c:\windows\
was i supose to do it under d:\

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

..Not sure I see the problem unless that line about Vista is what you're talking about. Can you boot into XP fine?

Take a look at mine (single boot XP):

[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" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

[swker98]

i just wanted to get the vista boot manager completely out and go back to xps boot manager, im not sure if ive done that because that boot line hasnt changed

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

...Well either format the Vista partition or remove the Vista HDD from the loop and you'll know good and well if you're using XP's boot loader. By the sound and looks of things - you are. You're making this a bit more difficult than it has to be .

 

[swker98]

yea i no i dont wanna mess up my xp if i install another OS next to it