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I've installed Vista on (SATA) drives C and D, and also installed XP on a partition on drive D. Installing Vista on two drives was a precaution, but now that I'm happy that dual booting from drive D is working ok, I am wanting to remove Vista from drive C. I know that the 'format' option will not do this. Is there any way to clear this drive, or do I need to live with two copies of Vista on my desktop.

Right click my computer. Click Manage. Double click storage and then Disk management. Find the one with the vista you don't need on it, D perhaps, and right click it. Try format... Or Delete logical drive.

No, no it is never as simple as that. Vista boot is far more complex than XP boot.ini and what Whiffen is advising would not work for that either. Completely erasing any OS without informing other installed OS that their 'friend' is no longer with them will result in panic.

My advice is read up on the MS knowledge base site about dual booting Vista and XP. Once you know how that is done, you will begin to see the potential problems, and possibly also learn how to remove the C: drive from your boot.

Other people who have more knowledge, please jump in here. I suspect you will end up with a non-working system quite easily. For instance, if you have two physical drives, then taking the existing C: out will cause the old D: to become C:, yet Vista believes itself to be installed on D: see the problem?

Somethimng in your post tells me you are a bit vague on the distinction between drives physical, drives logical and partitions (the latter two are the same in Windows terms).

GBHall is correct as I've tried to physically disconnect the drive, but this causes re-start problems. I have a newly purchased drive that I was planning to add to my system. Would it work if I disconnected my existing drives from my pc, add the new drive, install XP on it, then re-connect the old drives containing Vista and XP and systematically re-format them, or are there inherent problems here as well. Ultimately, I'm wanting to get to a point where I have XP on one drive, and Vista on another drive.

Again, not quite. Please read and try to understand this....http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529

The only sensible way to dual boot XP and Vista is to install XP first, then add Vista. Vista uses a new boot process not compatible with the XP boot process.

If you remove all drives and first install XP on your new large drive, you could then add whatever old drives you want, reformat them, and then install Vista on them, telling it you want it on C: or another drive D:, according to preference. What will not work, is installing XP on a new drive, then adding the old drives with Vista already installed, and expecting Vista to appear as dual boot option - it wont happen.

However, the link given seems to imply that if you have a working Vista, but then install XP (destroying the different Vista boot), it is possible to recover the Vista boot option by booting into command-only mode, and running a program found on the Vista install CD. What you can do depends upon what install media you have.

Thanks for the update, I'll disconnect my existing drives, install the new one, install XP on it, followed by Vista. Fyi, I've found an article that explains how to install XP on top of Vista as detailed in the link below. I've tried it and it works.

http://windowssecrets.com/2008/02/14...t-Vista-and-XP