help removing vista

[QueBert]

currently dual boot XP & Vista on my 2nd box, I rarely boot to Vista but I decided to mess with it this weekend. I changed my boot screen (or tried to) Vista boots to a message telling me that something happened to Vista and it has to be verified online to verify something.

the PC has no internet so I can't do this, clicking on it doesn't time out and give me an option to call a # to get it fixed over the phone. I almost never use vista so it doesn't bother me if I just remove it. Problem is I know I can't simply do a deltree on the Vista dir. Vista is on a different partition than my XP, but there's tons of stuff on it I don't want to loose so a format is out of the question.

I googled this and didn't find much on removing it besides "format format format" if I try to delete vista shit in XP in the past I always got a access denied error.

 

[DrGreen2007]

Vista installs a new bootloader on the system, so you can remove the vista drive, but you would have to fix the bootloader....by reinstalling the XP bootloader.

Just google for reinstalling xp bootloader

 

[QueBert]

the boot loader is no issue but deleting Vista itself is a problem, I could boot my XP cd and do a fdisk /mbr but it will leave the vista files on my HD waisting tons of space. I get access denied on the files when I try to delete and I can't attrib them (if they were read only) frustrating.

 

[Skeeedunt]

You need to take ownership of the Vista directories in XP. If you right-click on the drive letter in explorer it's under the Security tab. There are a few in-depth ownership/permission threads around here, or just google "xp file take ownership" or something similar.

 

[Oil]

Use the Gparted live CD to delete the Vista partition and resize the XP partition with that extra space

 

[JustaGeek]

http://www.istartedsomething.c...for-dual-boot-with-xp/


"Uninstall

After playing around with Vista for a few days, you may want to remove it from your system, and reclaim the hard drive space. Microsoft has made this step very simple as well.

Boot your computer in to Windows XP.

Ensure you have the Vista DVD image emulated or in the DVD drive.

Go to ?Start? and ?Run?. Type in ?e:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force? (without quotes, and replacing e: with the drive letter of your Vista DVD).

Restart the computer, and you will notice the boot selection menu is gone.

Format the partition/drive where you had Vista installed.

Remove two files (Boot.BAK & Bootsect.BAK) on your XP drive?s root folder (C, these were backup files of your previous bootloader, now no longer useful.

Optional: Restart to ensure it still works.

Use your partition software to merge your partitions together.

And now you have returned your computer to its previous state, without Vista and without the new bootloader. "

Hope this helps.

 

[wiin]

Can't you just go to Computer Management and delete the Vista partition? Or is this the wrong way to go?

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
http://www.istartedsomething.c...for-dual-boot-with-xp/


"Uninstall

After playing around with Vista for a few days, you may want to remove it from your system, and reclaim the hard drive space. Microsoft has made this step very simple as well.

Boot your computer in to Windows XP.

Ensure you have the Vista DVD image emulated or in the DVD drive.

Go to ?Start? and ?Run?. Type in ?e:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force? (without quotes, and replacing e: with the drive letter of your Vista DVD).

Restart the computer, and you will notice the boot selection menu is gone.

Format the partition/drive where you had Vista installed.

Remove two files (Boot.BAK & Bootsect.BAK) on your XP drive?s root folder (C, these were backup files of your previous bootloader, now no longer useful.

Optional: Restart to ensure it still works.

Use your partition software to merge your partitions together.

And now you have returned your computer to its previous state, without Vista and without the new bootloader. "

Hope this helps.

 

[DrGreen2007]

I didnt suggest deleting the partition due to his mention "Vista is on a different partition than my XP, but there's tons of stuff on it I don't want to loose so a format is out of the question. "

- needs to reload the XP bootloader, then take ownership of the folders/files, move them to another drive, then wipe the old Vista drive clean

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: wiin
Can't you just go to Computer Management and delete the Vista partition? Or is this the wrong way to go?

You MUST remove the Vista bootloader FIRST.

Just use the above method, it worked for me with Vista Ultimate 64 RC1 in December 2006.

You might have to use the "uninstaller" for the 32-bit Vista, even if you have the 64-bit Vista, in 32-bit XP.

Good luck!