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manually deleting Vista in XP

QueBert

QueBert

Lifer
I have no working DVD drive at the moment to reinstall it and my Vista won't boot, don't know why and don't care because I've booted into it probably 5 times total. In XP I cannot delete the Vista directories, I get an access denied error.

I tried to remove the read only attribute but I get access denied so that's a no go. Without a DVD drive I can't boot to something like a UBCD and delete it manually. I just want it off my system, the partition it's on has a lot of other files so killing the entire partition is not an option.

ideas how to deal with this problem?
 
Why don't you just reformat the Vista partition...?

EDIT: just read your post again - can't kill it...

But if you have the Vista boot loader, you must uninstall it, or you will face problems with your XP installation.

EDIT: You do need the DVD drive...
 
why would I face problems? Vista is on the boot loader, but I just select XP. I don't see how/why the boot loader would actually check to verify Vista is even installed unless I select it. my Vista install as it is won't load so it's useless to me. I probably won't be adding a DVD drive to this system anytime soon. If it really will cause issues with my XP I guess I'll just live without the 15 or however man gigs it's taking up.



 
You can google for the potential bootloader issues - I believe one of them is a possible Repair Install of XP, that might not be possible with the bootloader.

I "examined" the issue before my MB upgrade in December 2006, in a dual-boot with the XP and Vista 64 RC1.

All I remember is that the bootloader had to go...

It's not all that complicated anyway, and will help you avoid the potential issues.

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

Good luck!

EDIT: And why don't you get a DVD drive - it's only about 26 bucks, and will give you so much flexibility...

http://www.newegg.com/Store/Ca...e=CD-DVD-Burners-Media
 
here's the thing I don't believe getting a DVD drive and removing the boot loader will magically allow me to delete the vista directory off my system, and that's where my problem lies. I'll probably have to end up finding some dos level cd bootable util that'll allow me to access/delete files off an NTFS partition. Just wish i could do it without a drive, I can probably bypass the boot loader problem with a downloadable utility there are tons of boot loader proggies out there.


 
Did you have the BitLocker activated in Vista...?

That might explain the accessibility issues.

And it is just a guess on my part, but the bootloader might make the Vista partition active, and won't let you "mess" with the files there...
 
don't even know what the Bitlocker is, honestly my experience with Vista was - I installed it, found it boring and didn't see the point to using it until I absolutely had to. Never really did anything much in it, poked around got bored and went back to XP.

You might be on to something about the bootloader possibly locking the Vista directory, if that's the case meh, figures it would take some stupid measure to delete something I don't want. maybe I can download the Vista trial and use my product key to make it the full thing. Guess it can't hurt to have it installed because sooner or later we have to migrate to Vista I might want to suck it up and start now 🙂

thanks for your help and ideas man.

 
You need to take ownership of the files first, then delete them, thats all there is to it.
 
Originally posted by: bsobel
You need to take ownership of the files first, then delete them, thats all there is to it.
Click to expand...

that's dumb it's a standard NTFS partition and XP can't possibly know about owership because there's no options in XP to change ownership of files. Why does Vista do this? it's that UAC crap or something?

are you telling me if I was able to boot to NFTS-DOS I still won't be able to remove it? Great so I have to reinstall Vista just so I can remove it, awesome! lol

 
Originally posted by: QueBert
Originally posted by: bsobel
You need to take ownership of the files first, then delete them, thats all there is to it.
Click to expand...

that's dumb it's a standard NTFS partition and XP can't possibly know about owership because there's no options in XP to change ownership of files. Why does Vista do this? it's that UAC crap or something?

are you telling me if I was able to boot to NFTS-DOS I still won't be able to remove it? Great so I have to reinstall Vista just so I can remove it, awesome! lol
Click to expand...

You misunderstood. File ownership is an NTFS construct. You need to take ownership of those files *IN XP*. And yes, XP has the same file ownership abilities as Vista (its part of the file system). If your not getting the security tab turn off 'simple file sharing' in folder options to enable it.

Bill
 
thanks bsobel, I feel very dumb not knowing there was an option in XP to enable ownership of files straight out the box. I appreciate your help here, sad I've been on MS OS's since the first release of DOS and I still don't know simple things like this lol. 🙁

*siiigh* now off to take ownership of files and free up my space.
 
*UPDATE NEVER MIND* I rebooted and it let me delete it *shrug*

got a DVD drive and removed the Vista bootloader with no problems but...

ugh ok, I enabled security in XP and set myself as the owner of the directory and gave myself rights to delete. The folder is showing up as read only, if I try to take that off I get access denied on every file. I double checked the rights and I have all the rights checked.

Now I'm really confused, any last ideas from anyone how I can delete this directory without formatting the partition?

thanks *again*
 
Originally posted by: QueBert
*UPDATE NEVER MIND* I rebooted and it let me delete it *shrug*

got a DVD drive and removed the Vista bootloader with no problems but...

ugh ok, I enabled security in XP and set myself as the owner of the directory and gave myself rights to delete. The folder is showing up as read only, if I try to take that off I get access denied on every file. I double checked the rights and I have all the rights checked.

Now I'm really confused, any last ideas from anyone how I can delete this directory without formatting the partition?

thanks *again*
Click to expand...

Ignore the read only bit, it doesnt mean what you think it does on folders. As for the rights. When you gave yourself the rights to the folder did you select 'apply this to all children objects' (or something like that). It should have say there and looped thru each file giving you permissions (otherwise you have permission to the folder, but not to the files and subfolders in it right now)
 
yes I told it to apply to children objects, dunno why rebooting fixed it, but it seemed to. I'm now Vista free without having to kill the partition - which was the advice mostly everyone was giving me 🙂

 
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