I currently have two partitions on my hard drive. One contains Windows XP and one contains Windows Vista. Within Vista, XP is labeled D: and Vista is labeled C:. The biggest complication is that XP was the original OS on my computer (Dell Latitude D820), so i cannot simply format the XP part and still have Vista boot properly as i have gathered. I know that this issue has been addressed on this forum previously, but i have tried all of theose solutions and restored from an image using Acronis True Image about 4 times and i'm simply getting tired of trying. Does anyone have any specific instructions that i can follow to get rid of XP and still boot up vista?

With a vista/xp dual boot, Vista is the OS controlling the boot sector. While you may need to fix it after the format, because I suspect it is located on your XP partition, if it was installed correctly.
If you have a working Vista disc, it is as simple as formatting the partition, restart with Vista in the drive. From there open the command prompt, and use:
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot

You could also try the automated version located on the Vista disc, but I have had little luck with it.
(more detailed instructions on using bootrec are located in the dual boot tutorial:
http://www.syschat.com/dual-boot-vis...eady-1946.html
on page 3 of 4)

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-William. § (marvin_gohan)

thanks a lot. it appears to have worked since everythings booting up properly. some pretty random things are happening now but i'm sure i can figure them out.

actually i just figured out why all these random things are happening. all my programs except for the base ones seem to have disappeared. no big deal though i have them all on my external hd just in case this happened.

If they happened to be installed on that partition they would be lost as well, thus any startup or related applications may be looking for them.

Glad to hear it all went well

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</Dream In Code>
-William. § (marvin_gohan)