SysChat - Remove XP from an XP/Vista dual boot

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- - Remove XP from an XP/Vista dual boot (http://www.syschat.com/remove-xp-xp-vista-dual-boot-1927.html)

I have my Vista installed in C; and XP is in D; and I have tried to format D; but it is not formatting.I have done exactly as you told me, restarted and boot with vista dvd then repair and type those codes but why m I not able to format the drive?HELP PLEASE...!

Quote:

Originally Posted by William_Wilson (Post 6155)

Finally happy with Vista, and want to remove the old XP from your system? A few changes to the boot loader have been made in vista, but the steps are very similar.

not too difficult, simply load into Vista and format the partition XP is currently installed on. Since the Vista bootloader has control of the boot, there is no need to modify the boot.ini of XP.

Restart your computer with either Vista CD 1 or your Vista DVD in the drive, if you don't you will be prompted to pick an operating system. Once into setup, choose repair console from the first screen (not install).

Now the last option is for a DOS prompt, pick that.

A DOS prompt appears, and type the following:
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
*this will essentially remove XP from the Vista bootloader

bootrec.exe /fixboot
*this will check that XP is no longer present in Vista's boot.ini

Restart and XP is history.

Hi William,

Please help me how to remove XP from my laptop and restore back windows vista from recovery disk. (i don't have any Vista CD/DVD's) My laptop have VISTA OS in the recovery partition. But after installing XP i am not able to access my virtual directory.

it will appericate if i restore back my VISTA OS with out deleting my data.

Kindly let me know for further information.

Hi, I'm new to this forum - I stumbled upon it when trying to find the answer to my dual boot problem and have been impressed with the quality of information here. I realiase that I'm asking the same question here but to ensure I don't kill my system I need to be sure that my circumstances are the same as the others.

I originally had XP installed then installed Vista on a seperate harddrive set up as dual boot, not realising that it would be difficult to remove XP at a later stage. It would appear that my Drive 0 (XP) contains the MBR info because if I remove this drive - leaving on Drive 1 (Vista) plugged my PC can't boot, even if I change my Vista to the Drive 0 position.

My concern is that if I do as William suggests by inserting the Vista DVD then opt to repair and then use commands 'bootrec.exe /fixmbr' & 'bootrec.exe /fixboot' that it will cause a problem as my MBR appears to be on my Drive 0 (XP drive) and I'll be trying to fix Drive 1 (Vista). Can you confirm that this procedure will 'repair' my Vista drive and allow it to boot independantly. Also, can I perform this procedure with the XP unplugged?

Regards
Hootie

Since you used 2 different drives, more than likely the vista drive doesn't have a MBR at all. If you remove the XP drive then use the vista installation disc then it will rewrite it and set it up on that drive.

The xp drive will have to be corrected as well because it will contain vista references and keep asking for dual boot options. These options will need to be removed.

If it was me...I would save all data that I wanted and then do a seperate restore/reinstallation on both drives.

Yes, I'm convinced the Vista drive doesn't currenly have it's own MBR so if the 'DVD repair' option fixes that then that will be perfect. As for the XP drive I no longer wish to use this, instead I wish to perform an LLF on it and use it as a mirror drive for the Vista drive, once it runs independantly.

I do not wish to reinstall the OS on my Vista drive so I do need to be sure/confident that the 'DVD repair with cmd options will fix its MBR, can you confirm that my understanding is correct in that it will based on the knowledge that the XP drive will no longer exist. Thanks again.

lol...
I can confirm that you have the right information. But that is all. There is no confirmation that the dvd repair option will work as intended. Sometimes plans go really well and others go off on some unknown tangent.

Ok...I take your point, guess I was just being over cautious. I'll will try it shortly and report back the results... providing that my PC still works. Thanks for your help.

i tryed this but when i start up my computer it still comes up with xp as a chose to boot but when i go to it, it omes up with error because xp isnt there but the boot option it how do i get rid of that option?

I followed the instructions for the two dos prompts and then restarted, only to get a message saying "A disk read error has occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

Any ideas how to get vista loading again?