vista/xp boot question

i want to remove vista and i was wondering if its possible to remove vista from the bootup selection, since boot.ini isn't used anymore, i don't know how to edit it. i also tried booting to vista and mess with the bcdedit thingy but all it kept saying was permission denied. is there a way to restore it to default

Hi. Heres how i did it. i had xp on the first partition, vista on the second of one drive. In xp, unhide all files and show system protected files. u should see a file called bootmgr along with the boot.ini file. Delete it, nothing else. Then to remove vista and its related folders completely, i reformated the partition vista was on as xp would not allow to delete the vista folders. Some protected folder and files stuff. But yeah..thats how i removed vista totally. Done it a few times since..seems to work for me..cheers

Why would you delete boot.ini. You still need it for XP to boot. You'd just want to go in boot.ini and delete the Vista line so you don't get prompted to boot into Vista anymore. Then you could just format the Vista partition.

Also, you can go into the boot.ini configuration UI and make changes there:
Right click my computer | Properties | Advanced Tab | Startup and recovery Settings

problem is that it's not in the boot ini

Ok, I did a little research. I found that in windows vista, boot.ini is no longer the reader. Instead, BCDEDIT.exe is. You can go to a command prompt and go to X:\windows\system32\bcdedit.exe /? to find out the commands that are available. There is a downloadable gui that allows you to modify bcdedit.exe (http://www.pro-networks.org/vistabootpro/intro.php).

A quick and easy way to blow away Vista would be to re-write the boot sector for the Windows XP partition and then re-write the MBR.

1. Do a system backup
2. Use the Windows XP CD and go into the recovery console (make sure you set your cd to boot 1st in your bios and then boot from it and follow the directions to get to the recovery console)
3. Go to your system partition (C:\ is where XP should be)
4. Type fixboot and hit enter. This re-writes the system partition which contains the files that are needed to boot. In essence, what this does it re-writes the bootstrap loader program. In short, it'll start using the Windows XP process again with the boot.ini and all that other good stuff. Make sure you're in C:\ when you do this. If you're not in C:\, you can just do fixboot c:\.
5. Type fixmbr and hit enter. This re-wrties the Master Boot Record so that it'll start using the new bootstrap loader program that you just re-wrote.

Now make sure you can get back into Windows XP just fine. Once you do, you can format your Vista partition.

A bit off topic but where did yall get Vista?

thanks roYal wroked gread

Sorry, i didnt mean delete both. Only delete bootmgr. Of course if you delete boot.ini then xp wont boot. Anyway thats what i did, works for me.

While I can't help you with the commands directrly, there is a way to boot into the recovery console of windows xp and rebuilt the boot.ini. fixboot is probably one command you'd need. sorry.

Cheator said:

While I can't help you with the commands directrly, there is a way to boot into the recovery console of windows xp and rebuilt the boot.ini. fixboot is probably one command you'd need. sorry.

Click to expand...

This would be bootcfg /rebuild. I wouldn't really use it as the boot.ini in this case should just be fine. Once the boot sector and mbr are re-written, it starts using the boot.ini again just as it would've before a dual-boot configuration took place. You could also go to the Right Click My Computer | Propeties | Advanced Tab | Startup and Recovery Settings and modify the boot.ini there.

For some more information on what the bootcfg command would do, check out this website (I'd only use it if you are having a serious issue with boot.ini and cannot get into your system through means of safe mode, last known good configuration, etc:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=291980

Also, check my post above. It explained how to fix this user's problem and he stated it worked for him.

is there a way to restore the boot loader once you remove it with that app

Huh? The fixboot command is what restores the boot loader for that partition you do the command.

im talking about the vista boot loader

Hm, not sure about Vista as i've never used Vista before. My guess would be to use the Windows Vista CD and use its recovery console and go to the C:\ driver and do a fixboot there. With the XP cd, it'll use the XP boot loader and with the Vista cd it'll use the Vista boot loader. This is purely an assumption since I haven't had the chance to do it but it only makes sense that the Vista fixboot will place Vista boot loader onto that partition.

I'd highly advise you to do a full backup before trying it though.