• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

From Dual Boot to Single Boot Problems...

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

Seufari

Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2006
Location
Fort Collins, CO
Hey guys... So I installed a version of vista on a partition of my boot drive to try it out. I decided I'd stick with my XP and formatted the partition containing Vista.

Now the problem I am running into is that when I am booting, I am still greeted with the option between my XP install and my Vista install. I'd like to remove this bootup check and just go back to straight boot into XP.

Anyone got any suggestions???

Thanks!
 
You could always edit the boot.ini. I don't know too much about it, but I know there are several people here that do. I think TweakUI also has an option to fix it, but don't quote me on it.
 
Vista seems to have a different boot file that it places on the C:/ drive that replaces the old boot.ini. You might try booting up the xp disc with the repair function and letting it rewrite the bootsector. I cannot be sure if this was for 2000 or XP however. Maybe someone can chime in with the proper sequence.
Look here under repairing boot sector for x86 computers, http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/c28621675.mspx
 
Last edited:
shadowdr said:
Vista seems to have a different boot file that it places on the C:/ drive that replaces the old boot.ini. You might try booting up the xp disc with the repair function and letting it rewrite the bootsector. I cannot be sure if this was for 2000 or XP however. Maybe someone can chime in with the proper sequence.
I haven't seen or heard anything about that yet. If that is the case, I think /fixmbr would be the only way to fix it. Definitely worth looking into, as I don't have Vista yet.
 
I ran into this when I also installed Vista to another drive, thinking I could just renmove the drive and boot up the other. Good thing I had Ghosted an Image on another drive before hand. The newer boot files are different, one is boot.bak and another is bootsec.bak and bootmgr. It does show a boot.ini.saved file that i think it uses if you f8 and chose use previous windows version. You might try that, however for me it reimaged the original C: drive during an attemted upgrade.
 
Just tried booting the XP disk...

That wont work... For some reason my nLite CD doesn't have the repair option and I dont have a floppy to use the neccessary RAID drivers to get the original to work. I guess I could try to make a new nLite CD with the repair functionality but I dont remember de-selecting it in the first place...
 
• Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click System.
• On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.
• Under System startup, in the Default operating system list, click the operating system that you want to start when you turn on or restart your computer.
• Select the Display list of operating systems for check box, and then type the number of seconds for which you want the list displayed before the default operating system starts automatically.
Try this, taken from an MS website.
 
I'll give that a go and hope it doesn't try to boot me into Vista which I no longer have... If it does I am not sure how I'd ever get back into XP :S


EDIT: That didn't do anything... Windows XP was the only selectable OS and unticking the "Display list of operating systems" only made it to where there was no time limit...

:(
 
Last edited:
The best way is to use your original XP disc. It will overwrite any fields that it needs to. Yes, the custom XP discs don't seem to include any repair console features. You didn't do anything wrong IIRC. You just need a stock MS disc. :|


Upon booting into the disc. Hit R at the prompt.

Then login and that good stuff.

Type: fixmbr

It will correct the issue. If not the boot.ini is not on the target partition.

If happen "to not have a real XP disc" handy... This should fix you up getting it straight.

http://www.ambience.sk/fdisk-master-boot-record-windows-linux-lilo-fixmbr.php
 
Last edited:
Give VistaBootPRO 3.1 Beta a try...

http://www.pro-networks.org/vistabootpro/

Once it's installed, run the program and click on the "Bootloader" button | Select "Uninstall the Vista boot loader" in the RH pane | Click the "Configure It" button | Click OK when asked to uninstall the boot loader | Click OK on the next pop up, and you should now be able to boot directly into XP.
 
klingens said:
boot.ini is not part of the MBR... boot.comes after ntldr which means the proper command is fiboot
I know,, but the boot.ini needs to be on the same partition as the fixmbr is run on. For it to work. Then the fxmbr tool can do it's job. Pretty much fixing that particular install of Windows. I was not very clear in how that worked. Dang me for bieng super vauge. (Vista does not use an older version of boot.ini, it uses BCD instead)

You are correct in the loading of the boot.ini though. :D

For MS itself:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529

Removing Windows Vista from a dual-boot configuration

If you want to remove Windows Vista from a dual-boot environment that includes an earlier version of Windows, follow these steps.

Note You can follow these steps in the earlier version of Windows or in Windows Vista. If you follow these steps in Windows Vista, run the commands from a command-prompt that has elevated user rights. To do this, click Start, click Accessories, right-click the command-prompt shortcut, and then click Run as Administrator.

1.Use Bootsect.exe to restore the Ntldr.exe program. To do this, type the following command: Drive:\Boot\ Bootsect.exe –NT52 All
Note In this command, Drive is the drive where the Windows Vista media is located.

After the computer restarts, it does not load the Windows Boot Manager program. Instead, Netldr.exe loads and Boot.ini loads.

2.Delete or remove the partition where Windows Vista is installed.

Important You can only delete the partition where Windows Vista is installed if that partition is the non-active partition on the system. For example, consider the following scenario:

•Windows Vista is installed on drive C. Drive C is partition 1 and is the active partition.

•Windows XP is installed on the drive D. Drive D is partition 2 and is the non-active partition.
In this scenario, you can run the bootsect command, but you cannot delete the partition where Windows Vista is installed. If you delete this partition, the computer is put into a non-bootable state because Windows XP boot files are deleted.
 
Last edited:
Enablingwolf said:
I know,, but the boot.ini needs to be on the same partition as the fixmbr is run on. For it to work. Then the fxmbr tool can do it's job. Pretty much fixing that particular install of Windows. I was not very clear in how that worked. Dang me for bieng super vauge. (Vista does not use an older version of boot.ini, it uses BCD instead)

You are correct in the loading of the boot.ini though. :D

For MS itself:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529


Wow... That was really helpful and would have worked perfectly!


But I already deleted the Vista partition so the Drive:\Boot\... is no longer there :(
 
redduc900 said:
Give VistaBootPRO 3.1 Beta a try...

http://www.pro-networks.org/vistabootpro/

Once it's installed, run the program and click on the "Bootloader" button | Select "Uninstall the Vista boot loader" in the RH pane | Click the "Configure It" button | Click OK when asked to uninstall the boot loader | Click OK on the next pop up, and you should now be able to boot directly into XP.


This worked perfectly!!!

Thanks a lot!!!
 
Seufari said:
Wow... That was really helpful and would have worked perfectly!


But I already deleted the Vista partition so the Drive:\Boot\... is no longer there :(

Hindsight... Next time you play with Vista you know what to do. :D
 
shadowdr said:
I ran into this when I also installed Vista to another drive, thinking I could just renmove the drive and boot up the other. Good thing I had Ghosted an Image on another drive before hand. The newer boot files are different, one is boot.bak and another is bootsec.bak and bootmgr. It does show a boot.ini.saved file that i think it uses if you f8 and chose use previous windows version. You might try that, however for me it reimaged the original C: drive during an attemted upgrade.
 
I am running XP in raid0 on a via controller.
Do you mean if I install Vista on seperate ide drive I could have a problem?
 
Ok the best way to fix this is go into start menu click run and then type msconfig and click enter. Then you go over to the boot.ini tab and click check all boot paths. It wont find any files and it will remove it
 
Back