uninstall Vista from a dual boot

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G

Guest

2 physical drives C: and D:

Windows XP Media Center on C:

Windows Vista installed on D:

I want to remove the Vista install, but not sure what tools to use to ensure
that my MBR, boot.ini etc do not become corrupted in the process. It will
not let me delete the Vista folder even when I am booted into XP, and when I
looked at my boot.ini to see if I needed to edit, it referred me to
bcdedit.exe. Not sure how to manipulate this.

I don't need to save anything from the Vista install as it was just for a
test drive, I just want to get my PC back to a straight XP MC computer.
 
Start XP. Put in the Vista DVD don't let it start or close setup if it did
start.
Type from a cmd prompt:
X:\boot\bootsect /nt52 c: /force

Where X is your DVD driveletter, you will receive a error (hence the force)
because the bootsector is in use. Restart and it will bring you right back
into XP. you can format the Vista partition from XP now.

Ko.
 
Any luck with your goal as stated at the end of your post...?
I'd like to do the same thing prior to attempting a Vista upgrade.
 
There are two ways to uninstall Vista from a dual-boot setup:

1) Manual uninstall
1. Boot to XP
2. go to a CMD prompt ( start > run > type cmd and press OK (or run)
3. in cmd window type "cd\boot" (without the quotes!)
4. put the Vista DVD in the DVD drive
5. don't let install run close that screen (red X right top)
6. type "X:\boot\bootsect /nt52 c:" (where X is the drive letter from the
DVD reader)
7. reboot the PC it should load XP by default now (entry's from Vista are
gone)
8. after reboot delete the folder boot in your XP drive (it is in the root
of the drive)
9. you may delete all the files ending in .BAK in the root also
10. that's all to do to clean out
11. Format the partition

2) Using "Vista BootPro"
1. Download and install a copy of Vista BootPro -
http://www.vistabootpro.org/
2. Click on the "Manage O/S Entries"
3. Click on the entry for "Vista" and click "Remove"
4. Reboot, which should then boot automatically into XP
5. Format the partition where Vista is installed
 
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