Uninstalliation of Vista to XP

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Guest

On my hard drive, I have 3 partitions. One is a Recovery, One is XP, and one
is Vista. I need to uninstall vista and go back to XP. I have the reset disks
if I have to, but I would really like to keep my data. Norton Partition Magic
isn't working so I can not delete the Vista Partition. Is there any way that
I can delete the partition without formating the entire hard drive? (If I
really have to then I will)
 
Michael said:
On my hard drive, I have 3 partitions. One is a Recovery, One is XP, and one
is Vista. I need to uninstall vista and go back to XP. I have the reset disks
if I have to, but I would really like to keep my data. Norton Partition Magic
isn't working so I can not delete the Vista Partition. Is there any way that
I can delete the partition without formating the entire hard drive? (If I
really have to then I will)
Click to expand...

no formatting needed. this is what you will need:
1. XP installation CD or OEM recovery CD
2. administrator password. (if this an OEM install of XP you will need to
call your MFG unless of course you already know it!)
3. about 30-45 minutes

first boot the computer with the XP install CDs, when yu get to the first
screen it will ask if you want to install or repair > choose "R" for repair
then it will ask you to choose which system to repair > choose XP (should be
on C:) > enter administrator password > then type "fixboot" w/o the quotes >
type "exit" w/o quotes -- the computer will reboot ; just give it a second.
if all went good you should now boot directly into XP, once you are in XP
and all is good go to:
control panel > administrative tools > computer management > select disk
management -- now just right click on the VISTA partition and delete. now you
can just use your partition magic to either recreate or extend or whatever
with the empty space.
Simple! good luck
 
no formatting needed. this is what you will need:
1. XP installation CD or OEM recovery CD
2. administrator password. (if this an OEM install of XP you will need to
call your MFG unless of course you already know it!)
3. about 30-45 minutes

first boot the computer with the XP install CDs, when yu get to the first
screen it will ask if you want to install or repair > choose "R" for repair
then it will ask you to choose which system to repair > choose XP (should be
on C:) > enter administrator password > then type "fixboot" w/o the quotes >
type "exit" w/o quotes -- the computer will reboot ; just give it a second.
if all went good you should now boot directly into XP, once you are in XP
and all is good go to:
control panel > administrative tools > computer management > select disk
management -- now just right click on the VISTA partition and delete. now you
can just use your partition magic to either recreate or extend or whatever
with the empty space.
Simple! good luck
Click to expand...

Will this procedure also work for a machine that dual boots, boots
into Linux then switches to XP? I thought I had tried something
like this before and then ended up having to re-format which
meant that I ended up losing all my data.

Thanks,
James
-
Regards,

James

"Honesty is not the best policy; it is merely the safest."
 
Download VistaBootPro (www.vistabootpro.org) [this is a user friendly
alternative to vista boot manager bcdedit] Install VistaBootPro and run it.
Click the bootloader tab and then click the option to 'uninstall vista
bootloader'. Close down and then reboot. You will now find that you no
longer have the boot menu to boot into Vista. Instaed you simply boot
directly into XP. Once in XP go to control panel>administartive
tools>computer managment. In computer management click on the disk managment
option in the menu on the left. A list of partitions will now appear, along
with a graphical display of the partitions. Right click on the graphical
display for your Vista partition and select Delete or Format from the drop
down menu. The partition will now either be deleted or reformatted without
touching any other partition. This is the procedure i take every time i
install a new build of Vista on my triple boot machine. My system has XP
Home, XP Pro and Vista.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..
 
Definately the best way to go and maybe the only way with only a recovery
disk

John Barnett MVP said:
Download VistaBootPro (www.vistabootpro.org) [this is a user friendly
alternative to vista boot manager bcdedit] Install VistaBootPro and run
it. Click the bootloader tab and then click the option to 'uninstall vista
bootloader'. Close down and then reboot. You will now find that you no
longer have the boot menu to boot into Vista. Instaed you simply boot
directly into XP. Once in XP go to control panel>administartive
tools>computer managment. In computer management click on the disk
managment option in the menu on the left. A list of partitions will now
appear, along with a graphical display of the partitions. Right click on
the graphical display for your Vista partition and select Delete or Format
from the drop down menu. The partition will now either be deleted or
reformatted without touching any other partition. This is the procedure i
take every time i install a new build of Vista on my triple boot machine.
My system has XP Home, XP Pro and Vista.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable
for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out
of the use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in
this mail/post..

Michael said:
On my hard drive, I have 3 partitions. One is a Recovery, One is XP, and
one
is Vista. I need to uninstall vista and go back to XP. I have the reset
disks
if I have to, but I would really like to keep my data. Norton Partition
Magic
isn't working so I can not delete the Vista Partition. Is there any way
that
I can delete the partition without formating the entire hard drive? (If I
really have to then I will)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
My computer is a Compaq SR135ONX and has its own recovery. It doesn't have a
repair feature and will only format the hard drive. Can I do the steps that
"Confucious" told me to do but using the Compaq's restore program?
 
Do you have a friend with an XP or another NT based system that will loan
you the disk? It is very unlikely you could find what you need even if it
were on the disk
 
Why don't you just download the program John suggested and be done with it.
It's free. It works unless you are using beta2.
 
It even works with RC2, John. Well the latest build of VistaBootPro does,
anyway.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..
 
Please note I said unless you are using beta2. I know it works with the
later versions, but with beta2, the 3.1 version rendered my system
unbootable. I had to restore the old boot files.
 
I don't want to uninstall Vista yet. I only want to be able to use either one
when I want to. Really, I just want to have somthing that will let me boot
the other Operating System (Partition). Just in case you were wondering, Im
using RC1.
 
Not what you originally said, and you don't say how your disks are set up.
Still, use the VistaBootPro, but use it to add a legacy system to the boot
menu. Reboot. Try booting to the legacy system. If you get ntldr missing,
boot back into Vista, go into Disk Management and see which is your system
drive then copy the ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini (3 system files) to
the system drive from the other drive. (hint the files are hidden unless
you opt to show system files and Disk management is in Computer Management
which is one of the Administrative tools in control panel).
Hopefully, the first step will be all you need. BTW it's called dual
booting. Good luck.
 
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