Uninstalling

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Saunders
  • Start date Start date
C

Chris Saunders

I have Vista beta2 installed on a separate partition along with Windows XP
Professional.
I wish to remove it but am not sure what to do. I can delete the partition
but I'm not sure
that XP will start successfully after.
Hoping someone might help.

Regards
Chris Saunders
 
You may delete the partition from the XP side with Disk Manager without
harming XP. Then create a new partition.
 
Thanks for the reply.
I'll do this and report back my experience as it may be of interest to
others.

Regards
Chris Saunders
 
I'm not sure I agree with that. This isn't a separate drive, it is the same
drive. I believe XP will die.
 
Why? He is deleting a volume that is not the XP system volume. Any boot
configuration data will still be stored on the XP root. At most he may have
a dead entry on a boot options screen.
 
Well I deleted the partition and can get Windows XP to boot without problems
however the Vista bootloader remains. I attempted to remove it by using the
repair program that comes on the Windows XP installation disk by doing
FIXMBR. I also tried another thing on that I think it was called CONFIGBOOT
but it did not remove the Vista boot loader.

This is not a significant problem but I wish a could have my system back as
it was previous to installing Vista beta2.

Regards
Chris Saunders
 
Don't do that. Vista does not use boot.ini and the entry is coming from the
Boot Configuration Data store, as I indicated in my other post. It can be
removed with BCDedit (yes, it is in XP as well as Vista), but I have been
using VistaBootPro (also runs in either XP or Vista) to edit the BCD store.
You can download this tool from http://www.vistabootpro.org/intro.php. It
is free. You will delete the entry for Microsoft Windows and leave the
entry for Old Version of Windows (or whatever). Once you are down to a
single entry the boot options screen will no longer appear and you will boot
as any normal single OS system.
 
Thanks for the help Colin. I tried VistaBootPro and it seems to have
problems on
my system (now just Windows XP as I followed the advice to just delete the
Vista
partition - your reply hadn't appeared at this point). I think that when I
ran the
Windows XP repair program I managed to delete the Vista entry as that no
longer
appears when I boot. However the vista boot program is still starting XP.
This is
not a large problem but I would prefer to be able to put things back as they
were.

I searched my Windows directory for BCDedit and could not find it. I also
tried
entering BCDedit in the run dialog but this didn't work. If anyone has any
further
suggestions I would appreciate them. -I'll wait a little longer for replies
this time!

Regards
Chris Saunders
 
Are you getting an error message in VBP about something being null? I only
see that in build 5456 but I assumed you were on 5384 (the CPP build).
 
I going to post here a quote of a couple of the error messages I get.
This is rather long sorry but I'm only posting this because you asked.
From the Help->About I get a version number of 1.0.2321.39168.

When I first start I get this error:

Index and count must refer to a location within the string.
Parameter name: count

When I select the Change Settings tab I get this error:

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click
Continue, the application will ingore this error and attempt to continue.
If
you click Quit, the application will close immediately.

Value cannot be null
Parameter name: item

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: item
at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.ObjectCollection.AddInternal(Object
item)
at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.ObjectCollection.Add(Object item)
at VistaBootPRO.Form1.tab1()
at VistaBootPRO.Form1.TabControl1_SelectedIndexChanged(Object sender,
EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.TabControl.OnSelectedIndexChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.TabControl.WmSelChange()
at System.Windows.Forms.TabControl.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg,
IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase:
file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
VistaBootPRO
Assembly Version: 1.0.2321.39168
Win32 Version: 1.0
CodeBase:
file:///C:/Program%20Files/PROnetworks/VistaBoot/VistaBootPRO.exe
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualBasic
Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 8.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase:
file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualBasic/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase:
file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase:
file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase:
file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase:
file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Configuration
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase:
file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.42 (RTM.050727-4200)
CodeBase:
file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

I was given the option to continue from the error dialog that appeared so
I clicked the Continue button and then the Delete Vista Boot Loader!
button that was on this page. I restarted my machine and it appears that
the Vista Boot Loader is still running.

Regards
Chris Saunders
 
Should be the answer. Make sure the XP partition is the active partition on
your boot drive.
 
My thanks to all who responded and to Todd in particular. "fixboot" and
"fixmbr" put my system
back to how it started. I had used "fixmbr" alone before to remove a Linux
boot loader and wasn't
aware of "fixboot".

Regards
Chris Saunders
 
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