Removing Vista from Dual Boot

After years of using XP I finally convinced myself to give VISTA a go.

Thought the best option for me was to set up dual boot.

Went through the steps of setting it up in another partition (in my case a 2nd HDD) but for some reason VISTA would not complete the installation.

After trying a few things to get around that I decided to let VISTA go. Thought maybe when I get a new PC I'll give it a shot.

Problem was that the installation did manage to set up Windows Boot Manager at the start up screen, which is a VISTA creation.

It gives me the two options whether I want to go with an "Earlier Version of Windows" or with "Window Setup".

On the HDD where I originally was going to install VISTA there are no files or anything to do with the installation.

I've tried FIXMRB & FIXBOOT, but it did nothing. (in fact according to my pc it actually recovered from a serious error)

So not sure what to do, but I really want to remove that Startup Screen so it goes straight to XP without prompting.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

must be a tough question! :confused

 

Load up Vista Boot Pro into XP, go to 'Bootloader', and tick uninstal and apply. After your next reboot, vista's bootloader will be gone, you can then delete the install along with uninstalling VBP as you won't need it anymore.

 

thanks for the tip.

Unfortunately it only gives me the option to install. Should I install it first then uninstall?

 

Sorry I wasn't clearer, install VBP in XP and run the program. You will then be asked to do a backup, ignore the backup by cancelling the page. You will then see a menu, click on bootloader, click on uninstall and apply. Reboot, the Vista menu will be gone and XP will then boot automatically. Then uninstall VBP and do what you want with the former Vista partition.

 

I didn't get those options you mentioned

To see what screens I did get pls refer to the attachment.

Thanks

 

OK, I'm very sorry that I missed the part where Vista didn't install completely in your original post, it set up the boot manager as a hanging orphan so that's why VBP is giving you headaches as there's no Vista install there that it can see.

Boot up the Vista disk, go to repair and at the command prompt type in 'bootrec /fixmbr' without the quotes, if that doesn't fix it then I don't know what will. Again, I'm sorry to have led you down the garden path.:-o

What worries me more is why Vista didn't install in the first place. It is more finicky about RAM than XP was, you may want to run memtest86+ overnight to eliminate the RAM.

 

I always hate to recommend another site here, but if what I gave you doesn't work then go to the people that wrote VBP for better help, they are very helpful and are very good for dual boot issues.