Unistalling 2nd OS?

Gday all,
Hoping someone can shed some lighthere. I have recently installed Vista as a 2nd OS on a partition simply to try it while I kept my original XP on another partition. Ive decided to make Vista my OS and would like to uninstall Vista from my partition (DVE D) and reinstall it on my DVE C. I cant seem to work out how to remove Vista? Obviously I cant just delete it.... can someone help me please....?? confused

 

Let's say WinXP is on C: and Vista is on D:.... First back up anything on C: that you may want, like music, photo's, whatever. Then format C: using a drive utility like BootIT NG or something similar. Next, using some type of imaging utility (like Norton Ghost or an equivilant) copy D: to C:. When it's done, boot to C: and make sure it works OK and test your programs. Sometimes the drive associations in the programs will get messed up when moving from one drive letter to another. Re-installing any misfiring apps should fix the problem. When you're satisfied that C: is working, format D: and use a partition resizing util (again BootIT NG comes to mind) to 'stretch' C: to the HD's full capacity. This is more of a 'concept' type of operation and will require more research on your part.

hopperdave2000

 

Use vistabootpro installed in XP to get rid of your current Vista bootloader. After this, put in your DVD and clean install over XP, I assume C:, then you can delete the Vista partition, of course after backups. Also, I haven't tested 3rd party ghosters so I can't tell you one way or the other if you should use them. Like was said above, lots of homework to do.

 

I didn't even consider the fact that you have the Vista CD... DUH! So you could save anything from both the WinXP partition and the Vista partition you might want (music, photo's) and then just boot to the Vista CD/DVD and delete all partitions, and install it as usual. You will, however, lose all programs and docs from both partitions unless you back it up to CD/DVD first....

hopperdave2000

 

The reason I havnt yet done a clean install is because I would like to be able to keep my "favourite" programs, whats the best way to back up the programs I dont want to lose? Is it as simple as going into "program files" in "my computer" and transfering to a disc via Nero? Can the same be done with Internet favourites? (and where is that folder hidden?)

The last time I clean installed it took me hours to reinstall everything and Im hoping to get out of doing it again!!confused

 

As I mentioned earlier, you can only save documents, pictures, music, etc. You CANNOT (as a general rule) save programs. When you install a program it puts its own files all over the place, in different folders. So if you just save its folder from Program Files, you'll be missing all the other files scattered thru many different locations, and tracking these files down would be royal pain in the arse! You can save everything in My Documents, and you can save your Internet Favorites, but most programs cannot be saved and will need to be re-installed, unfortunately

hopperdave2000

 

Well I bit the bullet and backed up what I thought was all my "treasured" files... and installed Vista!!

looks like i forgot to save "my music" :cry couple of hundred albums worth :cry oh well, guess i wont forget the music next time!!!

Anyway, I now have a installed Vista on my "C" dve, but when I turn on the PC i still get a "windows boot manager" screen asking what version of windows do I want to use

1. Vista "C"
2. Vista (was originally the one I put on "D" but I deleted that partition when I clean installed Vista on "C"??)

Any suggestions why this is happening?

Also when I did the clean install, Vista put all of my old program files, windows XP etc into a folder on my "C" dve called "old windows", not sure if I should delete this as it taking up massive amounts of space on my HDD?

 

I'm not sure about Vista, but WinXP had a file called 'boot.ini' that would be responsible for your type of scenario. I'm assuming Vista has a similar file. Maybe someone a bit more familiar w/ Vista can shed some light on the Vitsa equivilant of the boot.ini.... I'd be interested to know about it myself

hopperdave2000

 

bump

 

You did an ugrade, not a clean install from the looks of it. Windows.old is your archived XP files. How big is it? You can delete it if you don't want to go back to XP.

Vista uses the folder boot located in the Vista root I believe

 

Grab vistabootpro 3.1, install as admin, run diagnostics and if that doesn't do it go to 'Manage OS Entries' and delete the entry you want making sure which one you want to delete or you'll have to do a repair from the DVD. HTH