Dual Boot help.

mattymaxx · 4 Sep 2006 at 10:08

hi, i installed windows vista on an external hdd. and i want to get rid of it completely now!

I still get the dual boot screen, and it defaults to vista and comes up with an error.

Ive tried going into booting profile in windows and only xp pro shows up to choose from so i have a problem. I can however get to the notepad boot file but i dont want to edit it unless i cant get back into windows :-S help im desperate cus everytime i start my machine i have to select no and then go to xp pro and it'll carry on booting!

Thanks in advance!

Matt

modo77 · 4 Sep 2006 at 10:12

vista uses a different boot menu, try this:

http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/post-580795.html&sid=9f93849fb3dad5edd85df3d19778e44f

Curiosityx · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:17

When you dual boot vista even using external hard disks or seperate partitions it replaces your existing boot manager normally controller by a file named "boot.ini" with its own custom executable.

To remove the Boot Manager loader from your primary partition, use the BootSect.exe utility found in the Boot folder of the Vista DVD

Use option /nt52 to restore the ntldr loader
Use option /nt60 to restore the BootManager loader

Editing the menu options in the Boot Manager when starting your computer is no longer available through the file boot.ini You have to use the BcdEdit.exe tool to acomplish this task

marc2003 · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:22

or just boot from your xp cd, enter the recovery console and execute these 2 commands....

fixboot
fixmbr

job done.

mattymaxx · 4 Sep 2006 at 21:09

thx so much marc! big help. saved me a load of hassle lol!

Matt.