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HOW TO: REMOVE WINDOWS VISTA FROM YOUR SYSTEM

HOW TO: REMOVE WINDOWS VISTA FROM YOUR SYSTEM

Postby Grav!ty » Wed Apr 26, 2006 6:04 am

[align=center]HOW TO: REMOVE WINDOWS VISTA FROM YOUR SYSTEM[/align]


1. If you installed Windows Vista as a STANDALONE operating system on its own PC, then simply reformat the hard drive it is on.

2. Where one has DUAL BOOTED with another operating system, for example: Windows XP, then boot into Windows XP and go to Disk Management (right click My Computer>Manage>Disk Management).

Select the drive you have Windows Vista installed on, right click it and select Format. A quick format is all you need. Should you get an error message stating that the drive is in use, open My Computer from your Windows XP desktop, right-click the drive containing the Windows Vista installation you wish to remove and format it from there.

Go to the Run dialogue box on your Windows XP or other "legacy" operating system start menu and type "msconfig" (without the quotes). This will open the System Configuration Utility. Then go to the BOOT.INI tab and select "Check All Boot Paths".

This is automatic and all you need to do after this is select "OK" and "Apply". Do not select "Restart" at this point, but choose "Exit Without Restart" instead.

Next, you must delete the following files and folders from the root of your System drive or partition (Usually Drive C:\)

$RECYCLE.BIN
Boot (folder)
Boot.BAK
BOOTSECT.BAK

See THIS post for instructions on how to delete the folder Boot in the most recent versions of Windows Vista

Now restart the computer.

On restart, place a check in the System dialogue box that pops up.

Note: This method, while easy to use and effective, has its shortcomings. It does not carry out a full cleanup of your system and leaves traces of the Windows Vista installation on your Windows XP system drive.

These will not interfere with your Windows XP installation should you choose not to remove them. However, should it be your intention to install another operating system in place of Windows Vista or to reinstall Windows Vista, then it is necessary that you follow the MULTI-BOOT REMOVAL METHOD indicated below


3. To remove Windows Vista from a MULTI-BOOT environment where it has been installed on a system containing two or more other "Legacy" operating systems, and with Windows Vista still fully installed, insert your Windows XP CD into your CD/DVD Drive and reboot.

CAUTION: Modifying the contents of one's boot.ini file and bootsector may lead to not being able to access the operating system.

[size=100][color=darkblue]When prompted to by Setup, "Press any key to boot from CD...". Wait for the very first Setup screen at which Setup stops and press R (To repair a Windows XP Installation using Recovery Console, press R). If you installed Windows Vista to a Multi-Boot RAID Array, you will need to install your F6 RAID Floppy drivers, before you get to the setup screen where you press R to enter the Recovery Console.

Select your Windows XP partition
Last edited by Grav!ty on Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby JMacalinao » Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:10 pm

User wrote:And guys, in a couple of days you'll see something that will make removing Vista one click away.


Oooh... I'll be waiting for this one. ;)
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Postby Ex_Brit » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:14 pm

I read in a couple of other places that to restore your original XP OS to it's normal boot state if wanting to remove Vista then do the following:
Boot to the XP CD and call up Recovery Console
Run fixboot
Run fixmbr
exit and reboot.
Go to Startup & Recovery & delete the extra entry
Format the Vista partition...and that is all.

Sounds too simple to me and am asking for your comments.
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Postby Grav!ty » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:25 pm

Ex_Brit wrote:I read in a couple of other places that to restore your original XP OS to it's normal boot state if wanting to remove Vista then do the following:
Boot to the XP CD and call up Recovery Console
Run fixboot
Run fixmbr
exit and reboot.
Go to Startup & Recovery & delete the extra entry
Format the Vista partition...and that is all.

Sounds too simple to me and am asking for your comments.


There seems to be a step or two missing really Ex_Brit, mainly formating and clearing the XP system of any Vista files. The cleanest and most effective method of totally removing Vista, which I have tested countless times, is to use method 3 in the guide above :yesnod:
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Postby kd1966 » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:26 pm

you should not have to run the "fixmbr" command, and on booting into XP after the restart, you may delete the Vista partition and the list of files/folders listed here:

\boot (directory)
bootsect.bak
boot.bak
$recyclebin
bootmgr (this is the Vista bootloader; delete if you don't plan on reinstalling Vista)
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Postby Ex_Brit » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:31 pm

Thanks. This is all hypothetical right now anyway. I'm just downloading Vista as we speak.

it's going to be a triple boot - 2 XP and 1 Vista.
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Postby Grav!ty » Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:00 pm

Ex_Brit wrote:Thanks. This is all hypothetical right now anyway. I'm just downloading Vista as we speak.

it's going to be a triple boot - 2 XP and 1 Vista.


Yeah thats exactly what I have on my main rig. Just make sure you keep XP as your system drive (usually drive C:\) you can check that out in Disk Management and that will save you a lot of head aches later

In the example below you can see that in the highlighted bit, and just below that is the drive I am working on now (the one labled Boot).

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Try and avoid third party partition managers if you can but if you must use one then just create the partition with it but format it from XP.
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Postby Ex_Brit » Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:02 pm

I've already created it as the third partition on drive 0 (E: ) and formatted it NTFS.

Have the Vista DVD just haven't installed yet. Yes I also have VistabootPro, which I assume I install on C: drive.
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Postby gries818 » Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:19 pm

It doesn't matter which drive its on, just has to be on either XP or Vista to work.

btw, you can simplify the whole process by using VistaBootPRO to remove your Vista Boot Loader, but I have not yet tried this. Someone who has will have to comment.
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Postby Ex_Brit » Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:31 pm

gries818 wrote:It doesn't matter which drive its on, just has to be on either XP or Vista to work.

btw, you can simplify the whole process by using VistaBootPRO to remove your Vista Boot Loader, but I have not yet tried this. Someone who has will have to comment.


Interesting...then of course the XP bootloader would have to be "repaired". I read somewhere else that just doing a repair install on C: would "cure all".
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