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Abandon first drive and boot direct to Vista

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Re: Abandon first drive and boot direct to Vista

Postby Codger » Fri Apr 24, 2009 10:23 am

I am grateful to you for your reply - thank you very much. However I think I may have failed to make my intentions clear. Apologies for that.

Your line <quote>Once you reboot you should see the new menu item "Microsoft Windows XP Professional 2"</quote> suggests to me that you have the impression that I want to reinstate dual boot. The opposite is true; what I would like is to have each drive/system being completely autonomous so that if I point the bios to any one particular drive, it runs without reference to the other drive. This would then leave me the option to format the old system making it available for other use. The applications on C: had become damaged beyond repair so the "newer" system on D: was assembled from a clean install of XP and my essential applications and data was rescued from C: . If I could get D: to run independently I would be prepared to abandon C: .

I hope this is now clear. Sorry for the confusion.
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Re: Abandon first drive and boot direct to Vista

Postby Codger » Fri Apr 24, 2009 1:48 pm

Quick update.
I have made the changes to boot.ini as suggested.
Now I get a dual boot menu as expected, but nothing else has changed. The second option to boot from C: hangs with a black screen as described earlier.

I still want to boot D: independently so that I can re-use drive C: .
Drive D: is still tagged 'boot' and drive D: is still tagged 'system' in the drive manager. Do I need to copy 'system' files to drive D: ?

tia
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Re: Abandon first drive and boot direct to Vista

Postby Grav!ty » Fri Apr 24, 2009 1:55 pm

Yeah copy the boot system files to each drive...I take it you have only XP installed on that system now? The files you need for XP are ntldr, boot.ini and NTDETECT.COM. You don't need the second entry in your boot.ini if you are not going to be using a dual/multi boot menu but it may be a good idea to keep it there till you've tested the boot to each OS and then remove the non-functioning entry (it may be different for each OS) once you know which is working for which.
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Re: Abandon first drive and boot direct to Vista

Postby Codger » Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:11 pm

Thanks for the response, but those files are already in place.
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Re: Abandon first drive and boot direct to Vista

Postby Codger » Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:31 pm

Not only that . . . .
Boot seems to be being managed from C: . If I disconnect C: I get error BOOTMGR IS MISSING.

There is a copy of bootmgr on D: , along with a bundle of other files as set out earlier in thread.
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Re: Abandon first drive and boot direct to Vista

Postby Grav!ty » Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:48 pm

Do you still have Vista installed?
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Re: Abandon first drive and boot direct to Vista

Postby Codger » Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:54 pm

No. As explained earlier, I abandoned my attempts to work with Vista on D: and replaced it with a fresh install of XP. So now I have my nice clean fully functioning system on D: , complete with apps and data. On C: I still have my original XP system which now seems unwilling to boot.
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Re: Abandon first drive and boot direct to Vista

Postby Grav!ty » Fri Apr 24, 2009 3:01 pm

Follow these directions from our Windows Vista Installation Guide to get rid of all traces of Vista. That will prevent the bootmgr error message:


[html]<center><font color="#000080">REMOVING WINDOWS VISTA FROM YOUR SYSTEM</font></center>[/html]


The instructions below can be applied to installations of all "Earlier versions of Windows" including Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional X64 Edition and Windows Server 2003.

1. If you installed Windows Vista as a STANDALONE operating system on its own PC, then simply reformat the hard drive it is on, or do a reformat and clean install of another Windows version to your computer, by booting from the installation CD or DVD.

2. In instances where users have a DUAL BOOT or MULIT-BOOT scenario with another OR other Windows operating systems, for example Windows XP, follow these steps to remove Windows Vista:

2 (a): With Windows Vista still fully installed, boot into Windows XP and download and install VistaBootPRO in Windows XP. Ignore the prompt to backup the BCD and go to the Bootloader tab. Select "Uninstall the Vista bootloader" and click Apply.

2 (b): Now go to and open My Computer. Right click your Windows Vista installation drive/partition and select Format. A "Quick format" is fine.

2 (c): Still in My Computer, select Tools>"Folder Options…" and ensure that you set your folder options to "Show hidden files and folders" and that you clear the check box for "Hide protected operating system files".

Delete the following files:

$RECYCLE.BIN
Boot.BAK
BOOTSECT.BAK

Vista will now be removed from your system, but there will still be some files that it has left on your system drive/partition.

If you want to get rid of all traces of Vista, then follow the steps below to delete:

Boot (folder and contents)
bootmgr

NOTE: You will be unable to delete the folder Boot or the file bootmgr WITHOUT following the process described below, as they are protected files. Leaving them on your system drive will however do no harm to your Windows XP installation. Any subsequent installation of Windows Vista will overwrite them.

2 (d): To delete the folder Boot and the file bootmgr, switch user in Windows XP or earlier, to Administrator or if the user account Administrator is not active, restart and boot into Safe Mode and select the Administrator account to log in with. Once logged into Safe Mode, open My Computer, go to Tools>Folder Options and make sure that your view settings are set to "Show hidden files and folders" and that you clear the check box for "Hide protected operating system files".

Follow these directions to delete the file bootmgr:

* Double click your Windows XP installation drive and select the file bootmgr. Follow the path, right click>Properties>Security>Add and type Administrator, then Check Names>OK>Full Control>Apply>OK.

* Again select bootmgr, right click and go to Properties>Security, and select Administrator in the Group or user names pane>Advanced>Owner>OK>OK

* For a third time select bootmgr, right click and go to Properties>Security select Administrator in the Group or username pane, Advanced>Permissions>Select and type Administrator>Check Names>OK>OK>OK.

* Right click bootmgr and delete it.

Follow these directions to delete the folder Boot

* Select the folder Boot, right click>Properties>Security>Advanced>Owner tab and select Administrator and check the check box for "Replace owner on sub containers and objects>OK>OK

* For a second time, select the folder boot, right click>Properties>Security>Advanced>>Permissions tab>Add and type Administrator>Check Names>OK>Full Control>OK and select "Replace permissions on all child objects..." and click OK

* Right click the folder Boot and delete it.

3. Should your primary operating system NOT be Windows XP, or an earlier Windows version, or where you have more than one instance of Windows Vista installed, it is strongly recommended that you do NOT use the Dual-Boot or Multi-Boot Removal Method. In these circumstances, you are advised to post for assistance in our Windows Vista Chat & Support Forum where the Betas Team & Support Centre Team are available to give you the necessary advice and support.
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Re: Abandon first drive and boot direct to Vista

Postby Codger » Fri Apr 24, 2009 3:53 pm

The plot thickens . . .
I did the 'uninstall bootloader' routine, but I obviously cannot format the drive that Vista was on because it now holds my shiny new XP system. I already formatted the drive when I installed XP so the files referred to in 2(c) don't exist.

Only one thing has changed: Now when I boot with C: disconnected, instead of getting the bootmgr error I get the ntldr error.
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Re: Abandon first drive and boot direct to Vista

Postby Grav!ty » Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:04 pm

The "missing or corrupt ntldr" error can mean an incorrect boot.ini so I think first try changing the boot.ini entry for that OS to multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 2" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

Quite frankly, if you are going to be continuously changing the drive tagged (System) and effectively change the 1st boot drive in the BIOS by selecting a different drive to boot from, it's best to unplug other drives when installing the OS's to each.
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