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[vondie Profile]

I have a double boot environment, Vista and XP that I would like to revert back to XP only using the old legacy boot loader ntldr. My goal is to convert the XP machine into a VMware virtual disk that I can then run under Windows 7. The problem is, when running the VMware vCenter Converter, it cannot correctly setup the boot loader given it's Vista. I found your tool hoping that it will remove the Vista bootloader and revert back to the legacy ntldr, but it doesn't seem to be working. It appears that it is only modifying the Vista bootloader to remove the multiple options which will simply boot into XP directly. It looks like the Vista boot loader is still the configured loader. I have performed the System Bootloader action where I selected 'Windows Legacy' along with every combination of Install Options, but nothing appears to work. From what I can tell, it appears the changes aren't being written properly or at all. I have found a few other manual techniques that should work, but neither worked either.

Some background:
----------------
Physical Disk 0
Partition 1: 55MB FAT, EISA configuration
Partition 2: C:, 320Gig, XP Pro SP3 installed
Listed as healthy (system)

Physical Disk 1
Partition 1: V:, 150Gig, Vista Business SP1
Listed as healthy (active)

XP was factory installed from Dell, Vista installed manually later.


Other attempts:
--------------
1) Boot into XP CD recovery console, run Fixboot and fixmbr. Fixboot doesn't work because it can't find a hard disk to update. If I do a map command, I only see the two CD drives and a floppy. Neither hard disks show up

2) While booted into XP and the Vista CD in drive d:, from a command prompt, I run d:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 c: /force. This is the error returned.

Target volumes will be updated with NTLDR compatible bootcode.

C: (\\?\Volume{fda33e5e-42d7-11dd-b82a-806d6172696f})

Updated NTFS filesystem bootcode. The update may be unreliable since the
volume could not be dismounted during the update:
Access is denied.

Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.

Output from DualBootPro:
------------------------

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {ntldr}
resumeobject {4b8c0cb2-ec02-11dd-a36b-e49c9b745668}
displayorder {ntldr}
{4b59ffd4-d245-11db-9fd9-d69644ba87fb}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 25

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {4b59ffd4-d245-11db-9fd9-d69644ba87fb}
device partition=V:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=V:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {4b59ffd5-d245-11db-9fd9-d69644ba87fb}
nx OptIn

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {4b8c0cb0-ec02-11dd-a36b-e49c9b745668}

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {4b8c0cb4-ec02-11dd-a36b-e49c9b745668}

Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {4b59ffd5-d245-11db-9fd9-d69644ba87fb}
device partition=V:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=V:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
pae Yes
debugoptionenabled No

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=C:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=C:
path \ntldr
description Earlier Version of Windows

EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems Yes

Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200

RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}

Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}

Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{7ff607e0-4395-11db-b0de-0800200c9a66}

Inherited Settings (20200003)
-----------------------------
identifier {7ff607e0-4395-11db-b0de-0800200c9a66}
custom:250000f3 0
custom:250000f4 1
custom:250000f5 115200

Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}

Device options
--------------
identifier {4b8c0cb1-ec02-11dd-a36b-e49c9b745668}
description Ramdisk Options
ramdisksdidevice unknown
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\4b8c0cb0-ec02-11dd-a36b-e49c9b745668\boot.sdi

Device options
--------------
identifier {4b8c0cb5-ec02-11dd-a36b-e49c9b745668}
description Ramdisk Options
ramdisksdidevice unknown
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\4b8c0cb4-ec02-11dd-a36b-e49c9b745668\boot.sdi

[Grav!ty Profile]

Probably the best way to get rid of the Vista/Windows 7 boot loader is to delete the file bootmgr and the folder Boot. You will need to either log in as Administrator or boot to safe mode and log in as Administrator (which I find best) and then take full ownership of those two items and delete them. See the REMOVING WINDOWS VISTA FROM YOUR SYSTEM section of this guide. It's the same for Windows 7.

[vondie Profile]

I will give that a shot. I apologize ahead of time for asking this, but how will the system then know to revert back to boot in XP mode? Doesn't the XP partition need to have it's MBR updated to point to boot.ini?

[Grav!ty Profile]

In your case Disk 0 with XP on it is already the drive/partition tagged (System) so boot.ini should just continue to auto point to ntldr like it does for you to be able to boot to XP in the dual boot scenario.

[vondie Profile]

That did the trick. I actually ended up taking the HD out of my machine and connected it to another via USB SATA adapter to delete the BOOT folder and bootmgr.

Many thanks.

[Grav!ty Profile]

Thanks for letting us know your solution vondie