Removing dual boot?

Question

Hey everyone. I have my E1505 laptop here, which came with XP Media Center Edition, then I got Dell's free Vista Upgrade, then set that to dual boot on my pc. I decided to go back to XP, and remove Vista, thinking I could just remove the Vista partition, and all would be well...Of course, it isn't. Everything seems fine, except for when I start up the computer, it still has the screen to select Vista or 'An Earlier Version of Windows'. I think Vista set that up though, and it has Vista selected as the default, which it goes to in 30 seconds if I don't choose XP. Can someone help me on how to delete this? Thanks.

Balaji Ramanath · Answer

I think you have to edit your boot.ini file to make XP the default and also to eliminate the countdown so that it boots up to XP immediately.

GamerGuy1 · Answer

Sorry, but how exactly would I be able to do that?

Balaji Ramanath · Answer

boot.ini is a system file that is located in your root directory (c:\ in most cases). It may be hidden, so you can locate it after you turn on the options in explorer to see hidden files and system files. Use a text editor to load and edit the boot.ini file. Look at what the default OS is set to. Then, change it to what you want by editing the file and also change the timeout to 0 seconds in that file. For example, my boot.ini file looks as below (I have only one OS installed on my computer, so my boot.ini is simpler than what you will find on your computer, but you should be able to figure it out regardless):

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

You probably have partition(1) as well as partition(2) and the wrong one is probably set to default. In my case the default timeout value has no effect because there are no user choices, but if there are user choices, changing the timeout to a small value will save you time during bootup.

GamerGuy1 · Answer

Ok, I did a search and found that I a file, Boot.ini.backup, located in C:/WINDOWS/pss, and at just C:/, I have Boot.BAK, which contains this:

;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

What should I do to change this? That .exe no longer works as Vista is now deleted, and only have XP to run.

Balaji Ramanath · Answer

OK, so it looks like boot.ini is not used by vista, only by xp and earlier and instead.  It suggests using BCDEDIT.exe to modify boot options.  Have you tried that?

GamerGuy1 · Answer

No, I think this must have been a file from Vista. I have the files because I backed up the hard drive, but they no longer work.

Balaji Ramanath · Answer

D'uh! Sorry for not paying attention to your whole posts. It looks like you are stuck in some kind of twilight zone. Try out the method suggested here.

If that does not work, I think you would be better off posting your problem in the Vista forum and see if someone there has any ideas as to how to get rid of this menu for you.

Shindo · Answer

I would suggest you clean reinstall your XP and delete all current parition except for the diagnostic partition w/c is a small one. delete the main partition and format it then reinstall OS again. that should fix the problem.

try this....

windows reinstallation (thanks for SR45 for sharing this link).

jmwills · Answer

This could be nothing more than an incorrect entry in the boot.ini file.

Go to Start>Run>type msconfig and then to the boot .ini tab. There is some verbage in there about checking all boot paths and removing any incorrect entries. Try that first.

mfinnan101 · Answer

There's no need to reinstall XP.

Boot from your xp setup disk,

Press R when it's finished loading to go into the recovery and type fixboot

That'll reinstall the XP bootloader and should remove the Vista one. It's what I've done in the past to remove the Vista bootloader.

Message Edited by mfinnan101 on 04-25-2008 03:31 PM

Windows General

Removing dual boot?

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