Removing Vista without DVD?

[bladesharp]

Hi All,

I have a laptop with dual boot (Vista and XP), i am not using the Vista part for a long time.Is there any way i can remove the Vista WITHOUT a vista DVD (i dont have it now ).I just want to keep only XP.

XP is installed in C drive
Vista is installed in D drive.
(*Formatting D drive is a good option !!? , will it affect the bootsector)

Thanks

[SonsOfLiberty]

Yes, use gParted live and delete the partition Vista is on and then merge it with you XP partition/add to free space.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

Obviously make sure you have the data you want off the Vista drive first.

[bladesharp]

Yes, use gParted live and delete the partition Vista is on and then merge it with you XP partition/add to free space.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

Obviously make sure you have the data you want off the Vista drive first.

Thank you SonsOfLiberty i'll give a try today

[roger200]

I you get any troubles. search mbr, or master boot recorder.

[bladesharp]

Yes, am bit worried on the boot part..

[SonsOfLiberty]

Ok, well if you have means, just download a Windows Vista ISO image (you can delete afterwards, we need just for this part coming up) and do this.


To remove Vista, with the DVD Microsoft has made this step very simple as well.

1. Boot your computer in to Windows XP.
2. Ensure you have the Vista DVD image emulated or in the DVD drive.
3. Go to “Start” and “Run”. Type in “e:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force” (without quotes, and replacing e: with the drive letter of your Vista DVD).
4. Restart the computer, and you will notice the boot selection menu is gone.
5. Format the partition/drive where you had Vista installed.
6. Remove two files (Boot.BAK & Bootsect.BAK) on your XP drive’s root folder (C, these were backup files of your previous bootloader, now no longer useful.
7. Optional: Restart to ensure it still works.
8. Use your partition software to merge your partitions together.

And now you have returned your computer to its previous state, without Vista and without the new bootloader. If anyone has any issues, please post it in comments and I’ll try to resolve it.

[bladesharp]

Hi SonsOfLiberty

Are you sure , any vista image will do? i have installed this one pretty long back and cant ever remember which release was it..

Thanks

[SonsOfLiberty]

It should, just grab a one ans see if it will work, if not just use a XP CD, reformat and merge your partitions into one and then re-install XP on it.

[clocker]

You're going to have trouble with the bootloader if you just delete Vista.
Vista has overwritten the XP bootloader and deleting Vista will leave XP unreachable.

The first thing you need to do is download Vistaboot Pro and install it into Vista.
It's free.

Then, while in Vista, use the app to remove the Vista bootloader.
Upon rebooting, the XP bootloader will be restored and you can wipe out the Vista install with no ill effects.

[bladesharp]

You're going to have trouble with the bootloader if you just delete Vista.
Vista has overwritten the XP bootloader and deleting Vista will leave XP unreachable.

The first thing you need to do is download Vistaboot Pro and install it into Vista.
It's free.

Then, while in Vista, use the app to remove the Vista bootloader.
Upon rebooting, the XP bootloader will be restored and you can wipe out the Vista install with no ill effects.

This worked like a charm. Thank you all for Help