I need help removing Vista...

[stamsek]

Well, I've played with Vista long enough and I'm going to wait for it to mature past the 5728 release. Now, I've dual booted XP and Vista, but Vista took over the booting process with it's dual boot. Does anyone know how I can remove Vista and restore XP's original boot-up sequence?

 

[dbwillis]

Think its boot from the XP CD and do a fix /mbr at the repair console

 

[stamsek]

I've never done a fix MBR. Can I get details please?

 

[stamsek]

Fixing the MBR via recover console did not alleviate the issue. Any other ideas? I really don't want to format/reinstall XP.

 

[drizzt81]

if you don't mind hosing your system, you can try the fixboot command from the XP recovery console (through the CD).

 

[stamsek]

if you don't mind hosing your system, you can try the fixboot command from the XP recovery console (through the CD).

I did that, it didn't work. I booted to my XP CD. Entered the recovery console, typed "fixmbr", it asked if I was sure, I said yes. And I still have the Vista duel boot screen.

 

[digital_exhaust]

Did you enter fixmbr or fixboot?

Fixboot c: from the recovery console might work.

 

[stamsek]

Actually, this is what got it to finally work:

Boot your computer in to Windows XP.
Ensure you have the Vista DVD image emulated or in the DVD drive.
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).
Restart the computer, and you will notice the boot selection menu is gone.
Format the partition/drive where you had Vista installed.
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.
Optional: Restart to ensure it still works.
Use your partition software to merge your partitions together.

 

[Catweazle]

The quick 'n' easy 'half-assed' method is this:

Boot into Vista. Exactly the same way as you would in XP, change the default Boot OS to your XP installation and the 'Time to display' to zero seconds.

Okay, now you DID install Vista to a partition other than your original boot partition didn't you? You can happily nuke it now, without any residual problems. The Vista multi-boot menu will still be there, but you won't ever see it because you set it to not display. It'll load and then immediately fire up XP!