Removing an OS.

Have just copied and pasted bootsect to the boot folder in original vista. Will power down, disconnect drive A and boot back in to recovery console from vista dvd and try this out.

brb. :smile:

Just saw I can install again. Will do that then and follow on from there.

again brb :smile:
 
TaintedShirt said:
Have just copied and pasted bootsect to the boot folder in original vista. Will power down, disconnect drive A and boot back in to recovery console from vista dvd and try this out.

brb. :smile:

Just saw I can install again. Will do that then and follow on from there.

again brb :smile:
Click to expand...

Why not just use bootsect directly from XP? You'll obtain the same result either way just as long as you use the appropriate drive letter for the partition you're trying to change the master boot code for, ya know...:wink:

-Coolname007
 
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Coolname007 said:
uhh...I don't believe he has Win 7, Justin. :wink: I think he has just Vista and XP, and the one in question here is Vista, not Win 7. But yes, he could install it in the other Vista if he wanted to (edited last post), but I was just saying he could simply use bootsect from XP for now, since EasyBCD is already installed there, and then later, if he wants to, he could always install EasyBCD on other OSes.

Cheers,

-Coolname007
Click to expand...

Right... corrected now.

Yeah, you'd be a lot better off using XP for bootsect if it'll work for you.
 
Latest update.

Am in my Original Vista, have easybcd installed here now. Tried bootsect from easybcd. bootsect.exe nt60 c: but got a message that a drive was in use or somehting like that. Guess that's because I used bootsect on the drive I was currently booting from.

So I disconnected drive A, booted in to recovery console on the vista dvd.
Tried bootsect.exe nt60 c: no boot to Vista
So tried Step three from Wiki. When I tried to boot to Vista I got an error on disk.
I tried Step Four (Nuclear Holocaust) I got the same result.

Reconnecting drive A, I have no problem getting back in to my Original Vista.

Hmmm, getting very late here now. 3.45am. Work in the morning :frowning: I need some serious zzzz's I'll be back tomorrow (like the proverbial bad penny) :wink: .

Thanks so much guys for you help and guidance so far.
 
TaintedShirt said:
Latest update.

Am in my Original Vista, have easybcd installed here now. Tried bootsect from easybcd. bootsect.exe nt60 c: but got a message that a drive was in use or somehting like that. Guess that's because I used bootsect on the drive I was currently booting from.
Click to expand...

Tried bootsect from XP or tried it from Vista? If you tried it from Vista, it makes sense why it would say the drive was in use... :wink: Perhaps you would obtain better results if doing it from XP?

-Coolname007
 
Computer Guru said:
You can use
Code: 
bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force
to make it work even if the drive is in use.
Click to expand...

But wouldn't that command put Vista's master boot code on all partitions, which would be undesirable in most cases, would it not? *puzzled* Why not just force it for the Vista partition he wants to do it to, i.e. C: in this case? :wink:

-Coolname007
 
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The only time it would matter would be if you had another OS on a partition where you needed a valid bootsector (such as grub for Linux). Since its just XP/Vista here, bootmgr will pass control to ntldr without needing the bootsector to do so.
 
kairozamorro said:
The only time it would matter would be if you had another OS on a partition where you needed a valid bootsector (such as grub for Linux). Since its just XP/Vista here, bootmgr will pass control to ntldr without needing the bootsector to do so.
Click to expand...

True, but I still think it would make more sense just to do it to the Vista partition...:wink: Why have Vista's bootsector on partitions that don't contain the Vista OS?

-Coolname007
 
kairozamorro said:
So we can be sure it got where it needed to be without having to look at his system.
Click to expand...

Good point. :grinning: I can't believe I was that dumb to have not thought of that! :lol:
Makes good sense, and I guess the next time CG posts a command for someone else, I will mind my own business. :brows:

-Coolname007
 
Hey guys, you have been busy :smile:
Ok I tried working from Vista and then tried forcing it from Vista still no joy. Had tried from recovery console last night. Am off now to boot to XP try it from there. Wish me luck.

thanks
 
omg I don't think I can kill XP. grrrrr.

So I boot in to XP, loaded up easybcd, bootsect. Tried bootsect.exe /nt60 m: /force with m being the vista drive when I'm in XP. Reboot. In to bios, set drive B to be first in boot sequence (the one with original vista). Rebooted and didn't load. Just stopped. Back in to XP, easybcd and this time tried bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force . Rebooted and nothing happened, just stopped.

So then back in to vista dvd, tried repair. Tired step 3 from the wiki again. Again no joy.


Maybe XP isn't so bad, :wink: I could just shrink the partition safe in the knowledge that at least one of my OSes is indestrucible.
 
TaintedShirt said:
omg I don't think I can kill XP. grrrrr.

So I boot in to XP, loaded up easybcd, bootsect. Tried bootsect.exe /nt60 m: /force with m being the vista drive when I'm in XP. Reboot. In to bios, set drive B to be first in boot sequence (the one with original vista). Rebooted and didn't load. Just stopped. Back in to XP, easybcd and this time tried bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force . Rebooted and nothing happened, just stopped.

So then back in to vista dvd, tried repair. Tired step 3 from the wiki again. Again no joy.


Maybe XP isn't so bad, :wink: I could just shrink the partition safe in the knowledge that at least one of my OSes is indestrucible.
Click to expand...

That's what I was afraid of. I wasn't sure whether or not putting Vista's bootsector on all partitions would make XP unbootable, but because Justin said that ntldr would bypass the bootsector (at least when using Vista's bootmgr), and it wouldn't make a difference, I was willing to see how it went. But it seems that was a mistake...:wink: Now you would need to put XP's bootsector back on the XP partition, before XP can boot by itself. To do that, do:
Code: 
bootsect /nt52 c:
and replace the "c" with whatever drive letter the XP partition is.

-Coolname007

EDIT: Oh, and to get Vista booting again, you might have to run Startup Repair from the Vista DVD a few times before it will boot. Or am I misunderstanding the problem, and its the original Vista that's still not booting besides XP?

EDIT #2: If you can get into any of your installed OSes on that computer, could you please post a screenshot of your Disk Management window? I want to get a clearer picture of your situation...
 
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Well now I'm confused. Oh, ok I was confused a long time ago but I'm more so now.

The situation as was.
I was to be able to boot to each of the OSes from dive A. But if I boot in to Fresh Vista then when I reboot I have to run the vista dvd and startup repair in order to access Vista original.

When booting I can switch the hard drive I boot from without going in to the bios. If I select drive A, I boot as above with the choice of XP, Vista original and Fresh Vista. When I switched to booting from drive B nothing would happen. The boot process would just stop, sometimes giving me "A disk read error occurred".

Ok so Coolname007 asked me for a .jpg of disk management. Looking at the way my drives were partitioned I got slightly embarrassed as it was really disorganised, so I decided to clean it up a bit. I had unallocated sections all over the place and my C drive was near the end. Don't ask why I don't know really. So I cleaned it up, sorted it out.
Left the pc busy working all this out last night. See Disk Management before attached.

This evening after I get back from work. I boot up from disk A, all choices are there as before. I can still boot to XP too. So I reboot, try booting from disk B and ...... well I get a vista boot menu just listing my two vista OSes, XP is not listed. Tried booting in to both Vistas and it works. Am presently in original Vista and have attached a jpg of what things look like now.

I have no idea what has happened, but thanks to all your help I seem to have removed XP. I am thinking of cloning original Vista and 'pasting' on to fresh Vista to have as a fall back.

As you will see from the pics I was/ am thinking of trying out windows 7, even have a partition already left out for it. Any advice? Would this pose more problems?

One last question for you guys. You all boot multiple OSes, different versions of Windows, Linux and some even Macs. How do you all keep them updated and running. Anti-viruses these days have updates every hour, windows updates seem to appear every Tuesday at least. Do you boot in to every OS each day?


Oh yeah, gotta say a big THANK YOU to you guys again. :grinning:

edit, is it safe to delete the XP partition now?
 

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Now XP is no longer the system drive, you can reuse the space for whatever you want. (assuming the right hand screenshot is the later one)
W7 seems to have the most bullet-proof installer I've yet come across. It probably won't give you any problems at all.
All I had to do was add an entry to the Vista BCD with EasyBCD after it had finished. Job done. It even offered to install the AV of my choice during install, and did so perfectly.
I just let the WUDs and virus updates take place at boot-up, whenever I happen to use my minority systems (I'm on Vista 99%), I make no special effort to keep them up-to-date till I actually next use one.
 
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Thanks for all that Terry.
Glad to hear that about W7, think I'm going to try W7 out over the weekend then. Just to see what the future might be like. If I decide to remove W7 later would I have to go thru all this again?

You say you had to add an entry to the Vista BCD with EasyBCD. Terry are you using beta of EasyBCD 2.0? I had thought that the latest version had some sort off auto config feature. What did you add and why? Sorry for the noob questions.

thanks
 
Adding a Vista (or W7) entry is simple (Easy 1.7 or 2.0) Just "add", selecting the "longhorn" dropdown system type and point it at the right partition. Finished.
The auto-configurator in 2.0 is specific to XP.
XP is not so straightforward. You point the XP entry to the BCD partition (not XP), copy XP boot files to that partition, then point them back to XP. (It's all detailed in the sticky). 2.0 auto-config does that stuff for you.
When I installed W7 (to a 2nd HDD - not the "system" drive) it installed with its own BCD and completely ignored the other systems, only booting while the install DVD was in the tray, hence the need to add it to the "system" BCD for it to become a multi-boot option.
If you install it onto the same HDD as your "system" partition, it might well become the controlling bootmgr (others will have to confirm/deny), automatically adding the existing systems into its multi-boot menu.
Depending on which situation applies will determine what needs to be done to remove it.
In my case, it's just delete the entry from the BCD and format the partition.
In the latter case, seek advice before removing if you're not sure how to proceed.
 
Thanks again Terry.

I'll try the installation on to a 2nd hard drive. I really like that way of removing the OS. Simple enough for me to follow :smile: This EasyBCD really is excellent.

Ok guys. Terry, Coolname007 Computer Guru and kairozamorro. Thank you for the help and patience shown to a total noob. If any of you are ever in London, I owe you a drink or two. :smile:
 
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