Removing an OS.
- Thread starter TaintedShirt
- Start date
Coolname007
Distinguished Member
Answer: No.
From what it sounds like, XP still exists, it just doesn't show up in the boot menu when booting from drive B (which contains the original Vista, correct?). That could easily be because you haven't got an XP entry in the BCD on that drive, which can be quickly remedied using EasyBCD.Hopefully you have not already deleted the XP partition, or you will have lost a perfectly working install of XP...
-Coolname007
Addendum:
Here's what I mean...
So as you can see, it is because you tried booting from disk B (original Vista) instead of disk A that you no longer have an option to boot XP...
You should still be able to boot into XP fine from Disk A, providing of course you have not already deleted the XP partition...
-Coolname007
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Coolname007
Distinguished Member
It bypasses it when you're using bootmgr or it bypasses it when you're booting XP directly, i.e. where it uses just ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com?
Or both? If its the latter, then why have a bootsector that's compatible with ntldr at all, if it bypasses the bootsector? I have a feeling it only bypasses it when booting XP from Vista's bootmanager, which would explain why attempting to boot directly from XP's drive after following your advice and putting Vista's bootsector on all partitions failed...Not what I call "safe".
-Coolname007
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Coolname007
Distinguished Member
I realize in this particular case, he has Vista on the same drive as XP, so obviously the one controlling the boot on that drive (drive 0) is most certainly Vista, meaning it would be safe for him to run the command...as long as he is not using any 3rd party bootloaders.
But what about in a situation where someone has Vista on one drive, and XP on another, and he wanted to get into XP by changing the boot sequence to put the XP drive first? If he ran the command to put Vista's bootsector on all partitions, wouldn't it make XP unbootable that way? I just think it would be safer to tell people to put the Vista bootsector on only partitions that contain a Vista OS. But then again, maybe I have that wrong, and using the "all" command will only put Vista's bootsector on the drive you're running it from, and not on all drives...>.<
-Coolname007
Coolname007
Distinguished Member
Yet there are instances when someone might have to change the boot priority, in order to boot at all...
Such as for example if Vista's not booting, and XP can't be booted, except by changing the boot priority. Obviously, if you can't access either installed version of Windows, then you can't use EasyBCD. But by changing the boot priority in that circumstance, you would be able to boot into XP just fine, providing of course the boot files on that drive are ok, and then you could do whatever repairs you needed from there. But of course, that wouldn't be possible if Vista's bootsector is on all partitions...-Coolname007
Coolname007
Distinguished Member
I was speaking of an instance in which the XP boot files are on its *own* drive (as well as on the Vista drive), and its own active partition, in which case booting from the XP drive would complete successfully (IF it has XP's bootsector, and not Vista's).
-Coolname007
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Coolname007
Distinguished Member
What if the person had been using EasyBCD (to attempt to boot XP), but had lost the ability to boot Vista all of a sudden? Would it be a supported usage scenario then? :brows:
-Coolname007
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No, it still wouldn't.
The "acceptable usage scenario" would be to download the Vista recovery disc and repair the bootloader.
And even if they didn't, STILL they wouldn't be able to dual-boot since if you're dual-booting via software the boot files are in one place, and if you're dual-booting by switching drive order, the files are in another.
The "acceptable usage scenario" would be to download the Vista recovery disc and repair the bootloader.
And even if they didn't, STILL they wouldn't be able to dual-boot since if you're dual-booting via software the boot files are in one place, and if you're dual-booting by switching drive order, the files are in another.
Coolname007
Distinguished Member
Yet if they only had a single computer (which can't boot at all), then how could they download the recovery disk? :brows: But I know what you would counter that with: "If they only had a single computer, which couldn't boot, then they wouldn't even be at the support forums asking for help." :?? And then I would reply with: "They might be able to use a friend's computer to come to this site, and ask for help." And then your response would be: "In such a situation, they could use their friend's computer to download the recovery disk." and we'd be back at square 1.
-Coolname007
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