Triple boot, kill Vista, keep dual boot--How?

[tangouniform]

My laptop came with Vista Home Premium. I installed WinXP Pro on partition drive d:, and Ubuntu in the Vista reload area. All three boots work with EasyBCD.

I want to remove Vista and reclaim the partition for data. I'm not sure how to pry EasyBCD from Vista and still keep Ubuntu and XP bootable.

Here's the environment from EasyBCD v1.7.2.7 ..

There are a total of 3 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: WinXP Pro

Entry #1

Name: WinXP Pro
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Drive: D:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr

Entry #2

Name: Vista Home Pre
BCD ID: {1033f68a-501a-11de-937f-cbf963c2a002}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #3

Name: NeoSmart Linux
BCD ID: {8fdaade0-1b98-11dc-9eea-0016d4c6ccf9}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\nst_bsd.mbr

-=-=-

What is a good way to remove Vista and keep the remaining dual boot? Everything is working. I do NOT want to build the XP partition again.

This system evolved after a heat problem killed the original drive. I'm running on a 230_GB Scorpio Black WD drive running at 7200_rpm with analog accelerate/decelerate head seek. This is a dead quiet, ripping fast laptop drive.

There are four partitions..

1 [?:] Ubuntu Linux
2 [c:] primary Vista Home Premium
3 [d:] primary WinXP Pro
4 [e:] data

Removing Vista is sort of like the dog sweeping up the golden road in "Alice in Wonderland". It's a self-eating watermelon: Kill Vista and you kill the multi boot. There is probably an easy fix, but I can send it all to Alphabet Heaven in a New York Second if I don't watch out. Byte Hill.. *sigh*

=zz=.

 

[Terry60]

Hi TU, welcome to NST.
If you don't already have the "factory reset" recovery disks, make a set from the OEM hidden recovery partition first. The Vista licence is a large part of the value of the PC.
Silly just to bin it. You might want to sell the PC one day.
Move any personal data you still want from the Users/your-id/ folder structure
In EasyBCD add/remove entries, remove the Vista entry from the BCD.
From Ubuntu, (Windows won't let you) delete everything on the Vista partition except the folder called "boot" and the file called bootmgr.
Use the space for whatever you like.

 

[tangouniform]

If you don't already have the "factory reset" recovery disks, make a set from the OEM hidden recovery partition first. The Vista license is a large part of the value of the PC.
Silly just to bin it. You might want to sell the PC one day.

There was no assured method to run the hidden partition that would guarantee the software there would not wipe the XP partition. No documentation came from Acer that gave this confidence. I bought this laptop as a stripped down OEM plain box special. Vista was only run as a gimmick. When the original disk crashed, I recovered the Vista partition and the hidden partition to a USB drive and included it in the regen onto the Scorpio disk. Vista was so much of a bother to learn that I grew tired of all the wrist slapping and lock outs and only used it as a carnival ooey-GUI distraction. Not propagating Vista would be a service to mankind. It's toast.

Move any personal data you still want from the Users/your-id/ folder structure.

Since I will image it "as is" with Paragon, I can restore it should I want to. The slickness will be missed, but not the trade-off in performance and pain to use it.

Besides, I probably will keep this laptop until the cows come home. I won't sell it.

In EasyBCD add/remove entries, remove the Vista entry from the BCD.
From Ubuntu, (Windows won't let you) delete everything on the Vista partition except the folder called "boot" and the file called bootmgr.
Use the space for whatever you like.

This is the magic bullet! Leaving the folder to handle EasyBCD makes sense. I wasn't sure that it was a stand-alone application. I need to make the recovery image and then reclaim the space. Using Ubuntu to do the dirty work is right as rain.

I maxed the memory with the highest quality chips, installed the largest, fastest drive, changed the battery from 4000_mAh at 11.1_V to 5200_mAh at 14.8_V (how that works--and it does--I don't know), and run variable cpu clocking to keep down the heat and give me two and a half hours of complex sound and video editing on battery, and now, I will have more on board disk space with two solid OS's, XP and Linux.

Thanks for the timely and good-sense reply! Sorry about the Vista bashing--not.

Cheers,
=zz=.

 

[Coolname007]

From Ubuntu, (Windows won't let you) delete everything on the Vista partition except the folder called "boot" and the file called bootmgr.
Use the space for whatever you like.

...Or you could simply use EasybCD 2.0 Beta | Diagnostic Center | Change Boot Drive, and move the boot files over to XP's partition, after which you could format Vista, and still have your multiboot.

 

[Terry60]

"Leaving the folder to handle EasyBCD makes sense. I wasn't sure that it was a stand-alone application"
Just to dispel any misapprehension - Easy BCD is a stand alone app, it is not the boot manager. Those files are Vista's, not EasyBCD's.
EasyBCD is an app to facilitate the manipulation of the contents of the BCD (which lives inside the "boot" folder).
What you are doing is deleting all of Vista except its boot manager.