Jump to content
xisto Community
Sign in to follow this  
Grafitti

Messed Up My Boot.ini File With Vista... How can i fix it?

Recommended Posts

I wanted to install Vista without getting rid of my XP installation, so I left Xp on my C drive, and installed Vista on another physical disk. I started running into problems with the dual booting when i would switch from one OS to the next, and after a while Xp would start hanging on boot, and only after several cold reboots would it load properly. So i was planning on uninstalling Vista, but the hard drive i had it on got formatted by a friend of mine who thought he was doing me a favor. Now when i switch on the computer i get the OS choice menu, typical Vista pre-selected, with the option to select "older windows installations". But there's no vista to boot into, so it crashes. I've looked in the boot.ini and there's only a couple lines that have changed from before when i didn't have it installed, and they're not code, just disclaimers:;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.I have the boot.bak and bootsect.bak files that are supposed to be deleted when doing a proper uninstall of vista, but you're supposed to fix the ntfsdir and boot file through vista before uninstalling. So how can i get back my regular boot.ini file to load XP automatically without having to install vista again just so i can uninstall it?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

yes, but that's the thing. boot.ini doesn't contain any references to vista. this is all it has:timeout=30default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I dont know if re-writing the MBR would help in this case, but if you are left with no other option .. then i'd suggest you try this fix out.

 

>> LINK <<

 

I had already posted about the MBR issue few minutes back and then came to your post lol.

 

Tell us if it helps :)

 

Regards

Dhanesh.

Edited by dhanesh (see edit history)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No, for some strange reason it doesn't change anything. I mean, i fix the mbr and boot record, but on reboot i still get the vista bootloader.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Grafitti, I don't know if you did this already, but did you try to use the fixboot command from the XP recovery CD? It "should" be a simple procedure to remove the vista boot loader, but since it's Microsoft....I guess nothing is always straight-forward :)

Take a look at:

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1040/vista_how_to_uninstall_vista_dual_boot_machine/

Try those steps and see if it helps out. Some steps won't apply to you (like the boot.ini) since that part is already missing the Vista entry.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It hasn't worked so far. I've deleted all boot-related files from the c drive, then copied them off of another computer and then was able to repair the mbr, after which i got a crashing boot seq, so did a repair install over my windows, and now it seems to be running. But very slow on boot. From before Vista, booting in about 15 seconds, to nearly a minute now.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

All those files that were causing trouble from the leftover of Vista still had the Vista fileprotection on them, so i wasn't able to take ownership and delete them in XP. I ended up booting with Winternals, deleted the Vista files, then repaired my system files, and everything booted properly after that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I myself have tried dualbooting with windows XP and Windows Vista. I've never run into any problems with vista during boot or directly after boot. I'm assuming that you're either using RC2 or RTM. The only problem I've ever run into on either of those builds is a slow login. Anyway, the retail seems to have somewhat fixed that problem. Also, the problems that you've described could possibly be hardware related. Some other computers that i've tried vista on had the same problems except the motherboards and cpu were older.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Vista advisor gives my computer a 4.6 rating, so it's not that. I'm using the RTM, but the logon is fine. it's my xp that went slow after uninstalling vista incorrectly.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ann XP over Vista instal will trash the Vista Boot iniYou need to run vista repair to fix boot ini.Vista over XP wont cause this issue

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
fedora 12 bootloader.....please help.....Messed Up My Boot.ini File With Vista...

Hi

I had fedora 12 and window xp on my laptop. I wanted to have window 7. So I formatted my c drive. After that when I restart my computer I don't get the option for starting fedora as in the process of formatting c drive I lost my fedora 12 bootloader. So please help me. How to install bootloader for fedora 12. Please give full details as I m a beginner.

thanks a lot in advance

-question by divya

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.