Problem booting from Installation Disck

[Guest]

I installed Vista several months ago on a separate partition on an XP Pro
machine. I decided I had done enough testing, so I uninstalled Vista. All
is well except the dual boot menu won't go away.

Decided to boot from my XP installation disk and run the Recovery Console to
rebuild my XP boot.ini (using bootcfg /rebuild).

Problem: When I get to the screen where I can choose R and do so, I get an
error message saying Windows could not find any hard drive!!?? The only
option is F3 (Quit).

So, I actually have two problems: (1) I can't get rid of the Vista dual boot
menu and (2) I can't load the Recovery Console in order to fix #1.

Any ideas how to fix either problem - preferably loading the Recovery
Console since this should allow me to get rid of the Vista boot menu?

Many thanks in advance,

Old Mountain Man

 

[WB]

I installed Vista several months ago on a separate partition on an XP Pro
machine. I decided I had done enough testing, so I uninstalled Vista.
All
is well except the dual boot menu won't go away.

Decided to boot from my XP installation disk and run the Recovery Console
to
rebuild my XP boot.ini (using bootcfg /rebuild).

Problem: When I get to the screen where I can choose R and do so, I get
an
error message saying Windows could not find any hard drive!!?? The only
option is F3 (Quit).

So, I actually have two problems: (1) I can't get rid of the Vista dual
boot
menu and (2) I can't load the Recovery Console in order to fix #1.

Any ideas how to fix either problem - preferably loading the Recovery
Console since this should allow me to get rid of the Vista boot menu?

Many thanks in advance,

Old Mountain Man

You can manually edit boot.ini and remove any reference to vista.
Another appraoch is through msconfig (Start > Run and enter msconfig):
Click on Boot.ini tab
Click on Check all boot paths
Another window opens and tells you that a line in boot.ini does not appear
to valid and if you want to remove it. Say yes if vista is listed.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, WB, I tried that earlier today. That method opens my XP Pro boot.ini
and nothing shows up a out of whack when run "Check all boot paths". The
boot menu (boot.ini) that I can't get rid of is a Vista created file -
according to all my research.

Also, I tried loading the Recovery Console as a start up option in XP Pro.
All that did was add another layer of menus. In neither menu will the
Recovery Cosonle run. Get different error messages depending on which menu I
choose Recovery Console from.

I might be stuck unless Microsoft comes out with a way to zap the Vista
menu/boot.ini.

Anyway, I am still open to suggestions.

Thanks, again WB and to anyone else with suggestions.

 

[Nepatsfan]

I installed Vista several months ago on a separate partition on an XP Pro
machine. I decided I had done enough testing, so I uninstalled Vista. All
is well except the dual boot menu won't go away.

Decided to boot from my XP installation disk and run the Recovery Console to
rebuild my XP boot.ini (using bootcfg /rebuild).

Problem: When I get to the screen where I can choose R and do so, I get an
error message saying Windows could not find any hard drive!!?? The only
option is F3 (Quit).

So, I actually have two problems: (1) I can't get rid of the Vista dual boot
menu and (2) I can't load the Recovery Console in order to fix #1.

Any ideas how to fix either problem - preferably loading the Recovery
Console since this should allow me to get rid of the Vista boot menu?

Many thanks in advance,

Old Mountain Man

Download and install this program,

VistaBootPRO 2.1
http://www.vistabootpro.org/

Once it's installed, run the program and click on the Bootloader button
in the left hand column.
Select "Uninstall the Vista boot loader" in the right hand pane.
Hit the "Configure It" button.
Click OK when asked to uninstall the boot loader.
Click OK on the next pop up.
You should now be able to boot directly into XP.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[Ricky]

If you go to folder options..show hidden files and uncheck hide protected
system files you will see a folder named boot when you double click your C:
drive. Delete it and things will be back to normal.

Hope this helps.

 

[JS]

Have you tried using the microsoft.public.windows.vista.general to post your
problem.

JS

 

[Guest]

Many thanks to all. i just got back to my computer after a 12 hour hiatus.
I'm going to try the suggestions from Ricky and Nepatsfan. If neither work,
I'll do as JS suggests and post to microsoft.public.windows.vista.general.

Again thanks and I'll post the outcome.

 

[Guest]

tried Ricky's simple solution (deleted boot folder). It worked. For good
measure, Netpatsfan, I down VistaBootPro 2.1 and tried to install it. It
won't install - probably because the Vista Boot folder has been zapped.

Again thanks to all. I'm back in business without the irritating menu.

 

[Guest]

One final post for those interested. The suggestion by Netpatsfan also
works. I restored the boot folder and used VistaBootPro 2.1 per his
instructions. Now, when I have some time, I check whether getting rid of the
Vista boot menu was the culprit in keeping Recovery Console from running.
Hopefully, it was. If not, I'll eventually post a question on how to fix it.

Thanks, again, to all.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I installed Vista several months ago on a separate partition on an XP Pro
machine. I decided I had done enough testing, so I uninstalled Vista. All
is well except the dual boot menu won't go away.

Decided to boot from my XP installation disk and run the Recovery Console to
rebuild my XP boot.ini (using bootcfg /rebuild).

Problem: When I get to the screen where I can choose R and do so, I get an
error message saying Windows could not find any hard drive!!?? The only
option is F3 (Quit).

So, I actually have two problems: (1) I can't get rid of the Vista dual boot
menu and (2) I can't load the Recovery Console in order to fix #1.

Any ideas how to fix either problem - preferably loading the Recovery
Console since this should allow me to get rid of the Vista boot menu?

Many thanks in advance,

Old Mountain Man

The Vista installation will have "set aside" WinXP's system files
(Boot.ini, NTLDR, and NTDetect.com) in favor of its own, completely
different boot manager. This new boot manager requires the use of
BCDEdit, and is far from user friendly.

Boot Configuration Data in Windows Vista
download.microsoft.com/download/a/f/7/af7777e5-7dcd-4800-8a0a-b18336565f5b/BCD.doc

I strongly recommend that you download and install VistaBootPRO
from http://www.pro-networks.org. This utility can be installed to both
the Vista and WinXP operating systems, and provides a convenient means
of editing the boot process, as well as simplifying the removal of the
Vista boot process, should you tire of dual-booting.


--

Bruce Chambers

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