Remove Windows Vista with Windows XP Disk Management

[happymac.support]

Hi,

I have a triple-boot system (Windows XP Pro, Ubuntu Linux, and Windows
Vista RC1). And Windows Vista is about to expire on June 2007, so I
need to remove it. When I boot up my computer, I see the GRUB
bootloader (for Linux). It gives me the option of booting Ubuntu or
going into the Windows Boot Manager. When I go into the boot manager,
the Vista bootloader boots up and gives me the choice of an Earlier
version of Windows (XP) or Windows Vista. I have 5 partitions. 2 linux
partitions and 3 Windows (NTFS) partitions. The 2 linux partitions are
the main Ubuntu partition and the "linux-swap" partition. The 3
Windows partitions are C, E and F. C is my Windows XP partition, E is
my Windows Vista partition, and F is my Docments partition (where all
my documents are kept). What I need to do is remove Windows Vista and
its bootloader and then merge the E partition into the F partition
using the Windows XP Disk Management or some other Windows XP utility.
How do I do this?

 

[Kelly]

White space needed here: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_w.htm#wp

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

 

[happymac.support]

White space needed here: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_w.htm#wp

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Toolhttp://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

Fine. I'll list it more clearly:

- I have a triple-boot system (Windows XP Pro, Ubuntu Linux, and
Windows Vista RC1). And Windows Vista is about to expire on June 2007,
so I need to remove it.

- When I boot up my computer, I see the GRUBbootloader (for Linux). It
gives me the option of booting Ubuntu or going into the Windows Boot
Manager. When I go into the boot manager, the Vista bootloader boots
up and gives me the choice of an Earlier version of Windows (XP) or
Windows Vista.

- I have 5 partitions. 2 linux partitions and 3 Windows (NTFS)
partitions.

- The 2 linux partitions are The main Ubuntu partition and the "linux-
swap" partition

- The 3 Windows partitions are C, E and F. C is my Windows XP
partition, E is my Windows Vista partition, and F is my Docments
partition (where all my documents are kept).

OK so there is all the info. My question is: What I need to do is
remove Windows Vista and its bootloader and then merge the E partition
into the F partition using the Windows XP Disk Management or some
other Windows XP utility. How do I do this without doing anything to
Ubuntu or XP?

 

[Kerry Brown]

You can't do this from XP. You can't merge partitions in XP. You will need
3rd party software. When you get rid of the Vista bootloader you will in all
likelihood also corrupt or overwrite GRUB. You have a very complicated
setup. Trying to figure out exactly how to do this without being there is a
guess at best. In general it would go something like this. Boot from an XP
CD to the recovery console and run the following commands: FIXMBR, FIXBOOT
This will probably mess up GRUB but it should create a single boot to XP.
You'll now have to boot from your Linux CD and fix GRUB. Once you've got the
multi boot running with GRUB you can use a partition editing program to
delete the Vista partition and possibly merge it with the XP partition. I
say possibly because they may not be adjacent to one another. It is very
probable that in doing all this you will cause some problems with or another
of the remaining OS'.

 

[happymac.support]

I'm no expert, but if I deleted the Vista partition, when I chose to
boot Windows from GRUB, wouldn't it read XP's boot.ini and boot
straight into XP?

 

[happymac.support]

I'm no expert, but if I deleted the Vista partition, when I chose to
boot Windows from GRUB, wouldn't it read XP's boot.ini and boot
straight into XP?

BTW, I say this because in the GRUB configuration file, the code to
boot to Windows XP and the code to boot into the Vista bootloader are
the same. If I am right, GRUB will boot straight into XP if it cant
find a Vista bootloader.

 

[Kerry Brown]

FIXMBR will probably break GRUB. You will need to boot from a Linux
CD/DVD/floppy and reinstall the GRUB bootloader.