Deleting 1 of 2 vista installs

[Dan]

I have newly built pc with several hdds. One of these had xp home on one of
3 partitions, the other had Vista 64 bit on 1 of 3 partitions. I had a
problem with this Vista installation which I was not able to resolve with
the Vista repair utility, so I decided to reinstall Vista. unfortunately,
rather than replacing the existing Vista installation, it installed a 3rd
OS/2nd Vista on the 2nd of 3 partitions on this drive (i.e., drive one has
3 partitions, 1 w/xp home, the other 2 for storage. Drive 2 has 3
partitions, 1 with the original Vista, the 2nd w/Vista & storage, the 3rd
just storage. Both drives are 320 gig). I would like to go back to XP home
on partition 1 of drive 1, and Vista on partition 1 of drive 2, with the
remaining 4 partitions (2 per dirve) being storage. I would simply format
the 2nd hdd & re-install Vista, but I am afraid of losing my ability to boot
into ANY OS if I do this. How can I remove one Vista (or both, as I could
then reload) w/o screwing up the booting?

TIA

Dan

 

[Tom Foolery]

Are you trying to run a 64 bit version of Vista on a 32 bit system?? Won't
work!

 

[R. C. White, MVP]

Hi, Dan.

The key to your question is understanding the difference between the System
Partition and the Boot Volume. For an official explanation, see this KB
article:
Definition of System Partition and Boot Partition
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314470/EN-US/

Note especially this paragraph:
"There will be one (and only one) System partition, but there will be one
Boot partition for each operating system in a multi-boot system."

And note that the terminology is counterintuitive: we boot from the system
partition and keep the operating system files in the boot volume - in the
boot folder, \Windows. While the system partition must be a primary
partition, the boot partition may be either a primary partition or a logical
drive in the extended partition, so it really should be referred to as the
boot volume.

The computer always starts in the system partition and then branches to the
boot volume for whichever Windows/Vista installation we choose from the
operating system menu. Reformatting the boot volume for Vista should not
affect your ability to continue to boot into WinXP - so long as Vista's boot
volume is not also your system partition.

So, since the first partition on your Disk 0 is your system partition (and
also the boot volume for your WinXP, apparently), reformatting that
partition would wipe out both WinXP and your ability to boot into any other
installation of Windows or Vista. But reformatting any or all of your Disk
1 would have no effect on your ability to boot into WinXP.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Currently running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista x86 RC2 Build 5744)