How to do manual uninstall/rollback...

[Guest]

I just tried to install Vista onto a USB drive, which I have found out is not
allowed. My machine perputually tries to boot (reboot) unsuccessfully to
Vista. I would like to Rollback (Uninstall) Vista, however, when I tried
doing this (a number of times), it fails -- leaving an open command prompt
(cmd.exe).

Is there a way to manually uninstall Vista from the failed setup onto my USB
drive? What files need to be removed/altered, etc.? Maybe some KB article???

Thanks...Randy

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Is your primary OS still functioning?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Do you have a Microsoft XP cd? (Not a manufacturer's recovery disc). If
you do you may be able to get XP going again with fixboot and fixmbr. Post
back for further advice.

 

[Guest]

Yes, I have XP MCE which works fine. The other two new boot.ini (or I guess
BCDE)options are for Vista (default) and Rolloback option. Both of these new
ones fail. Apparently, I can alter this by using BCDEDIT.EXE which is now
installed on my USB drive, but I know there are also some files I would like
to delete on my primary partition that take up several GB or more.

 

[Guest]

I don't think I will need this since it is primarily an issue with the
boot.ini now defaulting to Vista. My version of XP is still intact and works
fine.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Which files are taking up that much room and why have you not been able to
delete them (error messages)?

I get rid of stale boot options with VistaBootPro from
http://www.vistabootpro.org/intro.php
since it so easy to use.

 

[John Barnes]

Your boot.ini can't see Vista. It is your Vista boot file. You should do
as Colin suggested. Either use VistaBootPro to set the default to XP and a
0 seconds time out, or use fixboot and fixmbr from the Recovery Console of
your XP install disk to set the system to look for the boot.ini first. It
is now set by Vista to look for the Vista Boot file.

 

[Guest]

Thanks everyone. I downloaded VistaBootPro and was able to successfully
change the default startup OS. Now, I want to remove Vista entirely. I know
that I can update the boot stuff with VistaBootPro, but since the rollback
mechanism is broken, what steps (e.g., files to delete) are needed to
complete full uninstall manually?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Copy any files you need from the partition the Vista code in on and then
format it with XP.