Hello hw--
As you probably know using pronouns on your posts ensures you will not be
clear.
"If I try to remove IT IT IT IT IT [what does it stand for]--I think you
mean Vista-- the system will not boot." That leaves us guessing. You mean
if you try to remove Vista on F:\ it will not boot?
Swapping drive letters will not impact the booting. The reason the drive
letters didn't stay the same if they didn't is you didn't run Vista setup
from the XP desktop.
The damage Richard Urban refers to that may have been done is possibly the
failure of the HD.
If I were you, I'd get a new large HD since the prices are pretty economical
and do your dual boot over.
You certainly can backup Vista, or XP. Vista has a native backup; XP has a
ridiculous backup but what you want to save can be burned easily to CD from
within XP natively or with 3rd party like Nero, etc.
I favor using Acronis True Image 10.
You also have the option of using these procedures:
Uninstalling Vista on Dual Boot with XP
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=uninstall+vista+on+dual+boot+with+xp
or you could use this:
You cannot uninstall Windows Vista by using the "Uninstall a program" option
of the Programs and Features Control Panel tool
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925809
To resolve this problem, back up your files, and then perform a clean
installation of Windows XP. To do this, follow these steps:1. Click Start,
click All Programs, click Maintenance, and then click Backup and Restore
Center.
2. Click Set up backup, select the location for your backup files, and then
click Next.
3. Continue with the wizard to select the following:• The drives and the
file types to back up
• How frequently to back up the drives and the file types
• What time of day to perform the backup
4. Finish the wizard, and then click Save Settings and Start Backup.
5. When the back up is complete, perform a clean install of Windows XP. For
more information about how to perform a clean installation of Windows XP,
click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft
Knowledge Base:
316941 (
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316941/) How to install or upgrade
to Windows XP
Note You cannot perform a clean installation of Windows XP by using an
upgrade version of Windows XP. You must have the full version of the Windows
XP.
Good luck,
CH
hw-engineer said:
Just upgraded using the clean install option. XP is on Drive C and Vista
is
on a new Drive F. I'd like to keep the dual boot for awhile but the C
drive
is making noises like it is going to fail someday. If I try to remove it
the
system will not boot. Here's what I'd like. Get the drives to swap drive
letters, and have the system boot when I remove the old drive C.
Also, how do I get the time to select which operating system to boot time
down from 25 seconds to, say, 5 seconds?