Remove Vista Boot Menu

Hey guys, got a slight problem here.

I recently installed the Feb. Vista CTP. I have since removed it, but stupid as I was I simply formatted the partition it was on from within Windows XP.

Now during Boot it still shows me the option to start either Vista or XP, worse it defaults to Vista and I can't figure out how to remove that. I already tried booting from the XP CD and doing a fixmbr (I think that was the command) as I figured that would work, but it didnt.

To be clear, I want it to auto boot XP again without asking me. Basically the way it was before.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Corona

If you're confident with your l33t skills, look up how to edit boot.ini over at MSDN docs.

DoomBringer wrote:

If you're confident with your l33t skills, look up how to edit boot.ini over at MSDN docs.

That doesn't help, since the Vista bootloader doesn't use boot.ini.

Booting recovery console and running fixmbr and if necessary fixboot should fix the issue. Otherwise you can look for a (normally hidden) folder named "Boot" in the root of the boot volume, it should contain a file named "fixntfs.exe" that iirc also fixes this.

the_corona wrote:

Hey guys, got a slight problem here.

I recently installed the Feb. Vista CTP. I have since removed it, but stupid as I was I simply formatted the partition it was on from within Windows XP.

Now during Boot it still shows me the option to start either Vista or XP, worse it defaults to Vista and I can't figure out how to remove that. I already tried booting from the XP CD and doing a fixmbr (I think that was the command) as I figured that would work, but it didnt.

To be clear, I want it to auto boot XP again without asking me. Basically the way it was before.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Corona

If you don't want the new bootloader any more you can run
"fixntfs -xp" from the "boot" folder on your primary partition.  To get rid of the beta you can just reformat the partition you installed it onto.

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=148995#148995

DoomBringer wrote:

If you're confident with your l33t skills, look up how to edit boot.ini over at MSDN docs.

First of all, what's that comment supposed to mean? Where did I call myself "l33t", as you so nicely put it? Geee, if my question bothers you so much may I suggest in the future you refrain from replying.

Now, thanks Sven Groot, as I said I already tried fixmbr which didn't help, but as to your suggestion I ran fixboot which fixed the issue and now everything is back to normal.

Thanks alot

Corona

Do you happen to know a guy by the name of Beer28?

the_corona wrote:

DoomBringer wrote: If you're confident with your l33t skills, look up how to edit boot.ini over at MSDN docs.

First of all, what's that comment supposed to mean? Where did I call myself "l33t", as you so nicely put it? Geee, if my question bothers you so much may I suggest in the future you refrain from replying.

Christ man, chill.  I didn't know I had to hold your hand to the search engine at MSDN.  And l33t is a joke.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;289022

And my bad about Vista not using Boot.ini.  I was under the impression that it would be...

Create a Windows XP Boot disk.

the_corona wrote:

Hey guys, got a slight problem here.

I recently installed the Feb. Vista CTP. I have since removed it, but stupid as I was I simply formatted the partition it was on from within Windows XP.

Now during Boot it still shows me the option to start either Vista or XP, worse it defaults to Vista and I can't figure out how to remove that. I already tried booting from the XP CD and doing a fixmbr (I think that was the command) as I figured that would work, but it didnt.

To be clear, I want it to auto boot XP again without asking me. Basically the way it was before.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Corona

DoomBringer wrote:

the_corona wrote: DoomBringer wrote: If you're confident with your l33t skills, look up how to edit boot.ini over at MSDN docs. First of all, what's that comment supposed to mean? Where did I call myself "l33t", as you so nicely put it? Geee, if my question bothers you so much may I suggest in the future you refrain from replying.

Christ man, chill.  I didn't know I had to hold your hand to the search engine at MSDN.  And l33t is a joke.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;289022

And my bad about Vista not using Boot.ini.  I was under the impression that it would be...

Well, you don't have to hold my hand to look through msdn, it was merely the leet comment that felt wrong to me. If you meant it purely as a joke then I appologize, I should have given you the benefit of the doubt.

And do I know Beer28? Yes I know who he is, as I have been reading these forums for a long time. Perhaps I'm mis-reading the intend of this response like it seems I have with DoomBringer's response, so I will refrain from saying anything.

Guys, I don't want to cause any trouble, seems like you prefer to be amongst yourselves, so I appologize for the disturbance I caused to you in this forum and wish you all the best.

Thanks to everyone whos has responded to my problem, especially Sven who's post solved it for me.

Corona

I know this thread is a bit old.. but it still applies with the way vista works now.

Does anyone know what to do with the exact situation described above, except Windows XP is 32 bit, and Vista is 64 bit?

You can't run the exe's from the boot folder on the C drive, because they are 64 bit, and XP is 32 bit.

I haven't formatted the Vista drive yet, but before I do, I want to make sure I will be able to get back into XP.

Thanks,
Matt

right click my computer-->properties-->advanced
--->startup and recovery -->settings

to edit statup options manually, click edit

a notepad window will appear with some configurations settings that you can edit.
--------
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
---------

1.
under the [operating section]
delete the line indicating windows vista boot

2. set timeout to a low value

3.  to change the default boot option,
use the default= line

delete any references to the vista install and copy/paste your xp line from the[operating systems] section

 

my boot.ini doesn't have any references to Vista.

from vista you have to configrue the Boot Configuration Data (BCD),

1.  Control Panel-->System And Maintenance-->System-->Advanced System Settings-->Startup And Recovery-->settings

2. from msconfig
start-->run-->msconfig.exe

3. BCDEdit

Start -->All Programs--> Accessories.

Right click Command Prompt-->aRun As Administrator-->type bcdedit

Use bcdedit.exe (command line), it's quite powerful.

DigitalDud wrote:



Use bcdedit.exe (command line), it's quite powerful.

I know how to use bcdedit.exe (I am not an expert, but I have used it to change vista boot item orders, change boot menu timeout, etc.)


However I want to totally get rid of both vista (which is on my second HD, and its boot menu)

can I use bcdedit to actually tell the vista boot loader to no longer load? If I can do that, I can then format the vista drive, and delete the hidden boot folder off my XP drive.

Thanks,
Matt

On your Vista DVD, there's a folder called boot. In it is a program called bootsect.exe that you can use to restore the XP boot loader. Run it with "bootsect /help" for detailed usage instructions. You should be able to run that from XP as well.

Sven Groot wrote:

On your Vista DVD, there's a folder called boot. In it is a program called bootsect.exe that you can use to restore the XP boot loader. Run it with "bootsect /help" for detailed usage instructions. You should be able to run that from XP as well.

The issue is that my XP is 32 bit, my vista is 64 bit.

I can't run ANYTHING from the vista DVD or the vista partition itself, from Windows XP.

You could try this: boot from the XP CD, start recovery console. Then run fixmbr and fixboot. That should replace the Vista bootloader with the XP one.