Duel Boot System

[Patrick]

Hi Again Folks

Still messing about with this new Laptop, those that read my previous posts will possibly remember I was attempting to set up a duel boot system with XP on one partition and Vista on another. Well it has proved to be less than stable and I have now given upon the idea, and will stick with it as XP.
This has all left me with a little problem, nothing serious but irritating.
I deleted and reformatted the partition containing Vista and merged it with what was the third partition containing data. The computer works fine, but every time I boot up it continues to ask if I want to go to either XP or Vista, how can I rid myself of this message?
I tried backing up all the data and reformatting this partition but I still get the request, perhaps there is still a folder or something within this data now it's been put back that is causing the problem.

Patrick

[Stephen]

Hi Again Folks

Still messing about with this new Laptop, those that read my previous posts will possibly remember I was attempting to set up a duel boot system with XP on one partition and Vista on another. Well it has proved to be less than stable and I have now given upon the idea, and will stick with it as XP.
This has all left me with a little problem, nothing serious but irritating.
I deleted and reformatted the partition containing Vista and merged it with what was the third partition containing data. The computer works fine, but every time I boot up it continues to ask if I want to go to either XP or Vista, how can I rid myself of this message?
I tried backing up all the data and reformatting this partition but I still get the request, perhaps there is still a folder or something within this data now it's been put back that is causing the problem.

Patrick

Patrick, I installed Vista Beta on my D drive as part of a dual boot setup. As you know it created a startup screen giving the option to load Vista or the previous installation of XP on my C drive.

Now I have the same issue as you in that I can simply delete Vista Beta from the D drive but it will leave the startup screen which requires my input to move the cursor to the XP option. This means that you can't switch on and walk away as windows loads.

I have found this page http://vista-uninstall-bootloader.freeware-alternative.uni.cc/ which I haven't as yet tried but seems to offer a solution

[DennisP]

I had a similar problem recently after installing Acronis Boot Manager. What these duel boot programs do is to alter you master boot record and in order to get back to normal to boot into only a single OS the master boot record needs to be reset. Roger (Rogleale) gave me good instructions on how to do this in a PM after I contacted him when I put a cry for help on the forum. I will see if I still have the PM with instuctions and if I find it I will post it here.

[Stephen]

I had a similar problem recently after installing Acronis Boot Manager. What these duel boot programs do is to alter you master boot record and in order to get back to normal to boot into only a single OS the master boot record needs to be reset. Roger (Rogleale) gave me good instructions on how to do this in a PM after I contacted him when I put a cry for help on the forum. I will see if I still have the PM with instuctions and if I find it I will post it here.

Please do Dennis, or forward them to me in a PM :)

[DennisP]

Stephen - My problem was that I could not get my computer to boot at all which is not your problem but it is similar. I have just looked at the link which you gave and the second method which is outlined there, is exactly what I did, with the exception that I did not do the last instruction - 'fixboot'. The previous step 'fixmbr' then allowed me to boot up. I found that once in I used the Acronis Software to allow me to get rid of their boot loader completely. I would think that if you followed all the steps in part 2 shown in the link it would probably do the trick you require, although I cannot give any guarantees. !!!! Incidentally I was using Windows XP Home.

[Patrick]

Patrick, I installed Vista Beta on my D drive as part of a dual boot setup. As you know it created a startup screen giving the option to load Vista or the previous installation of XP on my C drive.

Now I have the same issue as you in that I can simply delete Vista Beta from the D drive but it will leave the startup screen which requires my input to move the cursor to the XP option. This means that you can't switch on and walk away as windows loads.

I have found this page http://vista-uninstall-bootloader.freeware-alternative.uni.cc/ which I haven't as yet tried but seems to offer a solution

Thanks both Stephen and Dennis; I shall be giving those suggestions a try tonight.
Incidentally Stephen did you have stability problems with your duel boot system.
I found I could boot into Vista as much as I wanted without problem then into XP OK but then boot back into Vista and it would do a disk check and seemingly repair something, when I booted later into XP it would run yet another disk check, culminating in Vista refusing to boot, and wouldn’t even repair from the installation disk. That’s when I gave up on the idea of duel boot.

Patrick

[Patrick]

Patrick, I installed Vista Beta on my D drive as part of a dual boot setup. As you know it created a startup screen giving the option to load Vista or the previous installation of XP on my C drive.

Now I have the same issue as you in that I can simply delete Vista Beta from the D drive but it will leave the startup screen which requires my input to move the cursor to the XP option. This means that you can't switch on and walk away as windows loads.

I have found this page http://vista-uninstall-bootloader.freeware-alternative.uni.cc/ which I haven't as yet tried but seems to offer a solution

Hi again Stephen

Used option Two, the warnings are quite frightening but I just went ahead and risked it:eek: .

Did the trick.

Patrick:D

[Stephen]

Thanks both Stephen and Dennis; I shall be giving those suggestions a try tonight.
Incidentally Stephen did you have stability problems with your duel boot system.
I found I could boot into Vista as much as I wanted without problem then into XP OK but then boot back into Vista and it would do a disk check and seemingly repair something, when I booted later into XP it would run yet another disk check, culminating in Vista refusing to boot, and wouldn’t even repair from the installation disk. That’s when I gave up on the idea of duel boot.

Patrick

Never had any of those problems Patrick. TBH I never used the Vista Beta a great deal except to become familiar with it. I could never log on to my WiFi with it, yet a direct cable connection worked OK. I also was expecting the prog to time out ages ago, but it still seems to be working OK. Really I could do with the space freeing up so no want to get rid of it and the dual boot screen.

[Stephen]

Hi again Stephen

Used option Two, the warnings are quite frightening but I just went ahead and risked it:eek: .

Did the trick.

Patrick:D

This is all good news, I may give it a go, thanks for the info

[Stephen]

Just by way of an update I used option 1 from the site I linked to earlier and downloaded VistaBoot Pro. If I'd known it was so easy, I'd have done it much sooner *LOL With pretty much a couple of mouse clicks it deleted the dual boot option and my system now boots straight into XP, brilliant.

[bigbob]

Has the bios been configured to dual boot , if it has then you need to disable the vista option .
But why would you prefer XP over Vista Patrick? .
I've 2 machines running Vista and they are both secure and very stable .(so far):D

B..

[paul.r.w]

Isn't it great Bill gets all you nice peeps to test out his latest software for him and charges you lots of money for the privilege! :D

[Stephen]

Isn't it great Bill gets all you nice peeps to test out his latest software for him and charges you lots of money for the privilege! :D

Not sure what you mean Paul, I get a free trial beta version of Vista, the opportunity to offer feedback. It can only be good, and has been proven in the case of Adobe Lightroom with a product that is what photographers want.

I'd accept the point that most quality software is not cheap, but as yet I have not bought Vista, perhaps when I upgrade my PC/laptop it will come with it though

[Patrick]

Has the bios been configured to dual boot , if it has then you need to disable the vista option .
But why would you prefer XP over Vista Patrick? .
I've 2 machines running Vista and they are both secure and very stable .(so far):D

B..

Hi
It isn’t that I wanted XP particularly.
Well here is the story.
When I ordered my new Dell PC it came with Vista, I liked it and have grown to like it more.
Then I was about to order the new laptop a Dell Inspirson 9400 I made inquiries if some of the software I intended to run was compatible, my copy of Sage for small business V10 was not I was advised by their customer service dep’t, and it would cost £94 to upgrade. Now as it does everything I want and more without upgrading I didn’t fancy spending the money. I decided to order the new laptop with XP and set it up duel boot. XP for business Vista for leisure, two computers in one if you like.
Well I had problems as outlined in an earlier post.
Having decided to settle totally on XP I just thought lets see if Sage will in fact run under Vista, so I installed it on the PC and it worked fine, I was given incorrect advice and I’m not very happy with Sage for that.
Last night I bit the bullet and upgraded the laptop to Vista, and it’s running fine, in fact I am sending this posting from it now.
It may be my imagination but some programs run quicker under Vista than they did under XP.

Patrick

[Patrick]

Hi
It isn’t that I wanted XP particularly.
Well here is the story.
When I ordered my new Dell PC it came with Vista, I liked it and have grown to like it more.
Then I was about to order the new laptop a Dell Inspirson 9400 I made inquiries if some of the software I intended to run was compatible, my copy of Sage for small business V10 was not I was advised by their customer service dep’t, and it would cost £94 to upgrade. Now as it does everything I want and more without upgrading I didn’t fancy spending the money. I decided to order the new laptop with XP and set it up duel boot. XP for business Vista for leisure, two computers in one if you like.
Well I had problems as outlined in an earlier post.
Having decided to settle totally on XP I just thought lets see if Sage will in fact run under Vista, so I installed it on the PC and it worked fine, I was given incorrect advice and I’m not very happy with Sage for that.
Last night I bit the bullet and upgraded the laptop to Vista, and it’s running fine, in fact I am sending this posting from it now.
It may be my imagination but some programs run quicker under Vista than they did under XP.

Patrick

Oh I forgot to mention, since upgrading I now have two Vista options at boot up, I cured it under XP but Vista doesn't install in the same way so how do I get rid of the second Vista option.
Download that utility Stephen suggested or is there another way.

Patrick

[Stephen]

Oh I forgot to mention, since upgrading I now have two Vista options at boot up, I cured it under XP but Vista doesn't install in the same way so how do I get rid of the second Vista option.
Download that utility Stephen suggested or is there another way.

Patrick

Patrick the utility lists all the boot up options, you simply delete the one you want to get rid of. However before you do anything it prompts you to back up the existing boot options, which can then be recovered if it goes pear shaped.

[Patrick]

Patrick the utility lists all the boot up options, you simply delete the one you want to get rid of. However before you do anything it prompts you to back up the existing boot options, which can then be recovered if it goes pear shaped.

Hi Stephen
Downloaded and done successfully.
Thank you

Patrick

[paul.r.w]

Don't upgrade until the fist service pack at least has been released.

What I mean is that when Windows xxx is released and charged for it is still like a beta product. Lots of bugs and lots of holes. It is also over priced especially in this country, roughly twice the price as in the USA.

[bigbob]

Don't upgrade until the fist service pack at least has been released.

What I mean is that when Windows xxx is released and charged for it is still like a beta product. Lots of bugs and lots of holes. It is also over priced especially in this country, roughly twice the price as in the USA.

Paul the fact that it's cheaper in the states relates to just about consumer item , it won't change no matter how we moan about ''rip off britain''
As for the bugs in vista , i've been running a lap and desktop for 6 weeks now and have'nt found one bug yet , a few glitches which were overcome by downloading the latest drivers but thats about it .
Best advice i can give if anyone is planning an upgrade is to do a clean install , so you don't bring any XP problems with you and get at least 2GB of ram , vista runs so much better with 2GB and if you install photoshop go for 4GB or use the option to use a 2GB pendrive to supplement your Ram.

B..

[Patrick]

Paul the fact that it's cheaper in the states relates to just about consumer item , it won't change no matter how we moan about ''rip off britain''
As for the bugs in vista , i've been running a lap and desktop for 6 weeks now and have'nt found one bug yet , a few glitches which were overcome by downloading the latest drivers but thats about it .
Best advice i can give if anyone is planning an upgrade is to do a clean install , so you don't bring any XP problems with you and get at least 2GB of ram , vista runs so much better with 2GB and if you install photoshop go for 4GB or use the option to use a 2GB pendrive to supplement your Ram.

B..

Now Bob, I have 4gig of RAM in my PC and Vista will only recognise 3 an issue according to this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us.
Have you found a way round it?

The laptop appears to be running a dream with Vista loaded, I have the 2gig of RAM you suggest. I do however see in device manager one problem with the yellow exclamation, Microsoft 6to4 Adapter. What that does I don’t know but there are no better drivers for it I have done an online check.
I installed as an upgrade I didn’t want to go through all that reinstalling my programs yet again, I have done it three times this last two weeks.

Patrick