dark_threat

I had XP pro installed on my computer, and then I got vista but didn't want to wipe xp just yet in case i didn't like vista. So i installed vista on my second hard drive (i have two). Then I needed some more room and decided I was going to take windows out, but since it wasn't upgraded, there was no clear way to uninstall xp, so i booted vista in safe mode and told it to format C: with automatic options (which is the hard drive with XP on it), but it said that it was not allowed to wipe a system partition (for XP), so then i just typed format C: with no options and it said that the drive was in use, but I could dismiss it and all opened handles would become invalid. So i said yes, and it formatted it.

Beforehand, when I started my computer, it allowed me to choose to open vista or XP, but after the format it said that no operating system was found. So i had to reinstall windows on the formatted harddrive and I can access the second drive, and everything is there, however I cannot boot vista.

Is there something I can do to be able to boot vista?

I tried setting the boot options to the 1st hard drive and then the second, but vista still wont boot.

I appreciate any help

dark_threat

and now, the drive letter for the second hard drive (with vista) has changed from F to C

dmw2692004

urm are your jumpers set if your using IDE?

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dark_threat

i have no idea what that means. sorry, could u explain?

dark_threat

if you're talking about something phsiycally about the hard drive, then nothing was changed from when it worked to now. Its's been exactly the same for half a year

SirKenin

It won't boot because you wiped out the boot.ini. You need to create a new one.

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dark_threat

i did, i have the options for xp and vista now, but the problem is that vista doesn't use boot.ini to boot anymore, it uses a new bcd store which i don't know how to use or change within xp

Cooner750

Wiped the main drive? Sounds like the MBR, or Master Boot Record, has been damaged...

I am not sure if the XP CD will let you run Repair commands or not without having XP installed, but if so, you could try to boot the CD and run "fixmbr".

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meanman

reinstall vista i think you have deleted the boot secter

dark_threat

thanks for the help, I tried the fixmbr, and atleast i could log onto the vista windows in that, but once i fixed the mbr/wrote a new one, i could not login to the vista anymopre, but nothing else stopped working, so i think i'll just reinstall vista, thx for the help