Change boot loader back to XP

By f0rbez
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f0rbez

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Is there any way to change the boot loader back to the XP one, and dual boot from that? I don't like how the longhorn one identifies XP as a legacy OS. :no:

Also, if I remove longhorn, I'll want to restore the XP boot loader.

Longhorn saves a copy of the boot sector (BOOTSECT.BAK) and also the boot.ini (Boot.bak). How would I go about restoring these?

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https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/351952-change-boot-loader-back-to-xp/
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Enthusiast

MaskingTape

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I'm no expert, and I would like to know if this works myself just incase I wanna kill longhorn, but couldn't you boot off the XP cd, go into the recovery console and use "fixboot" or "fixmbr"? I don't think, if it works, that it will find Vista but it should return it back to just xp.

Enthusiast

Shekers

Posted
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actually...

go to Vista,

right click on My Computer>Properties>Advanced>Settings (Startup and Recovery)

Under System Startup press edit

Now you can edit the names and stuff....just as long as you dont delete anything important you should be fine.

This goes for Windows XP as well, you can select which OS you wanna pre-select.

IF you want to boot JUST XP, do the same process in which ever OS is on your primary partition which the computer boots off of.

Experienced

f0rbez

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You hit R when the cd is booting to access the recovery right? Then use fixmbr to get XP loader back.

Shekers: I tried that before, but its already identified as XP. Changing that file won't remove the longhorn loader. Just changes what the longhorn loader sees.

Enthusiast

Shekers

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  f0rbez said:
You hit R when the cd is booting to access the recovery right? Then use fixmbr to get XP loader back.

Shekers: I tried that before, but its already identified as XP. Changing that file won't remove the longhorn loader. Just changes what the longhorn loader sees.

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hehe, yeah, I was looking deeper into this...This only changes the menu after u select the Legacy OS....there must be another way to deal with this...

Grand Master

Toxicfume Veteran

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  chrispinto said:
there is, delete the "boot" dir in your c:\ drive, and replace boot.ini with your XP one on your vista drive, simple :)

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Could you be clearer with your instructions? What does the Boot folder in C: do? And Vista's partition doesn't seem tohave a boot.ini, so what do you actually replace?

Grand Master

FlishFun Veteran

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  Sticktron said:
Actually, there is a tool in the \Boot directory of your Longhorn partition called fixntfs.? It's purpose is to switch between LH or XP boot code.? Run it with a -XP switch to revert back.

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I'll have to try that, I found it on another site as well:

  Quote
Boot to your Windows XP installation. Go to Start>Run and type "C:\boot\fixntfs -XP" (without the quotes) and click OK. Restart your system.

When the system reboots you will notice that the Longhorn bootloader no longer exists.

Now go to Windows Explorer and delete the following files from the root of your Windows XP installation hard drive or partition:

Boot (folder)

Boot.BAK

bootmgr

BOOTSECT.BAK

Right click My Computer, select Properties>Advanced>Startup and Recovery>Settings and under System startup, make sure that Windows XP is selected as the Default operating system. If not, then select it as Default operating system and select OK at the foot of the Startup and Recovery user interface and again select OK at the foot of System Properties user interface.

Return to My Computer, select Properties>Advanced>Startup and Recovery>Settings and this time select Edit. In the Notepad file that opens, select and delete all lines mentioning Windows Longhorn and then in that Notepad file, go to File and select Save.

Close Notepad and select OK at the foot of the Startup and Recovery user interface and again select OK at the foot of the System Properties user interface.

To confirm that your boot.ini file is now correct, go to the Run dialogue box on your start menu and type ?msconfig? (without the quotes). This will open the System Configuration Utility. Go to the BOOT.INI tab and select "Check All Boot Paths".

You should get a dialogue box appearing with the message ?It appears that all BOOT.INI lines for Microsoft operating systems are OK?. Restart your system

[/quo:D]

:D I hope that works, I had a failed LH install on one of my drives and have been stuck with the bootloader.

Enthusiast

~D~

Posted
Posted (edited)
  f0rbez said:
Is there any way to change the boot loader back to the XP one, and dual boot from that? I don't like how the longhorn one identifies XP as a legacy OS. :no:

Also, if I remove longhorn, I'll want to restore the XP boot loader.

Longhorn saves a copy of the boot sector (BOOTSECT.BAK) and also the boot.ini (Boot.bak). How would I go about restoring these?

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Just add /USENEWLOADER eg:[ multi(#)disk(#)rdisk(#)partition(#)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT /USENEWLOADER ] And you're not going to see the lagacy thingy.

Edited by ~D~
Grand Master

Jeston Veteran

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  • Veteran
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1. Open command.com in your Windows XP/2000 Install.

2. Go to the root of your C: drive (as defined in your Windows XP/2000 Install).

3. Key in cd boot to navigate to the boot directory.

4. Key in fixntfs -xp -all and hit enter.

5. Reboot.

Optional Step: If you're really cautious, or just want to be entirely Longhorn-free, grab your XP/2000 Installation CD and copy ntldr and ntdetect.com to your C: drive and overwrite the originals.

Experienced

f0rbez

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Posted (edited)
  chrispinto said:
there is, delete the "boot" dir in your c:\ drive, and replace boot.ini with your XP one on your vista drive, simple :)

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DO NOT use these instructions! Results will be an unbootable drive!

Edited by f0rbez
Experienced

f0rbez

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  Sticktron said:
Actually, there is a tool in the \Boot directory of your Longhorn partition called fixntfs.  It's purpose is to switch between LH or XP boot code.  Run it with a -XP switch to revert back.

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I don't have that file. :(

Grand Master

FlishFun Veteran

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  Toxicfume said:
^ Sounds I like should try too, but do let us know if it works :D

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It works like a charm! :D Give it a shot!

  f0rbez said:
I don't have that file.?:((

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Here you go:

fixntfs.zipFetching info...

:))

Grand Master

FlishFun Veteran

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  f0rbez said:
Thank you! :D

This should work even though it's off your system, shouldn't it? Kind of strange that I didn't have one there. :huh:

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I think it should, just throw it in your C:\BOOT folder. Also, if you run it from cmd rather than "start --> run" you can verify it works. :)

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