f0rbez Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaskingTape Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintage_guitar Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 "fixmbr" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shekers Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f0rbez Posted August 1, 2005 Author Share Posted August 1, 2005 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shekers Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 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. 586305899[/snapback] 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrispinto Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 there is, delete the "boot" dir in your c:\ drive, and replace boot.ini with your XP one on your vista drive, simple :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxicfume Veteran Posted August 1, 2005 Veteran Share Posted August 1, 2005 there is, delete the "boot" dir in your c:\ drive, and replace boot.ini with your XP one on your vista drive, simple :) 586305944[/snapback] 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sticktron Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlishFun Veteran Posted August 1, 2005 Veteran Share Posted August 1, 2005 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. 586307398[/snapback] I'll have to try that, I found it on another site as well: 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxicfume Veteran Posted August 1, 2005 Veteran Share Posted August 1, 2005 ^ Sounds I like should try too, but do let us know if it works :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~D~ Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 (edited) 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? 586302807[/snapback] 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 August 1, 2005 by ~D~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeston Veteran Posted August 1, 2005 Veteran Share Posted August 1, 2005 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f0rbez Posted August 1, 2005 Author Share Posted August 1, 2005 (edited) there is, delete the "boot" dir in your c:\ drive, and replace boot.ini with your XP one on your vista drive, simple :) 586305944[/snapback] DO NOT use these instructions! Results will be an unbootable drive! Edited August 1, 2005 by f0rbez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f0rbez Posted August 1, 2005 Author Share Posted August 1, 2005 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. 586307398[/snapback] I don't have that file. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlishFun Veteran Posted August 2, 2005 Veteran Share Posted August 2, 2005 ^ Sounds I like should try too, but do let us know if it works :D 586307735[/snapback] It works like a charm! :D Give it a shot! I don't have that file.?:(( 586308473[/snapback] Here you go: fixntfs.zip :)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f0rbez Posted August 2, 2005 Author Share Posted August 2, 2005 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: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlishFun Veteran Posted August 2, 2005 Veteran Share Posted August 2, 2005 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: 586310838[/snapback] 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. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f0rbez Posted August 2, 2005 Author Share Posted August 2, 2005 Neat, going to give it a try later. Thanks. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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