Windows 7 UNINSTALL but can't FIXMBR for XP

vyze

New Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
I installed W7 but needed to get rid of it (I did the 32-bit and I'm going to get 4 more GB to bump to 8GB of RAM soon so need the 64-bit) but I am stuck with the W7 boot menu and I can't get XP's back!

I have a 500GB drive that I had 320 to XP and 50GB then the rest (about 75GB) unallocated.
I booted to XP and Managed My Computer and deleted the W7 partition entirely.
I then restarted to the XP disc and choose to repair and ran the FIXMBR command.

all gravy, right?

no. It still shows the W7 start up screen and if I load up XP and run MSCONFIG I have this:
;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[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" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT


What am I to do? I want it to just boot straight into XP but instead I am given the start up selection, which has W7 as the default... but it doesn't exist.
 
Last edited:
Hello and welcome,

I'm a little confused:confused:

First, was this a "clean" install or an upgrade.

You speak of both Vista and XP. How many OS's are on your machine?

You can use bcdedit, but it has to be done from the command prompt.

I'd suggest you download [URL="http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1"]EasyBCD 1.7.2[/URL]

this is much easier than using bcdedit.
 
sorry, I space-cadet'ed on that one

sorry about that. I meant to say W7, not Vista.

I did a clean install as I have NO intention of messing with the Windows XP installation.
My wife uses that part.

Right now I only have Windows XP on the computer.
I plan on using VMware's Converter application to turn this XP installation into a virtual hard drive to run Ubuntu with Windows XP running seamlessly at the same time using VirtualBox.

I only installed W7 so that I could "shrink" the XP partition from 320 GB to 100GB as I'm only using 80GB with XP and then I can put the virtual harddrive on the 200GB partition that I can make after I shrank the XP partition. I have successfully done that... now I need to make sure that XP is "right as rain".

One REALLY ANNOYING SIDE EFFECT of booting to the XP disc and running FIXMBR is whenever I do that I have to spend a week trying to get the optical drive to eject.
I'm usually able to do it by uninstalling the CD-ROM in Device Manager and then "searching for new hardware" a week later.
NEVER EVER EVER buy a Dell XPS 630i... or any other Dell.
 
I'm sorry, but I can't help you with those 3rd party utilities.

You could have simply used a 3rd party partition Manager to shrink the partition
 
I'm sorry, but I can't help you with those 3rd party utilities.

You could have simply used a 3rd party partition Manager to shrink the partition

oh, that's okay. I know what I have to do to get that working. I just don't have time.

Prior to installing Ubuntu I want to get this MBR issue resolved before I install GRUB.

I know... icky... some people don't like it.

I will be switching to Chameleon most likely when I get my hackintosh installation on a USB drive working properly ;)
 
Boot the XP CD.
Wait until you're asked to press "R" at the screen which you choose to install windows at.
Type the following commands into the command prompt
- fixboot
- fixmbr

then, type exit.

reboot, and see if it works.
 
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