How do I delete Vista?

I've installed XP on my system after months of using Vista. However, by mistake I installed XP on another partition. Now the Vista partition is still there with Vista on it. When I try to delete it says "Access denied". What do I do?

get ownership
if nething else fails, format it

get ownership

Hmm... well... If I could ask, how?

just format the vista partition from XP na?whats the problem inthat.

and I wonder are you able to boot into Vista?I dont think XP's bootloader recognise VIsta.

No. I can't boot into Vista. I think I've tried formatting but it doesn't work. I'll try again though. I guess I'll have to use the XP boot menu to do this...

boot from the DVD and then choose repair !

@shantanu:he dont want to repair vista or bootloader to boot into Vista,all he wants now is to delete Vista partion from his hard disk which shows access denied in XP.

@goobi:lol,blame it all on M$.All this is done cos M$ dont want consumers to degrade to XP sfter installing vista.

Anyways if nothing works out that make a gparted boot cd or something or use any live cd and format that partition using it.Should be perfect after that.

^^ LOL... But still downgrading from vista to xp is an easy thing..!!

or you can simply download boot commander
and delete the partition with vista ! create the new partition from XP disk manager..

goobimama said:
Hmm... well... If I could ask, how?

Ask VG

am not good at taking ownership, probably his site has some article abt this.

Yeah GParted will wipe out the partition, else use any partition editing software like paragon HDD management or Partition magic.

also you can use easyBCD and edit the entries from MBR and then you can format vista partition from your XP only

^^ Woah! That seems a bit too advanced. I'd learn juggling before I could do that.

Anyway, I think the boot from XP CD > delete partition. Boot into Windows XP. Format to NTFS. Done.

Thanks a lot guys.

arrey bhai ! its simple even from your sleep.. which you do very frequently.. lol

shantanu said:
arrey bhai ! its simple even from your sleep.. which you do very frequently.. lol

can u explain the bcdedit in a bit more detail n i a bit more understandable language than those help files!!!

bcdedit or easy BCD ? easy bcd is a software and BCDedit is a application to edit the boot record for vista, its same as GRUB in LINUX.. you want me to elaborate more ?

shantanu said:
bcdedit or easy BCD ? easy bcd is a software and BCDedit is a application to edit the boot record for vista, its same as GRUB in LINUX.. you want me to elaborate more ?

yeah MOD dear plz elaborate it in detail coz me too want to delte one of my two installed vista(i installed vista again to show to my cousine that my DVD is workin.he waznt believin me) :mrgreen:

i know formattin can be done to get rid of vista in my D: rive but how to remove the boot entries. i didnt try much at CMD coz my exams r there n i need my lappy to study programmin n unix

unix?(unix is a trademark of opengroup!) OR....Linux(unix-like) or BSDs(UNIX*)?

isnt it fun learning

@fun2sh : if you just want to do that , download and install EasyBCD and easily remove the second entry ...

you can use bcdedit command if you want : just insert your DVD in the drive go to run and (run it as adminnistrator) now type BCDedit , and follow the options that follow..

BCDedit : is a command level application/tool built into windows for manually editing windows boot settings ! a user might want to add, remove entries, i wrote a tutorial on how to DUAL boot xp and vista when vista is installed and you want to install XP, now its very simple by easyBCD, but you can refer here : *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52686

@praka : what was that

. SPAM ??

wat a second prakash and Shantanu... I am getting confused here. BCD or BSD? because both easyBSD and easyBCD exist.

@goobi: download GParted Live CD. Put in drive, reboot. Using it, format vista drive as FAT 32.

then use XP cd, boot, then repair MBR

then problem will be fixed. Still, change that FAT32 to NTFS or EXT3. FAT sucks big time

The_Devil_Himself said:
@goobi:lol,blame it all on M$.All this is done cos M$ dont want consumers to degrade to XP sfter installing vista.

Shut the hell up u ignorant brat...there is a limit to your FUD

Goobi, can u boot into Vista? If you can then insert the Vista DVD & type this command in Start->Run

E:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force
This will remove the vista bootloader & revart back to XP bootloader.
Then boot into XP & format the Vista partition.

gx_saurav said:
Shut the hell up u ignorant brat...there is a limit to your FUD

Goobi, can u boot into Vista? If you can then insert the Vista DVD & type this command in Start->Run

E:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force
This will remove the vista bootloader & revart back to XP bootloader.
Then boot into XP & format the Vista partition.

that font thing is messed-up *farm3.static.flickr.com/2369/2106524353_2eb2af5070_o.png

1. Take ownership of the partition having Vista. You can use following method to add "Take Ownership" in context menu which will make the task more easier:

Add Take Ownership Option in File / Folder Context Menu in Windows Vista

2. Now I think you can safely format the partition.

3. To remove Vista boot loader, boot using XP CD and give following command in Recovery Console:

fixmbr