Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Vista booting problem

Feb 12, 2007 12:34AM PST

I installed Vista on a HP Pavilion PC with no issues whatsoever. I chose to install over the existing XP installation as opposed to a clean install. However, when I boot up the PC now asks me to choose between booting from a previous installation of Windows or Windows Vista. Preferably I would rather it just boot from Vista without asking me first. I chose the "previous instalation" option once just to see what happens and it just takes me to the recovery menu...

If anyone has any suggestions on how to address this problem I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Dual Boot
Feb 12, 2007 12:57AM PST

Windows XP is seeing a dual installation. Try to install your XP CD and instead of installing go to repair...tools...locate boot ini....see if you can remove the XP reference.

- Collapse -
Try using VistaBootPRO...
Feb 12, 2007 2:52AM PST

You can use the free program VistaBootPRO to Manage OS Entries, removing the reference to the 'previous installation.' Afterwards, check C:\ for a folder named Windows.OLD, which contains all of the old system files, among other things, from the old installation. You can delete the folder to free up space on your hard drive if you like, but if you do be sure to browse through the contents to ensure there's nothing there you need to keep first.

Hope this helps,
John