[adamjon858]

This is a very strange predicament and I have searched google for hours and found nothing. I'm selling my computer tommorow and need help now!

I have 2 hard drives in the computer
200GB
400GB
I recently bought the 400GB to backup the 200GB, when I sell my PC, I will keep the 400GB.

I have the drives set up like this:
-200GB XP (primary)
-400GB XP and Vista (slave)

The problem is that when I installed Vista on the 400GB, it ignored the fact that I had XP installed on the 400GB and only created an option on the bootloader for the 200GB. Plus, it put the bootloader on the primary. So when I boot my computer from the primary drive, I see the Vista bootloader with two options. Vista and Windows XP (on the 200GB).

Well, I'm selling my PC with just the 200GB. How do I erase the vista bootloader from the 200GB so that it boots normally as the 200GB should?

[PsychoCoder]

NOTE: I take no responsibility for any loss of data, I offer this advice free of warranty. But, I have used both options before.

Heres what you try, Take the 400GB drive out so that only the 200GB is in the computer, which has XP right? Put your XP CD in the drive (well do that before turning the computer off and taking the 400GB out). Boot the computer by the CD and select Repair,

When it asks what installation you want to repair enter 1 (this is the default for a single OS drive). If you hit enter without entering a number the computer will reboot and do nothing.

Once you get to the Command Prompt, make sure you're at the C: prompt and type fixmbr.

This will completely overwrite your Master Boot Record, and with XP on the partition it will be the only option for booting.


You can also thy this next method

If, with both drives in you can get your computer to boot into XP, make sure you have your Vista DVD in your drive then

Go to “Start” and “Run”. Type in “e:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force” (without quotes, and replacing e: with the drive letter of your Vista DVD).

One of these should fix your trouble

[Thorian]

I concour with the above fix.

But question for ya I would personally format the drive I am selling and then reload XP. I dont want to think about what kind of crap is left floating around on it.