How to Uninstall and Remove Windows 7 or Vista Leaving Windows XP on Dual Boot System
Windows operating system supports dual-booting a PC, where users can install multiple OSes and select which system to boot up to on machine startup. If you have installed Windows 7 or Windows Vista on top of current existing Windows XP to make the PC a dual boot system, but now decided to ditch or dump the Windows 7 or Windows Vista partition to revert to the old good classic Windows XP follow the guide below to uninstall and remove Windows 7 or Windows Vista to leave only Windows XP without having to reinstall the OS, and without affecting saved files and data.
Important: Do not use this tutorial if your dualboot system is Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
- Boot up and log on to Windows XP desktop.
- Insert the Windows Vista or Windows 7 DVD installation disc into CD-ROM or DVD-ROM optical drive.
Alternatively, mount the Windows 7 or Windows Vista DVD ISO image on any virtual drive.
- Run Command Prompt, or click directly to Start menu -> Run command.
- In the command prompt or the Run text box, issue the following command and hit Enter:
[DVD Drive Letter]:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force
For example,
If the DVD drive path is D:, then enter the following:
D:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force
The step will remove the boot menu to select operating system to start.
- Remove the DVD disc and restart the computer.
- The computer will boot up with Windows XP installation partition.
- Manually remove files and folders of Windows Vista or Windows 7, including Windows, Program Files and Users folder. If you’re installing to separate partition, just format the partition to clean it instantly (with FDisk, Disk Manager of Computer Management or third party partition management software such as Partition Magic or EASEUS Partition Manager).
- On the root system folder of Windows XP, delete Boot.BAK and BootSect.BAK. The two files are remnant backup leftover files of previously installed Windows Vista or Windows 7 bootloader, but no longer useful for Windows XP only system.
Tip: NT52 is the MBR (Master Boot Record) used by Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, while Windows Vista uses NT6. So if you’re uninstall Windows 7 in Vista/7 dual boot system, change the NT52 in the command to NT60.
Fast Shortcut: It’s also possible to format the Windows Vista or Windows 7 partition straight away, and then start the computer with Windows XP Setup CD to repair the system partition, or run the “bootsect /nt52 c:” command above from the \boot\ folder of leftover OS immediately to repair the boot partition.
Tip: When startup repair the boot record after removing an installed operating system from dual-boot or multi-boot system, always use the highest version of Windows installation DVD/CD to perform the repair. For example, in a tri-boot PC with Windows XP, Vista and 7, after uninstalling Windows 7, use Windows Vista to repair the system. If the PC is restored and reverted back to Windows XP, then use the Windows XP setup CD.
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Entries (RSS)
October 23rd, 2009 00:17
One note on this. If your XP is 32-bit and your W7 is 64-bit, you can’t run the bootsect.exe from the W7 DVD. I happened to have a Vista-32 DVD which did the trick though. Good luck.
October 17th, 2009 23:22
Thank u very much frndddddddddd
October 11th, 2009 00:35
Thank you very much. These instructions worked perfectly for me.
October 10th, 2009 01:02
Thanks…It work’s for me!!!
October 3rd, 2009 06:59
I’ve got an error message:
“C: (\\?\Volume{9575cecd-2649-11de-9f58-806d6172696f})
Updated NTFS filesystem bootcode. The update may be unreliable since the volume could not be dismounted during the update: Access is denied.”
Any ideas?
September 30th, 2009 10:01
I have 3 versions of Vista installed. two that don’t work correctly. Can I use the method you have to remove the two versions of visa not working correctly.
September 27th, 2009 16:04
Thanks! Worked like a charm. Had to remove windows 7 eval copy to install server 203 for a tafe assessment, thought i was going to be stuck with the windows 7 boot 4ver!
thanks again!
September 25th, 2009 17:03
Nice one. This helped me remove the Win 7 eval I’d installed. M$ recommended removal was format the HDD! Back to good old XP for me.
September 22nd, 2009 19:58
Btw, maybe it will work without entirely formatting the partition…
September 22nd, 2009 19:55
@ Lupus
I had winxp 32bit with win7 64bit too. The bootsect command didn’t work for me. I formatted the partition with win7 on it and then booted the pc with my winxp cd. Then typed R for recovery/repair. Then typed FIXBOOT. When I restarted, the pc started as before
September 17th, 2009 14:55
Can you use this method on a XP 32bit/Win 7 64bit system?
Or do you have to get hold on a Win 7 32bit installation CD to be able to run the bootsect command?
September 10th, 2009 18:52
Thanks this helped a lot ^^
August 29th, 2009 17:56
When trying to do this from within Windows XP, I got the error message “Could not read the existing bootcode from this volume: The system cannot find the file specified.”
To fix this, I booted from the Windows 7 DVD, chose to repair my Windows 7 install (I didn’t delete the partition as I had other documents saved on it), used the command prompt repair option, and ran Bootsect from there.
August 25th, 2009 17:32
I had to run bootsect from windows 7 install. Origionaly an xp 32 install. As bootsect is not a valid win32 file.
But Thanks! it eventualy worked.
August 19th, 2009 19:58
Worked perfectly. Thanks.
August 13th, 2009 05:55
Hello,
I tried all you’ve listed bellow and no success.Please can anybody help me with this problem? I have installed windows 7 on a fresh hard disk no other windows are no dual boot just windows 7 on my hard drive. And now I cannot format or erase windows 7 and install windows XP. Please let me know asap if anybody can help me with that.
Thank you in advance
Sasha
August 12th, 2009 22:31
And help will be greatly appreciated. Email me at “matt-abr@live.com” Thanks!
August 12th, 2009 22:29
I have C: and D: HDDs on my computer, I got F: a old 13GB one to try w7 on it, then the F: crashed,.. so I had C: and D: ,.. I used this to get only to XP, now I have installed on another F: HDD W7 and now at boot it shows me 2 x Windows 7. Any way to delete them permanently so when I install another W7 there wont be options “old version of windows” and 3x W7 but only “older version..” and w7?
July 30th, 2009 18:22
Thanks alot, it helped and well-written (:
July 24th, 2009 10:07
hey, thanx for the tutorial man, it works XD
my PC now boots directly to XP
Cya.
July 9th, 2009 20:55
[...] You could try partition magic programm as it also has a "delete" function plus the format one. OR Maybe this helps: How to Uninstall and Remove Windows 7 or Vista Leaving Windows XP on Dual Boot System My Digital Lif… [...]
July 8th, 2009 05:41
How can I remove Win 7 and re-install XP from a single boot drive ? After starting the XP CD after some seconds the installation stopped with a blue screen.
July 3rd, 2009 16:20
[...] [...]
June 30th, 2009 04:26
I also had problems with deleting win7 files and folders, so i used Ubuntu cd and boot from it. Then i deleted all win7 folders in ubuntu it took just 5 min
June 20th, 2009 08:03
Thanks! I just followed your instructions word for word (being sure to use the Windows 7 installation cd). It now boots directly to WinXP as it did before. For those who didn’t make a dvd, I’d suggest you burn one for yourself.