I am a stupid boy.

[Kynaeus]

'Allo chaps. Let me immediately state that I have done some stupid things with my girlfriend's new laptop. My first mistake was assuming that it would be a simple task to set it up to dual boot with Vista and Windows XP Pro, since she was immediately annoyed by Vista's constant security questions (Allow this program? pop-up window that darkens everything, if you've ever used vista you know what I mean). It was especially stupid to assume I could this having never performed a dual boot and without looking up any information prior to doing it.

Apparently it causes boot problems when you install Vista first and then XP, as XP decides to not create its own boot files in the system folder, ie it just overwrites the vista boot.ini, etc etc. I've since read up on the boot.ini editing process and such and fiddled around with it and the boot menu in XP (The only OS I can boot) and because it actually changed the Vista boot files there isn't any way I can launch vista this way.

Anyways, after much fiddling is there any way I can rectify this? What I want to do at this point is just get rid of XP and have just Vista on the computer (Btw, they are installed on separate partitions). I really really really really *really* do not want to have to format it because they didn't give me the Vista install DVD, just the upgrade ones. I also don't want to lose the pre-installed Toshiba laptop utilities like the wireless monitor, battery meter, etc.

I spoke to one of my friends who has a triple boot and there is apparently a Vista recovery mode similar to the windows xp one? But, this is on the vista install disk and Best Buy decided to only give us the English & French 'Upgrade Any Time' disks. Lame. I also didn't make the recovery CD when I first had it going on Vista, which is ironic as my girlfriend was sitting with me when I was about to do the XP install and I said I would just make it later! The recovery partition is still intact, but, the program to create the disk is only launchable in Vista. *faceplant*

Is there any hope for me? I'd really appreciate any help!

[Iron Greasel]

Well, if you installed some manner of linux distribution on a third partition, the installation program would install some manner of bootloader and probably automatically detect your Vista and XP installations. Then you could triple boot, and afterwards make the required recovery cd's and format the redundant partitions. I really haven't messed around with bootloaders enough to tell how to install one without an automatic linux installer, but it is probably possible if you really want to.

[Sir Goulum]

Originally Posted by Kynaeus I spoke to one of my friends who has a triple boot and there is apparently a Vista recovery mode similar to the windows xp one? But, this is on the vista install disk and Best Buy decided to only give us the English & French 'Upgrade Any Time' disks. Lame.

Garr... that's Toshiba, not the retailers..

[Legolas]

Originally Posted by Kynaeus Is there any hope for me? I'd really appreciate any help!

You can always try begging as a last resort.