You set things up right and should have no problems when you delete a
system. You have the XP boot files on both systems so you can load from
both. Also you have the boot record correct on both. Just make sure the
remaining system is marked active if you delete from outside of one of the
systems. Happy computing.
"Jason" <jason@fakemail.com> wrote in message
news:acfc5a1923a448c8e416bf0cb850@news.microsoft.c om...
> That link was a good read but having done my share of messing around with
> multiple boot configurations over the years I'm inclined to disagree with
> a couple of points:
>
> * The traditional non-Microsoft way of triple booting by activating the
> chosen partition and hiding all others is somewhat restrictive. In every
> config I've used (95+3.1, 98+NT, 2K+Linux [with the 2K boot loader],
> XP+98, Vista+XP) I've always wanted to access all partitions from any OS
> even if it means installed ext2fs drivers for Windows or NTFS drivers for
> Linux or Win9x.
>
> * My OS's are not entangled. I change the XP partition to active and dump
> the Vista partition and XP just works or I can delete the 3 XP files from
> the Vista partition and drop the XP partition and Vista just works. This
> seems about as straight forward as if I was using a 3rd party boot manager
> and wanted to remove an OS. Similarly, writing the correct MBR to a hard
> drive after cloning a single Windows partition is trivial.
>
> But the article has some good points too:
>
> * Microsoft should really go with an MBR loader and things would be
> easier. I'll hazard a guess that the size of MS's boot code is what
> prevents this.
>
> * I do need to have a technical understanding of what is going on in order
> to get the Microsoft dual-boot working well. I've often used a disk sector
> editor to extract a 9x boot sector after repartitioning or installing OSes
> in the non-recommended order. When people ask how I've achieved some boot
> config they zone out as soon as it's obvious I spent some time on it.
>
> Cheers,
>
> - Jason
>
>> Jason wrote:
>>
>>> Also, I know that using Vista's boot loader with my arrangement is an
>>> officially supported use case, I was merely having difficulty getting
>>> the settings right, so there was no reason to consider another boot
>>> manager. Remember, my initial question was "Can someone please help
>>> me get the Vista boot loader to work with my XP installation?", I did
>>> not say "I'm ready to give up on the Vista boot loader, can someone
>>> please suggest an alternative?".
>>>
>> Jason:
>>
>> Fine, but now that the boot files of the two OS's are entangled you
>> will have the same problems as everybody else when removing them or
>> reinstalling them.
>>
>> You might find the following intersting:
>>
>> "What's Wrong with the Microsoft Way?"
>> http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/principles.htm
>> David Wilkinson
>>
>
>
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