"downgrading"...

[Gremlin]

Does anyone know if u upgrade xp to vista with an upgrade version of vista, will xp still work if u then remove vista. it appears that xp os is still there because the vista upgrade was installed on a second drive. I hope that makes sense.
Any help would be appreciated.

[patio]

Without more info on how the drives/partitions are showing up it's hard to say...
Normally using an Upgrade ver. of any flavor of Windows it overwrites the existing OS...

[Geek-9pm]

well, let me give it a try. Here is my guess. You had Vista on your computer and then you got another drive and installed XP on the next drive. Is that correct?
Or maybe it was this way. You started out with windows XP and then you installed Vista on the second drive.
In either case,if you kept the two systems separated, there should not be a problem.
But problems do happen. When you install Vista, it tries to change the boot loader used by Windows XP so that the boot menu is now controlled by it and not by XP. In that case, it's not a good idea to try to remove the Visa from the system. The XP will have to be reinstalled.
Is that kind of, sort of, maybe what you are thinking?

[Broni]

if u upgrade xp to vista with an upgrade version of vista

You can't upgrade XP to Vista. It must be clean install.

[BC_Programmer]

You can't upgrade XP to Vista. It must be clean install.

When did this start?

certainly it's better to do a clean install, but an upgrade is certainly possible.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/get/upgrade-your-pc-options.aspx

[Broni]

I must be tired. I had Windows 7 in mind
Sorry for the confusion...

[patio]

Sorry for the confusion...

But we're not the ones that are confused....

                   

[Gremlin]

Okay.. Thanks everyone for your input. Youve all helped to answer my question.

Just to clear up...

1. Yes there were two hd's.
2. Xp was on the first hd then the guy who owns the pc then installed a vista upgrade version to the second drive. He was trying for a duel boot setup. xp-vista.
3. I can only see vista on the bootmenu but xp still shows on the first drive even tho there is no option to boot from it in the bootmenu.

I figured he'd buggered up by using the upgrade version of vista to make a duelboot system and now his xp wont show.

Thanks Geek-9pm  I think u r right and Iam gona have to wipe the lot and start again, unless anyone thinks that xp might still be sitting there ok and able to be restored.

Thanks for the link too BC_Programmer

[Geek-9pm]

Before you wipe it clean...
I now boot windows 7 vista windows 2000 and Windows XP on my computer. I did not have to wipe my XP system. I user the Repair feature of XP and the FIXBOOT and FIXMBR  to cleaqn up the mess.

Don't remember now in what order I did it. 

You might trry EASYBCD from CNET or you favorite download site.
http://download.cnet.com/EasyBCD/3000-2094_4-10556865.html

So far, I have not got it to work right for me. Instead, I hit F8 during the POST and get a BIOS boot menu. XP and 2000 are on the IDE and Wista and Win7 are on the SATA . That works for me.

[Gremlin]

k thanks again geek-9pm.

[killerb255]

In the past, when you do an upgrade install from one Windows OS to another, there would be an option in Add/Remove Programs (or with the new NT6 terminology: "Programs and Features") to uninstall and roll back to the original OS.

I'm not sure if this is the case today.  I've done a few upgrade installs from Vista to 7, and I haven't seen the option to uninstall or rollback in "Programs and Features."

[Gremlin]

k. thanks for that killer.

[Allan]

In the past, when you do an upgrade install from one Windows OS to another, there would be an option in Add/Remove Programs (or with the new NT6 terminology: "Programs and Features") to uninstall and roll back to the original OS.

Ummm - no. Perhaps when upgrading to a service pack installation, but not when upgrading from one OS to another.

[BC_Programmer]

Ummm - no. Perhaps when upgrading to a service pack installation, but not when upgrading from one OS to another.

I was going to say... the last time I'd ever seen something like that was with windows 95, and I don't think it was in add/remove, I believe it was on the start menu somewhere.

[soybean]

Does anyone know if u upgrade xp to vista with an upgrade version of vista, will xp still work if u then remove vista. it appears that xp os is still there because the vista upgrade was installed on a second drive. I hope that makes sense.
Any help would be appreciated.

I'm wondering how Vista could get installed from an upgrade disc on a drive that did not have Win XP on it. 

[patio]

All it does in the upgrade process is search for a qualifying install of the previous...it doesn't matter what drive/partition is chosen to install to as once qualified it could care less...

This can also be accomplished with no OS installed...at the qualifying prompt all that's required is to insert the OS CD...it'll read it and continue the install.

[soybean]

OK, thanks patio.  It just seems a bit odd because you can end up with two OS in that case by using an upgrade version of the OS and installing it on a second HD or different partition. Perhaps this is not an issue with Microsoft because the user would only be running one OS at a time.

[Gremlin]

Yes I wondered that too, but the guy who's computer it is said thats what he had done. When I looked there def was xp on drive 1 and vista on drive 2 and all he had was vista upgrade version so it stumped me too. I did'nt even know it was possible.
However I have since recovered all his data and wiped both drives and then re-set up xp pro for him.
Thanks everyone who took the time to post.