Ok so I tried to dual boot Vista and XP and it didn't work out. I installed Vista on a separate hard drive instead of a separate partition. As a result it would only boot into Vista when I left the Vista DVD in my drive. Either way, I decided I'd just stick with XP but I can't get rid of the Vista Windows, Program Files, and other directories on that drive. I can't format the drive because I have other important files on there and don't feel like using DVDs and such to back everything up.

I just need to know how I can set XP to just let me delete the folders without giving me some stupid Access Denied crap. I tried a few stupid programs but haven't had any luck so far.

You need to select the Vista HDD in BIOS if you want to boot from it.

Liquid Shadow said:

Yeah that didn't work. When I tried that the boot failed completely. It was only possible with the DVD in the drive. Without the DVD, it would only boot Windows XP and still used the Windows XP bootloader.

None of that matters now anyway. I just want to get rid of the Vista directories and I get access denied when I try.

Ok, if you want to get rid of it, go into XP, and go into Disk Management, from there you can delete and format the Vista partition.

Again, I appreciate the advice, but I don't want to format the drive. I just want to delete the directories like Windows, Program Files, etc. I have a lot of material on that hard drive that I don't want to spend hours and hours of backing up so I can reformat. I just want to get rid of the directories Vista created so I can have that space available.

Ok I see what you want to do now. I still would recommend format the drive. You can back up your stuff onto your other drives/partitions, if you have space.

Thanks, but I figured out a solution. I just booted using a live CD of Mepis and deleted them from there since it wasn't influenced by the access denied crap. Now all is good. Thanks again for your responses.