Dan

Thanks for the replies. I ran VistaBoot Pro & under Bootloader selected
"Unistall the Vista boot loader/restore legacy OS. The pc now boots
directly into XP. I removed the 2nd SATA drive (which contained the initial
Vista install) to be sure no crucial boot function was located there, pc
still boots into XP ok. Formatted the partition containing this Vista. So
far so good. My concern is the 2nd vista install (3rd os installed after 1)
xp & 2) the now removed Vista on the aforementioned 2nd sata) . This
remaining Vista is on partition 3 of sata 1. The XP I want to retain is on
partition 1 of this drive, along with the boot directory containing the BCD
files etc. I am concered that if I just go ahead & format this Vista
partition, I may still have some boot issue re: XP. Since it's a partition
not a drive, I can't simply remove it as a test. One thing I note: boot.ini
on C:\ (where XP is) has not changed in this process. Same content & file
date. Might this indicate boot info/process is taking place somewhere other
than c:\?

Thanks again,

Dan