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Thread ID: 113888 2010-11-08 21:13:00 Removing a Dual boot system dugimodo (138) Press F1
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1151143 2010-11-08 21:13:00 I have tried this in the past without much success but thought I'd ask here.

So when istalling a new OS I tend to go dual boot until I am satisfied everything is working OK, the trouble is once I'm happy with the new OS there is no easy way to remove the old one as the system is booting off that drive.

To be more specific:
On 1 hard Drive I have the original XP Home installation
on another Hard drive I have WIN 7 64 bit.
these are setup to dual boot with the XP drive containing the boot manager etc.

I have tried removing the XP drive and running repair from the WIN 7 install disk on the drive containing WIN 7. From googling this I read that it must be done 3 times to work but all I succeded in doing was losing several hours of my life.

What I can do is remove XP from the boot manager which gives the appearance of a single OS but in actual fact the system is still booting from a different hard drive than the OS is installed on.

Last Time I ended up reinstalling Windows which actually was a lot less time and hassle than attempting to remove XP from the existing setup, now my other pc is in the same situation. I used Acronis to image everything first just for peace of mind.

So.. ?
Anyone managed to do this successfully or should I just bite the bullet and reinstall from scratch ? 		dugimodo (138)
1151144 2010-11-08 21:38:00 Try EasyBCD SoniKalien (792)
1151145 2010-11-08 22:46:00 Go into msconfig on Win7 / the boot menu. Make Win7 the default. I think you can remove XP's entry from here too.

Then reboot then delete XP's partition. Or as Soni said EasyBCD. I think this works in Vista and Win7, but not XP. So, remove XP's entry in Win7 		Speedy Gonzales (78)
1151146 2010-11-09 00:23:00 the problem isnt editing the boot menu, I can do that. And yes I use easy BCD.

The problem is the boot files and menu are not on the WIN 7 disc / partition they are on the XP one so if I reformat the XP drive WIN 7 will no longer boot

it's easy to remove a second OS from dual boot if it was the last one installed, thats not what I'm asking.

I found a micsrsoft post about a similar problem that I'm hoping will help support.microsoft.com - basically going to try the following

Use Bootsect.exe to restore the Windows Vista MBR and the boot code that transfers control to the Windows Boot Manager program. To do this, type the following command at a command prompt: Drive:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All

In this command, Drive is the drive where the Windows Vista installation media is located.

Note The boot folder for this step is on the DVD drive.
Use Bcdedit.exe to manually create an entry in the BCD Boot.ini file for the earlier version of the Windows operating system. To do this, type the following commands at a command prompt.

Note In these commands, Drive is the drive where Windows Vista is installed.
Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Description for earlier Windows version"

Note In this command, Description for earlier Windows version can be any text that you want. For example, Description for earlier Windows version can be "Windows XP" or "Windows Server 2003".
Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=x:

Note In this command, x: is the drive letter for the active partition.
Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast
Restart the computer. 		dugimodo (138)
1151147 2010-11-09 00:43:00 So, what did you install first? XP or Win7?? If you installed XP then Win7, then it should give you the option to boot from either after you reboot .

It sounds like whatever you did, you did it wrong in the first place . So, if what I or Soni said doesnt work, thats probably why . And if both hdds werent connected, when you installed both OS"s, then the option to boot from both wont appear in the menu 		Speedy Gonzales (78)
1151148 2010-11-09 00:55:00 I appreciate you taking the time to respond, however you have failed to understand the question.

XP was installed 1st
WIN 7 was installed 2nd

everything works, dual boot is fine.

Now I would like to remove XP and go to single boot system with WIN 7 only

I can do this by editing the boot menu with BCD or manually however this does NOT allow me to reformat the drive cotaining the XP installation as the boot files required for WIN7 are on this drive ( it shows up in disk management as the system drive )

What I am trying to find out is how to make the drive containing WIN 7 bootable so I can remove the other drive completely. The link above did not help :( 		dugimodo (138)
1151149 2010-11-09 01:02:00 Like I said I've done it with XP and win7 before and Vista. All I did was make Win7 the default, (under msconfig / boot), or make Win7 the default under the entry where you can edit boot.ini in XP).

That was it. Or use EasyBCD, remove XP and Vista

Then I formatted the XP / Vista partitions (which are / were on the same hdd).

It booted straight into win7. No probs at all. 		Speedy Gonzales (78)
1151150 2010-11-09 01:11:00 the difference is that with them being on the same hard drive the bootsector contains the necessary files to boot. When you install WN 7 to a different hdd it doesn't use the bootsector of the new drive, it overwrites the existing XP one.

I can delete the XP entry and delete all the files, but the bootsector remains on the old drive so I can't remove or reformat it. A minor niggle perhaps but I want to boot from the drive that contains the OS.

sounds like it's something different to what you have done in the past 		dugimodo (138)
1151151 2010-11-09 02:02:00 What about fix mbr etc? SoniKalien (792)
1151152 2010-11-09 02:14:00 Thats how this thing was setup, XP on one HDD, W7 on the other .

All I did was disconnect the XP drive, boot from the W7 DVD, had to do it several times and tell it to repair the start up . Been fine ever since .

If it doesn't work, rebuild the W7 boot loader Instructions ( . net/wiki/display/EBCD/Recovering+the+Vista+Bootloader+from+the+DVD" target="_blank">neosmart . net) 		wainuitech (129)
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