Windows 7: Win7 dualboot AND Win7 update question

Hey, I have two questions:

I am running Windows 7 dualbooted with WinXP, everything works fine. I want to get rid of the XP partition, and keep the Windows 7 one only, but there is a problem. THe partition on which XP is installed is set as system and active. I've googled around but I've found no easy solutions to this. Any ideas on how to do this without reinstalling the OS?

My second question would be about the Windows 7 update: I installed the 7100 build, when it got released, but as I saw now, the latest builds are like 7200+. Are the changes updated on my build somehow, or I would have to reinstall to have the new build?

Thx.

To see the changes in the different builds, you'd need to install those builds. Its not really cruicial, but there a few noticable differences once you get to 7232. It just feels more stable.

And to fix your boot problem, PLEASE HAVE SOMEONE CONFIRM THIS BEFORE DOING IT, I'm pretty sure if boot into windows 7 and you open computer, right click the white space and hit properties to open the 'system' page, then in the left panel click on advanced system settings. A new window will come up. make sure the advanced tab is selected, and hit settings under startup and recovery. There will be a new window with a box that says default operating system. On yours it should say xp. Open the box and choose Windows 7 and that SHOULD fix your problem. please have someone confirm this tho, I dont want to be responsible for making your computer unbootable.

Personally, I recommend x64 7201. It has proven to be a very stable build. When you install it, simply boot from the DVD and delete the existing XP/7 partions using the 7 installer and allow it to format the drive.

First, make sure you're set to see all hidden and system files. Then, copy the bootmgr file from the XP partition root to the 7 partition root. Then copy the boot folder from XP root to 7 root, ignoring the warning that you can not copy bcd and bcd.log. Let it skip over those when copying.

Then open an elevated command prompt and type

bcdedit /export X:\boot

where you change X to your 7 partition. So if 7 is C:\ do

bcdedit /export C:\boot

Now set the 7 partition as the active partition in disk management, part of computer management. Reboot, and now you should be able to format or delete the XP partition. Before you do so, you can simply type bcdedit in the elevated command prompt to check on things, if they're correct.

Finally, you can remove XP from the boot menu using free Easybcd software or go to start menu search box and type msconfig.exe and hit enter. Go to the boot tab and remove XP here.

If you want to use a latest build, you must download it from a torrent and either upgrade or clean install. Upgrade will be fine if your system is running fine now.

Post back with any questions or problems and good luck!

I am running Windows 7 dualbooted with WinXP, everything works fine. I want to get rid of the XP partition, and keep the Windows 7 one only, but there is a problem. THe partition on which XP is installed is set as system and active. I've googled around but I've found no easy solutions to this. Any ideas on how to do this without reinstalling the OS?

If you upgrade, it will retain all of your installed programs and tweaks.

Yes, you will be able to expand the 7 partition after to include the newly freed space.

Delete the boot folder on 7 and copy again, then do the command. I fixed the command in my last post. It was slightly wrong due to rushing heh. Will be good now.

You're welcome.

All the more reason to have a small dedicated (100mb) active primary partition solely for boot files...

If you do decide to start over, give it some thought. I've setup my system this way for years. It's a big time saver and very convenient. My point is -- should you ever want to install a second or third OS and then get rid of it later on, you wouldn't find yourself stuck in a rut as you are in now. Things will be a lot easier to manage and maintain.

Okay, it worked now. One more thing to check before I reboot. This Windows 7 partition was the last partition (I have 4, so it was F: ), but it became C: after installing the OS on it. Won't that mix up things?