Windows 7 - Dual Boot Issues

Hi all,
I seem to be having a right trauma with this lol. I originally had Vista installed. Then i installed 7 to another HDD and that worked fine. I could choose between the OS. Now, i want to get rid of vista and use 7 solely. Easy i thought. Remove the boot entry and format the partition. Thats where it went horrilby wrong
Upon reboot i got the dreaded BOOTMGR missing file do'h
Anyway long story short i manged to system restore and fixmbr to boot back into 7 (phew)
Now can anyone tell me of a way that i can ditch vista without the headache of this.
ive attached a screen shot of how things are layed out.

Plus can anyone recomend a good imaging program that i could use just incase my tinkering leads to something i cant repair lol

Thanks In Advance
Damo

Hello Damo,

You can delete Vista from the boot manager in Windows first, then delete Vista itself and extend the Vista partition into Windows 7 if you want. If needed, you should be able to run a Startup Repair on Windows 7 to repair it's boot file.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Good point, Shawn.

You could also do the following:

1. Enter Windows 7.
2. Move your bootmanager from partition k: where it probably is now, to partition C. To do that:

Go to folder options, and select Show all hidden files and folders, and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files" so that you can view all files on the hard disk. Then , on partition K: you will find a folder "boot" and a file on root of K:\ called bootmgr. Copy or move the folder boot and the file bootmgr to the root of C:\

3. Change the bootloader location. To do that:

a. open CMD with administrative rights
b. Type bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:

That's it.

It's now safe to delete the Vista partition and remove the boot entry.

Thanks for your help, problem is it wont let me copy those two files over, keeps saying they are in use by the system. Ive tried a few things including safe mode, but nothing will copy lol

Do they already exist on C:\? what do you mean copy over?

Hi,

Does it not allow you to Copy and Paste ?

SIW2

hi
no there not already on my C drive,
SIW2 - no it wont let me copy and paste, It will copy all the files upto the BCD file then gives me the 'cannot copy file. File is in use by system' messge

I use vista boot pro 3.3 this allows me to make a backup of the boot manager once saved you should then be able to restore it to drive C:/ but windows seven drive C:/ not vista drive C:/ before deleting vista I use acronis true image 11 to make backup copy of my os programs then you can delete and re-install at will, all you need to do is save them to a usb drive or second hard drive make a copy of true images bootable cd boot from that and restore to the drive that you want I lost both drive a couple of day ago and an hour later had then both running with backup copys like you I lost the boot manager i got around windows seven by installing a basic copy first then replaced it with the back up I also did a repare on my wife copy and used the windows dvd to repair missing boot manager on hers Do not know how it got lsot in the first place but it was easily restored

update time lol
i ended up removing all my other hdd's other then windows. So i know exactly what drive im working on. Now i run windows start disk and it says its repaired errors, but no dice still wont boot, after bios it just hangs. The same problem occurs if i run the 7 install disk also.
Im sure im missing something here lol

I found this on technet hope it helps it should also work with windows 7

Method 1: Startup Repair from the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)
============================================
1. Insert the Windows Vista installation disc into the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when the message indicating "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …". appears.
3. Select a language, a time and currency, and a keyboard or input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, choose the drive of your Windows installation and click Next.
6. At the System Recovery Options Dialog Box, click on Repair your computer.
7. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
8. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Startup Repair.

Method 2: Rebuild BCD
============================================
1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when the message indicating "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …". appears.
3. Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7. Type Bootrec /RebuildBcd , and then press ENTER.

1. Insert the Windows Vista installation disc into the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when the message indicating "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …". appears.
3. Select a language, a time and currency, and a keyboard or input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, choose the drive of your Windows installation and click Next
6. At the System Recovery Options Dialog Box, click on System Restore.
7. Follow the System Restore Wizard instruction as usual and choose the appropriate restore point.
8. Click Finish to restore the system.



also found this

try this