Windows 7: Uninstalling 7 in dual boot

Hey !!

Ok , need some space so i guess ill unistall 7 , ill put it back again when ill have a new drive .

So , my question is , i am runing 7 in dual boot with XP . Xp is on my C drive and Seven is on my D drive . I just cant format the D drive from XP right ? It wont boot cause of boot.ini ?? I looked at the boot.ini file in xp and it's just XP on it .

So what do i have to do to not get into some major booting problems here ??

Thanks

Hi

Windows 7 does not use the boot.ini file, Vista and Windows 7 use a different system. Deleting Windows 7 won't affect the boot.ini so it will still boot to XP
Now, I can't be 100% certain but I'm close enough to say that "I would do it". If XP becomes unbootable for some odd reason, you can always restore the MBR using the "fixmbr" command from the Recovery Console to boot XP .

Here's the KB page on this, it's actually very simple, but I doubt you'll need to do this. Set up the Recovery Console anyway and print the page if needed.
Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console for advanced users

I have already deleted my Windows 7 32-bit partition (in favour of the 64-bit version). I did it like this:

1) Whilst running the OS you want to keep, run MS Config.
2) In the BOOT Tab select the partition you want to delete, and press the Delete button when it cecomes available. Confirm.
3) Using the Storage facility in Computer Management format the partion containing the OS you are deleting (making sure of course that you have moved any files you want to keep first).

And that's it. When you reboot the Boot files will have been changed by this process as if the deleted OS had never existed, and you will have no probs.

Well , ceejay , i allways use that way but the weird thing is that in the boot.ini i only see XP , 7 is not there at all . On the first lines it says " Warining , BOOT.INI is used on windows xp an earlier operating system . Warning , use BCDEDIT.EXE to modify windows vista boot options .

Then , in the boot loader i only see xp .

as Chappy said...Windows 7 doesn't use boot.ini....starting with vista MS Windows OS uses a boot manager,

from Windows 7 help and support:

the boot.ini file has been replaced with Boot Configuration Data (BCD). This file is more versatile than boot.ini, and it can apply to computer platforms that use means other than basic input/output system (BIOS) to start the computer.

Hello madspec,

If you have a copy of EasyBCD (free - Google for latest ), it includes an option to rebuild bootloader to do exactly what you require

Hope this helps

Thanks Barman58 , EasyBCD did the job !

Thanks !!

Mad