Remove XP from Dual Boot System

Bob22 · 10 Oct 2010

I have read the tutorials and a lot of other posts but I want to receive assurances before I proceed. Here's what I have:

I was running XP Pro and tried to set up a dual boot system with Win 7.
I created a partition with unallocated space to install Win 7.
It installed ok and was able to reinstall my programs to Win 7.
When booting I reached the dual boot screen, I could boot to Win 7, but not XP.
I have 2 other physical drives, but they are not at issue.

My "0" drive has the following partitions:

C - Windows 7 (Boot, Page file, crash dump, primary)
E - XP (System, Active, Primary)
G - Data (Logical)

Do I simply mark my C partition as active and run the STARTUP REPAIR 3 times to write the system files on the C Partition?

Then what do I do with the E drive? Reformat, unallocate the space???

What do you do to eliminate the dual boot screen at startup?

Thanks.

Lemur · 10 Oct 2010

EasyBCD is an easy way to control your boot partition.

Download EasyBCD 2.0.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

Bare Foot Kid · 10 Oct 2010

Hello Bob22, welcome to Seven Forums!

Before we make any specific recommendations will you please post a snip/screen-shot of the entire disk management drive map with a full description as to which drive/partition is which, so we can see what you have going on.

In the Windows start menu right click computer and click manage, in the left pane of the "Computer Management" window that opens click disk management and post a snip of that.

How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

Be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

Bob22 · 10 Oct 2010

Here's the screenshot

Remove XP from Dual Boot System-drives.jpg

gregrocker · 10 Oct 2010

Mark C Active, boot DVD Repair console to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots until Win7 starts on its own. You can then delete the XP partition in Disk Mgmt and extend Win7 partition into that space or create a new primary partition there.

If Dual Boot menu remains install EasyBCD 2.0 to delete XP listing on Edit Entry tab.

Partition - Mark as Active
Startup Repair
Partition or Volume - Extend

Night Hawk · 10 Oct 2010

Welcome to the Seven Forums! Bob22

Since you installed XP after 7 you can see this done in two simple steps unless you intend to recover the space used by XP presently and add that to the 3rd data partition G used for storage. Then you would have another two options.

Reformat or deletion of the XP primary proceeded by deletion of the XP entry seen in the msconfig utility's boot tab there by hightlighting the XP entry and clicking the delete button is all you would need. First you want to insure 7 is the default OS however before removing the XP option.

The quick easy removal suggested by Lemur using the EasyBCD program would insure the entry in the BCD store is removed plus the entry seen on the boot option screen at startup. You would then simply uncheck the box for seeing that displayed.

Since you have more then drive installed things get better as far as what to do next while first backing up everything to one of the other drives is the smart move if and when going to make partition changes. You can simply nuke the E and G partitions to create one new larger storage partition or delete both, expand C, and then creeate the new second partition if not expanding C fully to fill in the then vacant space.

You have a few options to consider.

Bare Foot Kid · 11 Oct 2010

He has to mark the Windows 7 C: as "Active" and run the startup repairs to get Windows 7 booting as "System, Active" first so XP can be removed, Windows will not let you remove the XP (as "System, Active") partition at all.

Everything needed to do that is referenced in this tutorial at the link below.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Bob22 · 11 Oct 2010

Bare Foot Kid said:

He has to mark the Windows 7 C: as "Active" and run the startup repairs to get Windows 7 booting as "System, Active" first so XP can be removed, Windows will not let you remove the XP (as "System, Active") partition at all.

Everything needed to do that is referenced in this tutorial at the link below.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Thanks...That's the track I was on, but I just needed confirmation.

Bob22 · 11 Oct 2010

Many thanks. Fixed the boot issue. One thing should be emphasized. Everybody knows they should make backup copies, but before doing that you should CREATE A WINDOWS 7 REPAIR DISK! It's so easy to do, even a cave man can do it. Put a blank CD in, click on the start button, and type recdisk.exe and execute the file.

At first I tried to use the original installation disk and ran into a problem. After I ran the Repair Disk, it fixed the problem on the first pass. I don't think I'll have any problems removing the partition now.

Lemur · 11 Oct 2010

Glad you were helped. We have some excellent people in this forum.