Windows 7: remove XP bootable partition

DocDJ · 22 Apr 2011

Quote: Originally Posted by gregglee

Quote: Originally Posted by DocDJ

I suppose I'll have to move my E: logical partition to another drive, so it isn't sitting between XP and 7 (or will Acronis slide 7 across it?).

I'm not sure where you want Win 7 partition to end up. The simplest approach may be to for example.
1. Use partition Wizard to shrink the freeagentdrive partition on disk 1 to leave unallocated space at the beginning of the drive. You could also use PW change S to a logical partition.
2. Use acronis to clone the Windows 7 system to that unallocated space which creates a new system partition.
3. Use Bios to change boot drive to disk 1. That will assign C: to the Win 7 system and may change drive letters of other drive. Immediately used windows disk management to change the drive letters to match those assigned by XP, to avoid confusion. I assign x, y or z to other systems. e.g when booted in Windows 7, xp is Z, when booted in xp, winz=7 is Z. All other drives same. I include the desired drive letter in the drive name to make housekeeping easy. e.g freeagentdrive s, mydocsplus e. Disk numbers may be different from XP also, but doesn't matter. change also
4. Rebuild bootloader with bcdedit, Windows 7 install disk repair or tool of your choice. (I haven't personally tried PW for this.)

The great obvious advantage of having systems on different drives is that a drive failure doesn't take out both.

Thanks for the good advice. My 2 systems are on one drive, because that was all I had big enough, when I built the machine. I'll take your advice into account when I retry in May/June.

gregrocker · 22 Apr 2011

OP wants to delete XP.

Not mentioned yet is that you could delete XP, leave Windows 7 in place, mark Active and Repair. We tend to want OS partitions in the lower address where reads are faster.

Let us know how it goes. We'll be here to help.

DocDJ · 22 Apr 2011

Quote: Originally Posted by gregrocker

OP wants to delete XP.

Not mentioned yet is that you could delete XP, leave Windows 7 in place, mark Active and Repair. We tend to want OS partitions in the lower address where reads are faster.

Let us know how it goes. We'll be here to help.

So you're saying I could just use pw to delete the XP partition & mark Windows 7 active, then use my restore/repair CD to fix the MBR? And LATER I could move the Windows 7 partition or just absorb the leading space into it? OR is the 2nd step more complex than it appears because the ptn is bootable?

gregrocker · 22 Apr 2011

It doesn't matter where the partition is when you mark it Active and run Repairs to write the System Boot files to it.

With PW CD you don't have to worry about copying or resizing the partition as it never fails, so moving it is no issue.

The only hitch could be that in rare cases Windows 7 will not repair to recover it's boot files. For this reason you might want to back up a Windows 7 system image of both OS partitions so you can start over, or you can clean reinstall Windows 7 which is always a nice fresh start. Reinstalling Windows 7

DocDJ · 22 Apr 2011

Thanks for the PW CD info. I have a hundred applications with all their settings,so I REALLY don't want to re-install. But just in case, that's why I moved "my documents" off the boot drive. And I will DEFINITELY create image backups before i jump into this again.

I'll keep you posted when I get into it.

DocDJ · 04 Jul 2012

Quote: Originally Posted by DocDJ

Quote: Originally Posted by gregrocker

It isn't necessary to move your middle Documents partition, just delete XP using PW CD, create a new partition in the space to the left of E, reimage C there.

Boot PW CD, mark Windows 7 partition Active, from Disk tab click Rebuild MBR, see if Windows 7 will start. If not boot the Windows 7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times until Windows 7 starts. Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

This might be able to be accomplished by simply copying the partition using PW CD, since there is no MBR to copy. You can leave the source partition on the HD until you make sure the copy works, as it will be inert once it's System Active flags are transferred to the copy by marking Active and Rebuilding MBR or running Repairs.

Thanks. I'll try that when I finish the semester.

I finally got time to get rid of the old XP partition. I first created a system image (C, (Windows 7), D (XP) and E (my docs). Then I deleted the old XP, marked C as "active" and booted the system repair CD. It recognized there was a problem (the C drive did not show up as a system) and offered to repair it. I said "yes". Then I tried to re-boot C:, but no go. So booted the CD again (this time the C: drive showed up in the repair window), got to the command prompt and issued the usual 4 repair commands. System rebooted perfectly.
Made a NEW system image (and a new system repair CD - DID I HAVE TO MAKE A NEW CD???) and copied the E: ptn to a different drive and swapped drive letters. This allowed me to have all my folders keep their correct dates, which XCOPY would not do. Re-booted and now E: shows up on new drive(hooray).

Last step will be to Slide the C: drive to the beginning of the physical drive (leaving a 200MB space for a possible future bootmgr ptn), using PW and increase it's size.

gregrocker · 04 Jul 2012

Those line commands are automated in Windows 7 Startup Repair which will do the job if run up to 3 separate times. There may be other issues it needs to address as well.

Be prepared with DVD/Repair CD in rare cases to do it again when you slide C to the left or otherwise resize/move on the boot sector. Partition Wizard Move/Resize Partition Video Help.

DocDJ · 05 Jul 2012

I was just surprised to see the message, since many postings on this topic just say to go to the command prompt.
Do you know if I need to build a new repair CD after EVERY time I save an image? Or will one repair CD work for any future saves?

gregrocker · 05 Jul 2012

Yes, the Repair CD is fine as long as it is made after the latest SP, as with the installer.

DocDJ · 06 Jul 2012

Thanks. That will save a lot of CD's and time.

Windows 7: remove XP bootable partition

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