Removing XP from Dual Boot

We always assume that if space is available in the preferred lower HD address where the disk reader parks and thus is faster to read, that a savvy User will want the better performance by Resizing Win7 into that space.

There was also no way to know you prefer tiny partitions for Win7 as most Users do not.

We have experience here with all of the partition managers and only one has never failed when run from its boot disk in thousands of repartitionings we have successfully helped with here. Partition Magic isn't even compatible with Win7 and will almost certainly fail.

I gave you two methods to remove stray boot menu listings earlier.

I have no intention of leaving all that space at the start of the drive. As I said in Post 6, I intend to share it between the other partitions on the drive so that drive D: will be as far to the left as possible. The other partitions will benefit by being made a little larger to take up the space used by XP.

gregrocker
As far as my partition size is concerned, it is massive in comparison with the partition size of other OSs I've had. Since I have 25+Gb still free why should I need any more. I ALWAYS try to make sure that wherever possible, only Windows files are located on the OS drive. All data is located elsewhere as are all the programs I use. I have a separate partition for audio and video and Backups have their own 650+Gb partition as do my misc files and all my source files (application installation files, drivers etc.). I have oodles of disk space so I don't have to skimp but I do consider 50Gb plenty enough for Win7.

In the next few days I shall be using PW to move Win7 to the start of the drive and the space left by the deletion of XP will be added as necessary to other partitions on the drive which will be moved and enlarged as necessary.

On a more pleasing note, I've now done what I wanted using EasyBCD 2.1 and my PC now boots straight into Win7 although it did seem to take a somewhat longer to do so. Anyway whatever your contribution to this discussion, thanks very much.

Tracey

but I now have "Windows 7 Home Premium N (Recovered)" listed and in Visual BCD Editor under loaders I have four OSs listed in the following order: "Windows 7 Home Premium N (Recovered)", "Windows Recovery Environment (recovered) - listed twice neither of which appear in the boot menu, and "Windows 7". How do I make the necessary mods so I can boot straight into Windows 7 without having to select from a menu?

Maybe I am late with the answer but anyway.

Visual BCD Editor displays and edits everything that is in the BCD. Other tools like EasyBCD show only (and deal partially with) OS loader entries.

"Windows 7 Home Premium N (Recovered)", "Windows Recovery Environment (recovered) - listed twice

should be deleted by right clicking on every individual entry and selecting delete.

To create an actual entry for "Windows Recovery Environment"
you can use Windows utility "reagentc.exe" - how - see here Dual-boot Repair Windows 7/Vista, last part.

If there is only one "partition" (operating system) loader entry in the BCD, no boot menu is displayed and Windows boot manager continues loading this single operating system. If the timeout is set to 0 again no boot menu is displayed and booting continues with the default boot loader entry.

Important:
When moving/resizing a partition which contains the Operating system (Windows 7) itself the BCD loader entry becomes invalid !! A "Windows Startup Repair" is the best solution in this case, so have your Windows 7 Repair CD ready.