Windows 7 - problem removing system partition

Hey yall.
to sum up the issue:
I was using dual boot (Windows 7 + vista)
wanted to remain only with win 7
formatted vista partition (don't know how I succeeded eventually...)
now, win 7 boots fine
but I still have the vista partition which is empty, except for BOOT FILES ON IT!!!! (win 7 partition does NOT have boot files or bootmgr).
when entering disk management, I cannot delete old vista partition (marked as system) but I really want to

what should I do?
THANKS!

Before you do anything else, do an image backup of BOTH partitions to a third partition or a second hard drive. Just in case!

1) Are both partitions on the same HDD?

2) If so, which one is the FIRST partition? The Windows 7 OS partition you want to keep or the empty, except for the bootloader, Vista partition that you want for delete?

Answer those two questions and someone will respond. I have not corrected this exact setup yet but am about to on one of my HDDs.....

I get asked this often . It is quite straightforward.

Assuming 7 is on C (if not, use the appropriate drive letter).

1. Copy and paste bootmgr and the pale yellow Boot folder onto C.

(You will get a message bcd is in use and can't be copied - skip it and copy the rest).



2. Open an elevated cmd prompt and type:

bcdedit /export C:\Boot\bcd

then press enter. Close cmd prompt.

3. In Disk Management , rt click C and Mark as Active. Reboot.

That's it.


Hi Muad,

I do this as a matter of course. I copy the bootfiles ( including bcd) as above - onto all the o/s partitions.

Then if needed, just marking any one of them Active switches system status to that partition ( only works on Primary partitions, of course).

actually i couldn't wait so I did it myself and it works great
went to repair from Windows 7 installation cd and did something over there...
only issue now is when I open "msconfig" and go to "boot" tab, I see there:
"windows 7 ultimate (recovered)".
should this bother me? this "recovered" issue?
thanks!

Not sure what you did - did you mark 7 partition Active before running startup repair?

Is 7 partition now showing as "System" in Disk Management?

If you want to get of the (recovered) bit, boot into 7, open an elevated cmd prompt and type:

bcdedit /set {current} description "Windows 7"

then press enter.

You can put any name you like between the " ".

The "(recovered)" status is normal because it was "recovered" by a Windows 7 bootcd repair operation.

You can edit the description per SIW2's instructions or using the EasyBCD tool.

P.S. I always, and still do, recommend an image backup when tinkering with the boot loaders. But to each their own.

Thanks guys yur all great I got rid of this "recovered" issue...
All is working good so far...

hi, i have the same problem as the topic starter (thought i don't know why...), i followed your steps and it didn't helped... maybe there's something different in the problem (for example, in your third step u said to mark C: as active, but it already is)?
anyway what i would like to do is move the bootfiles from G: (where they are now) to C: not just copy them... i don't want my G: partition to be labeled as system, otherwise it will be included in the backup and it is 100gb of non sensible data ()
what can i do? i looked a bit into bcdedit but i'd prefer to be guided eheh

You haven't given any information about your setup.

I would take a wild guess you have 2 hard drives.

Make the HD containing C the first in the bios boot order.

oops sorry! yes, i have more than 1 hd, actually this is the situation:

it's in italian but i hope u can understand... apart from "avvio" which means boot i think the rest it's pretty obvious...
anyway now i will reboot to check, but i'm pretty sure that the first drive in the bios it's alredy the right one...