Windows 7: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

Thanks for this great guide Brink.

I followed this guide a while ago to have a dual boot in separate hard drives for 7 and XP.
But now I stopped using xp and want to use the xp drive as a drive for storage only. Windows 7 is the default operating system.

So I checked this Guide:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...list-boot.html

But after checking the Boot Tab in msconfig, Windows 7 is the only OS listed and I'm unable to delete the xp entry since it's not shown there.

Here's a pic of msconfig:



I want to format my XP drive.
So my main concern is how can I delete the xp option in order to boot straight forward to windows 7 (just like it was before I performed the dual boot guide) ?

Should I get into Xp ,run EasyBCD and delete the xp list from there?

Thanks in advance man

Hello Adrek, and welcome to Seven Forums.

If XP is not listed there, then XP is already off of the boot list.

You can format the XP drive from Computer in Windows 7 by right clicking on the drive and clicking format. If you installed XP first then Windows 7, then Windows 7 may not boot afterwards since formating the XP drive may have wiped out the boot file. If this occurs, then you can run a startup repair with your Windows 7 installation DVD to repair the boot file for Windows 7. If it still will not boot for some reason, then you can use EasyBCD to repair the boot file for Windows 7 by using the Vista option in EasyBCD, or do a repair install with Windows 7.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks for the quick replay.
Pardon my ignorance but if Xp were already off of the boot list, shouldn't that mean I could no longer boot into xp?

I ask this just because at the screen where you are given the option to boot from Windows 7 or Xp (well, in my case) I can choose both of them and boot either Windows 7 or XP without a problem.
Is that ok?

Hi,

That's curious,

open an elevated command and type bcdedit then press enter.

Post a screenshot of the result, like this:

Here's the bcdedit:



Something I forgtot to tell:

After I did the dual boot guide everything was fine but a few days later I added a third Hard drive (with no OS on it) and windows 7 was ok but Xp didn't start anymore.
So I reinstalled Xp with the 3rd HD plugged and followed the guide again and everything is fine now, but if a thumbdrive is inserted at the moment I turn on my pc then Xp won't start, just like what happened with the 3rd HD.

When I reinstalled Xp and performed the guide again I ended up with 3 options to boot from:
Windows 7
Windows XP
Windows XP (again)

One of the XP options was not working and I deleted it from the msconfig under XP.

Disk Management Pic:


The DVD rom has the E letter assigned

To remove the XP entry, open an elevated cmd and type:

bcdedit /delete {ntldr} /f

then press enter.

Please post a screenshot of Disk Management also, like this:

This is shown in command prompt when I typed: bcdedit /delete {ntldr} /f



The Disk management picture is in my previous post

Thanks for your help man

Adrek,

Since Windows 7 is listed in Disk Management as a boot disk and is marked active, you should be able to just format the XP drive from within Windows 7 without any problems though.

All right I just got time to format the XP drive and everything is almost fine now. A quick final question:

How do I get rid of the "Windows boot manager" screen?


It still appears showing me the Windows XP along with the 7 option to boot from.
Should I Install EasyBCD and go to 'Add/Remove entries', delete the Xp Entry and then go to 'Manage Bootloader' and click in the 'Write MBR' button?

I can go to Control Panel/System and Security/System and click on Advance system Settings then click on the Advanced Tab and go to Settings under the Startup and Recovery section and from there I can uncheck "Time to display list of operating systems" to skip the boot manager screen but I want to get rid of the XP option.

Just asking before I produce a mess, thanks guys.

Type msconfig in start search box - click it when it pops up.

Under the Boot tab, highlight the XP entry, Delete, Apply, OK.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...list-boot.html

Hope it helps