partitioning question

Antony · 28 Sep 2009

I currently have a dual boot system of XP and 7. Xp was the first installed os. After partitioning Win7 was added and made the default os.
I now want to get rid of XP and reallocate the space to Win 7. I have assumed that I can do this from within Win 7 using Disk Management. From win 7 the partition for win 7 appears as C: and for Xp its D: And likewise from XP the partition for XP is C: and 7 is D: (if you follow what I mean).
Now when I try to delete the XP partition from Disk Management it does not give me the option to do so (the option is greyed out). Is there a way around this? If not I may as well just wait until I get the retail copy of 7. I am going to presume that the mbr is most likely to be on the XP C: drive? as that was the os installed initially.

torrentg · 28 Sep 2009

You will have to move your boot files to the 7 partition and set it as active.

Follow my post here. Make sure on your pc you have it to show all hidden and system files.

When I say "drive", for your situation, replace with "partition."

You don't have to change your bios settings. You do have to set the 7 partition active though.

Moving Boot manager to Different Drive

So you will have to do this in Windows 7:

A) Copy bootmgr file from D:\ to C:\ (both root)
B) Copy the boot folder from D:\ to C:\ (both root) ignoring the warning that it can't copy bcd and bcd.log. Just tell it to skip them.
C) From elevated command prompt, type or copy this - bcdedit /export C:\boot\bcd then hit enter.
D) Open Disk Management and set C:\ as active.
E) Reboot into Win 7.
F) Open Disk Management and confirm that you have booted off of the 7 partition. C:\ should be shown now as System partition (which actually means it booted from here.) It also should be listed as the boot partition (which actually means Windows is installed here.)
G) If everything looks good, format the XP partition D:\.
H) Remove XP from the boot menu using EasyBCD.
I) Reboot without an OS choice screen and enjoy.
J) Combine the two partitions with a 3rd party app. I recommend Acronis Disk Director Suite but there are a few others you can use.

Post if you need further help or advice. Also, make sure the 7 partition is a primary one to start with.

chev65 · 28 Sep 2009

Seems like it would be easier and faster to just back up the drive that Win7 is on and reinstall it. Or just use the CD to delate the XP partition. I dislike long complicated procedures when there are easier ones that work just as well.