Files associated with booting?

Alright, I've got 2 partitions, one for XP, and one for 7. The XP partition comes before 7, therefore, if I delete it, I'll need to restore the MBR, as I learned in some of my previous posts. Is it possible, that I could just delete the operating system files, and shrink the partition to 100MB, while leaving the files associated with booting right there, and have my 7 partition boot perfectly fine? If so, which files should I NOT delete? ntldr.. etc.. Help would be appreciated.

~TA

The boot files are located in the "Boot" folder on the root of the drive. If XP was installed before W7, then this folder will be on both partitions.

Removing XP and leave W7 bootable can be a trick, most likely the Xp partition is the "Active" partition, this can be verified in disk management.

What you can do, I just did it to my PC, in disk management, set the W7 partition as active, right click on the partition in the lower pane, select "mark as active"
Then, use easyBCD to rebuild the bootloader so you can remove XP partition.

Download EasyBCD 1.7.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

once installed open easyBCD, go to the Add/Remove entries tab, highlight the XP entry, (may be called something else like previous windows) and hit the delete button.

Then go to the Manage Bootloader Tab, and tick the "reinstall Vista bootloader" radio button, then hit the "write MBR" button.

Now you can go back to disk management and delete the XP partition.

Ah. Well, I already have EasyBCD, so, what exactly would I go about doing with it?

Edit: Nevermind, I read the rest of your post. >_>

mushroomboy said:

Delete the partition and re-size, then use the windows 7 install cd (assuming you even have one) to re-install the BCD. It should work, as it should find the Win7 OS and install the BCD accordingly! It's a feature you have for that "just in case" moment where you screw up. When you go do re-install the BCD just insert the Win7 disc at boot, when you get to the installer screen you have that "repair" option somewhere below, just click on that and you should get to a fix BCD option. If not here:

Recovering the Vista Bootloader from the DVD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

BAM it's that easy.

I'm actually afraid to mess with this, because this is my only computer, and if I screw it up due to misinformation or misunderstanding, I'm screwed. So I need to be certain and have precise directions on how to successfully do this. Also note, my printer is broken, therefore I cannot print anything out.

Hi,

It is quite straightforward.

In Disk Management Rt click 7 partition and Mark it Active.

Run startup repair from the 7 dvd 3 times.

That's it.

After that , you can do what you like with the XP partition.



Hope it helps

TheAnonymity said:

Alright, I've got 2 partitions, one for XP, and one for 7. The XP partition comes before 7, therefore, if I delete it, I'll need to restore the MBR, as I learned in some of my previous posts. Is it possible, that I could just delete the operating system files, and shrink the partition to 100MB, while leaving the files associated with booting right there, and have my 7 partition boot perfectly fine? If so, which files should I NOT delete? ntldr.. etc.. Help would be appreciated.

~TA

SIW2 said:

Hi,

It is quite straightforward.

In Disk Management Rt click 7 partition and Mark it Active.

Run startup repair from the 7 dvd 3 times.

That's it.

After that , you can do what you like with the XP partition.



Hope it helps

And you're absolutely SURE nothing can go wrong with this, if done correctly?

Yes.

Check in Disk Management now and see if XP partition is labelled System.

After you do the above steps and boot back into 7 - the 7 partition will be System.


You could do exactly the same using commands - there's no need as startup repair will do them for you.

Yeah, my internet actually went down after my last post, but I wanted to let you know I've got it all sorted out now. Thanks for your help