Want to remove XP from my Windows 7 Dual Boot...running into problems.

[Suarez]

Hi,

I followed this guide.

How to Completely Remove a Windows XP Partition From a Dual Boot With Windows 7 | eHow.com

When I got to the part where I had to make partition 2 'active' it said:

"the specified partition type is not valid for this operation"

Windows then failed to boot. So I repaired and it worked, but my XP partition is still there.

Here are my discs:

What should I do? Thank you!

 

[theog]

Windows 7 C: partition will need to be a Primary partition.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/109752-partition-recover-space-used-older-os.html

 

[Suarez]

The thing is...I cannot set my Windows 7 partition as 'active' - which is basically one of the 1st steps in that guide. It is greyed out in windows and of course, as mentioned above, it failed in the repair console too.

 

[Suarez]

Hmmm...I guess it is because my Windows 7 install is on a 'logical' drive, that is why I cannot easily convert it to active.

So...if I was to make a backup of just the Windows 7 drive in Acronis or something....could I then format the entire HDD then reinstall just the Windows 7 image?

Would that work? What software is best?

Thank you.

 

[gregrocker]

You'll need to convert C to Primary first which is easy using our favorite tool here: How to set partition as Primary or Logical.

Then mark it Active: How to Set Active/Inactive partition -Partition Wizard Video Help.

Then from the booted Win7 DVD or System Repair Disk run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times until Win7 boots and holds the System Active Boot flags.

Finally you can delete XP partition and recover its space into C if you want, so that Win7 benefits from having the better placement on left hand side of the HD: Partition Wizard Resize Partition - Video Help.

 

[Suarez]

Thank you, I will give this a go now.

 

[Suarez]

Thank you gregrocker, this worked perfectly.

Windows XP now gone. Shows up as unallocated space.

Slightly confused about the last part though.

I now have 100GB unallocated space before my Windows 7 partition.

If I want to move my Windows 7 partition to the left, how do I do this? Or indeed, I would rather just merge them. The video doesn't seem to quite cover it.

Thanks again.

 

[Suarez]

Thank you gregrocker, this worked perfectly.

Windows XP now gone. Shows up as unallocated space.

Slightly confused about the last part though.

I now have 100GB unallocated space before my Windows 7 partition.

If I want to move my Windows 7 partition to the left, how do I do this? Or indeed, I would rather just merge them. The video doesn't seem to quite cover it.

Thanks again.

Edit: Is it that I have to reduce the unallocated space to a bare minimum, then add the bulk of it to the Windows 7 partition? So I will always have a little bit of space to the left before the Windows 7 partition?

-sorry, double post-

 

[gregrocker]

Seems you missed a step. Watch the video:

Finally you can delete XP partition and recover its space into C if you want, so that Win7 benefits from having the better placement on left hand side of the HD: Partition Wizard Resize Partition - Video Help.

 

[Suarez]

That's what I get when I try it:

 

[gregrocker]

Are you using the PW CD? If not try the latest version. If so, try the Win7 latest version.

Try also in the latest version How to extend partition easily with Partition Wizard - video help which can resize to/from any partition no matter if contiguous, and may bypass the bug.
http://partitionwizard.com/video-help/extend_partition/extend_partition.html

 

[Suarez]

Thanks.

Works with the boot CD.

All sorted now. Moved to the left.

It did indeed leave 30mb unallocated space at the beginning of the drive.

 

[AddRAM]

Hmmm...I guess it is because my Windows 7 install is on a 'logical' drive, that is why I cannot easily convert it to active.

So...if I was to make a backup of just the Windows 7 drive in Acronis or something....could I then format the entire HDD then reinstall just the Windows 7 image?

Would that work? What software is best?

Thank you.

The 1st thing theog told you to do was, the partition MUST BE MADE PRIMARY.

Glad you got it working.