Remove Windows 10 from dual boot with Windows 7, Win10 installed first

[yotoprules]

How do I do this? I tried following a tutorial in the tutorial section, but the option to delete volume in grayed out.

 

[AddRAM]

It`s grayed out because it`s the Active partition and has the system files on it, if you were to delete it then Windows 7 would not boot anymore.

The Windows 7 partition must be made Active and the System files HAVE TO BE written there BEFORE you can delete Windows 10.

The proper thing to do is backup your files, wipe out the entire drive and reinstall windows 7

Partition - Mark as Active


And all your other hard drives SHOULD BE unplugged ( just the data cable ) before doing any of this.

 

[yotoprules]

It`s grayed out because it`s the Active partition and has the system files on it, if

The Windows 7 partition must be made Active and the System files have to be written there before you can delete Windows 10.

Partition - Mark as Active

So how do I write the system files after I make it active?

 

[AddRAM]

Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD

Backup your files and unplug the other drives BEFORE attempting any of this.


or

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

But I have found that startup repair does not always work.

 

[Megahertz07]

Always learning something different or new from the Gurus.
Brian, once he boots on Win 7 and delete the Win 10 and the recovery partition, how to join the right (raw) partition to the win 7 partition so the whole disk will have only one partition? Does the Mini Tool partition do it?

 

[AddRAM]

Yep, PW does it all

Best tool in the box.

Bootable Partition Manager| MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition

Actually you extend C to the right, but you really wanna move the entire C partition to the left if it`s on a hard drive, if it`s a solid state then it can be left alone, just checked for alignment.

If it were a hard drive then I would reinstall windows so the arm would not have to move so much.

Hard Disk Working | How does a hard disk work | Hard Drive - YouTube

 

[Megahertz07]

This is what I would do to have only one partition as C: after deleting the win 10 partition and the recovery partition.
- Back up all data.
At this point you have an unallocated partition on the right and one to the left.
- With Acronis or Macrium I would clone the Win 7 partition to the right unallocated partition.
- Boot on with a Win 7 installation disk and use Diskpart to delete the partition that now has win 7.
- If the new win 7 doesn't boot, use boot repair from Win 7 installation disk.
- Once you boot from the cloned partition, open disk manager and expand the C partition to the left.

Brian, do you think it will work?

 

[yotoprules]

Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD

Backup your files and unplug the other drives BEFORE attempting any of this.


or

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

But I have found that startup repair does not always work.

So, with EasyBCD do i write system files to C:\ or E:\ because windows 7 is on my E:\

 

[yotoprules]

I've done that and deleted windows 10, how do I allocate that space to windows 7?

 

[AddRAM]

Already gave you the link.

Bootable Partition Manager| MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition

or you can install Fre version 9.1 on C, but the Boot CD is safer.

Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free


If Free version 9.1 will not let you extend to the left, then install version 4.2 found here in Option 1

Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk

Install both versions, learn to use them

And also Align your hard drive, shown how in picture #3