How Can I Undo WIN7 Dual Boot on 2 HDDs

Jimx · 04 Sep 2010

I recently installed Windows 7 Professional 32 bit on my PC. It has two internal hard disk drives, HDD 0 and HDD 1. Before WIN7, I had Windows XP OS on HDD 0. I moved my WINXP OS to HDD 1, and installed a bran new empty HDD 0. Then I booted my Windows 7 Professional full version DVD and did a clean install to the bran new HDD 0. The install went OK, but unbeknown to me and without any prior warning, the Windows 7 install created a dual boot system. When I boot WIN7 from HDD 0, I now get a black and white Windows Boot Manager screen with choices of “Earlier Version of Windows” or the highlighted default of “Windows 7”. The Windows 7 install also changed the boot area on my WINXP HDD 1. When I go into the BIOS boot screen and boot from my WINXP OS HDD 1, I get the same Windows Boot Manager screen with the same two choices. Is there any way to undo the dual boot Windows Boot Manager? I would like to get the boot area on my WINXP HDD 1 back to the way it was before the Windows 7 install and have a normal boot area on the WIN7 HDD 0. I don’t want to remove or uninstall WINXP or WIN7, I just want to be able to boot from either one via the BIOS normally (without Windows Boot Manager) like the way I could before the Windows 7 install.

gregrocker · 04 Sep 2010

Hi Jim. Smart to boot two OS HD's via BIOS so they can come and go as you please. Unfortunately you didn't know that Win7 will configure a multi-boot if installed while another OS is plugged in.

Can you please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map and listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu? There may be something unmentioned about your setup that needs to be taken into account before we can give you failsafe steps.

If XP alone is marked System Active then the procedure is to mark Win7 Active in XP Disk Management, power down, unplug XP HD, set Win7 HD as first HD to boot in BIOS setup (after DVD drive) then boot the Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD, click through to Recovery Tools list to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write the MBR to Win7.
System Repair Disc - Create
Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

When you plug XP HD back in set preferred HD as first to boot in BIOS setup, then boot the other HD by tapping one-time BIOS Boot Menu during bootup:
Asus - F8
HP/Compaq - Esc
Sony - F2
Acer - F2
Gateway - F10
eMachnes - F10
Toshiba - F12
Dell - F12
IBM/Lenovo - the blue Thinkvantage button

If the Dual Boot menu still appears when booting XP, remove it by installing EasyBCD 2.0 to Edit Boot menu. You'll need to install Net Framework 2.0 to use EasyBCD in XP. Welcome to EasyBCD 2.0! — The NeoSmart Files

Jimx · 04 Sep 2010

Drive Map.PNG attached.

gregrocker · 04 Sep 2010

Yes you're good to go with the steps given earlier. No surprises here.

SIW2 · 04 Sep 2010

Bcdedit /delete {identifier-long-number} /f

Night Hawk · 04 Sep 2010

Welcome to the Seven Forums! Jimx

To simplify things for you simply go into the Control Panel>System>Advanced Settings>Startup & Recovery as shown in the attached image below and reduce the time to select XP or uncheck the display option there to not even see the option of "previous version of Windows" appear.

Since you have an unintended dual boot you may want to keep the entry and simply reduce the display time to see 7 load faster when not planning to boot into XP at the moment. Through the use of a few free programs like EasyBCD or BellaVista you can also see the XP entry renamed from the present "previous version of Windows" to something else like "Windows XP Home or Pro" depending on which edition you are running.

For the simple deletion open up the msconfig utility and go into the Boot tab to highlight the "previous version" entry leaving the 7 default entry untouched.