Changing the System Partition?

To chuckr,

The 'iseeuu's MBR tutorial does not work here.

Just like PickleDelight, I need a guide to move Win7 from the boot partition (currently the 2nd partition) to the front system partition(currently the first partition, deleted Vista) on the same disk.

Thanks,
Patrick

phsieh007 I think you're going to need provide a lot more info. I know how to do it but cannot explain it to you without knowing details about your system or hard disk structure.

A good start would be to attach a screenshot of your Disk Management. And tell us what kind of data is on each partition.

To sup3rsprt,

Thanks. My problem is exactly the same as PickleDelight's (except the drinking part :) ). He solved it finally without giving the thread details (of other forums).

PickleDelight said:

When i installed Windows 7, I created a new partition so I could make sure that I could transfer all of the files from Vista over to Windows 7. I couldn't upgrade because I was going from Vista Home Premium 32-bit to 7 Professional 64-bit.

Now I want to get rid of the partition with Vista on it, and still be able to boot up my computer. Does anybody know how to change the System Partition from the Vista partition to the Windows 7 one?

Currently, the Vista Partition says Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition) and the Windows 7 Partition says Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition). I want to change that so Windows 7 is the System Partition.

PickleDelight said:

Okay, I fixed that part on my own. Now I have a different problem. I deleted the old partition, but now I can't merge the unallocated space into my Windows 7 Partition because it isn't contiguous space. Basically, I have Unallocated Space -> Windows 7. Is there any way to move Windows 7 to the front of the drive so I can merge it with the empty space?

PickleDelight said:

Thanks. But I already figured out what I needed to do and solved everything already based on other forums I found with people who had similar problems. The boot files are now where they should be, I deleted the Partition with Vista on it, I moved the partition with 7 on it to the front of the drive and merged it with the empty space I got from deleting Vista. It all boots up perfectly fine now, and I'm enjoying my new Operating system.

By the way, when I posted that last night, I was drinking. It's amazing how when you wake up sober, you can actually think and find the information to solve a problem on your own.

I would boot into Windows 7 or the Windows 7 DVD and use bcdboot command to move the boot files to the Windows 7 partition. That's all "System" means in this context - it's the drive that has the boot files.

In order to arrange the disk space/partitions how I want, I would use something like Acronis Disk Director or Paragon Hard Disk/Partition Manager because the utilities included with Windows often times can't take care of it.

I just did this using Partition Wizard Home Edition, a great freeware program.

I had Vista in a 900gb partition and 7 Beta on a 100 gb partition for testing. now that I have the final version of 7 Ultimate I installed it. I then wanted to give Vista 100gb and have 900 for 7. I was able to use the Windows disk management to free up the space on drive, but then I was unable to extend the partition as it was to the right of the free space. I tried command line also, but no luck. I then found Partition Wizard and used it and it worked perfect and directly from Windows after a reboot. Pretty cool for a free program. I have used Partition Magic, Acronis and others and this was just as easy or more so and really fast!

I you have need of a product like this I'd give it a shot, worked for me anyway!

Hi Guys,

I'm new here, so go easy. I'm having the same problem as posted above, but I'm not seeing any solutions here? Perhaps I'm blind though.

Although the issue is already mentioned, I'll repeat it. I created a new partition for my Windows 7 installation, and am now looking at removing the existing Vista partition. However, the issue is that under disk management, the Vista partition is showing up as the System partition, even though I'm actually running 7. So, perhaps some boot information is being stored on the partition containing Vista?

I'm ideally looking for a simple solution here, without having to lost all of my settings, etc in 7. Oh, also - how would I go about merging the entire drive? I no longer want a secondary partition, but I'm unsure if Windows will let me delete / expand the partition, being that it's to the right of the existing one.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you, by chance, have a Windows 7 Setup disk lying around, I'd suggest popping that in, and trying to Manage/Extend the partition(s) that way.

Not sure if Win7 is like WinVista & WinXP, but most know that if the Priority Partition is deleted or in-use... you have minimal options for controlling your partition, whilst USING any partition.

Once the DVD boots up it's a simple matter of following along with the fairly simple installation wizard. When you're choosing installation type, be sure to select Custom (advanced) and Manage the partitions there.