Move OS from System Partition (Win XP & Win 7 Dual Boot)

There's no good reason to create a System boot partition for XP and Win7 when it's working fine now. No one has ever asked to do that before and we've handled every conceivable operation involving the two OS's since before Win7 was released.

If you want to remove XP now then we'll give you the steps to do that which cover all parameters and not just moving the boot files which loses functionality for WinRe.

Is there some good reason you want to move the boot files out of XP to another boot partition? Doing so would not be that easy but would likely require Repairs to both OS's, and XP is too old to allow its boot files to go anywhere during install or repair except itself.

Someone here may know how to do this successfully but its the most pointless operation I can imagine.

Then how would you move the boot files for both XP and Win7 out of the XP partition into a boot partition and still have both of them bootable, Wolfgang - if all I'm doing is trying to scare her?

Now I'm totally confused.

Do I understand that what whs gave me initially will not work, is not preferred, or is a disagreement with what Greg is saying?

The steps given to move the boot files off XP would almost definitely stop it from booting.

You have not said you're ready to get rid of XP. You said you want that option later.

But even if you were ready to get rid of XP you shouldn't move the boot files with EasyBCD which deletes the link for the Repair Console from F8 Boot tools, the reason that marking 7 Active and running Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times has been the Best Practice developed by these forums since before Win7 was even released - used thousands of times without failure.

Ok - you have really confused me. Yes, he said it would not be active, but the Win7 is not active either. I thought "Active" was for the System partition and had nothing to do with which partition was booted. That was why I originally wanted a separate "System" partition, removed from the OS partitions.

So, taking a step back (but not what I really wanted to do), if we made the Win7 partition the System partition, would it then be "active" because (1) it was the System partition or (2) because it was the booted partition?

To move the System boot files correctly takes more than moving the Active flag, you need to run Repairs to write the System boot files to the Active partition. That would only move the Win7 boot files, not the XP boot files which are sitting modified now on XP partition to Dual Boot Win7. Moving the Dual Boot files from XP would be nigh impossible and utterly pointless.

Again, when ready to remove XP mark Win7 partition Active and run 3 startup Repairs from Disk. When it starts and the System flag is on Win7 partition you can delete XP partition and recover its space using Partition Wizard Boot CD to Resize Partition - Video Help.

gregrocker said:

There's no good reason to create a System boot partition for XP and Windows 7 when it's working fine now.

whs said:

As already advised, I would leave it as is and take action when you want to get rid of the XP partition.

AddRAM said:

Also, to add more confusion, why is H marked active, but you can attack that later.

Just mark H: INACTIVE.
Partition - Mark as Inactive