Removing dual boot setups

Jonathan King said:

You do not need a dual boot setup to migrate data. If you use the method I recommended earlier, it will work fine.

Thanks, but I'm not simply trying to migrate data.

I'm trying to install the upgrade on a different drive to the one I have XP on now, because that drive has more cache, and therefore will (hopefully) run the OS slightly faster.

However, it's starting to look very complicated. I'm tempted just to copy the data I want to keep onto the 500GB drive, and then run the upgrade on the 160gb in the normal way.

Is it worth me trying to find a way of getting it onto the 500gig drive for the sake of an extra 8mb of cache?

ignatzatsonic said:

Noob:
The workarounds aren't "dodgy". The Thurott registry workaround is in fact what Windows customer service would tell you to do if you had activation issues.

In that case I'll try your method. Thanks.

Jonathan King said:

Yes. Don't worry, you will have no problems doing a clean install with an upgrade copy. 99% guaranteed!

Top banana.

We are helping dozens of users bail out of dual boots here, each case is involved but doable. You are ahead of the pack by putting 7 on a separate HDD, since it gets complicated when wanting to delete a legacy first partition and move the 7 over onto that space.

Essentially, you want to mark the Win7 drive active in Disk Management, pull the cable on the XP drive and plug it into the 7 drive (or change BIOS boot order to boot 7 first), then boot into the Win7 installer/repair disk Repair console and run Startup repair 3 times, as there are multiple issues to fix/reconstruct.

Afterward you can plug the XP drive back in and format it as you wish. You can even leave in plugged in and use a 3rd party partition manager like Partition Wizard to delete it, mark the 7 drive active, set it to boot first in BIOS, then boot into 7 installer and run startup repair which rewrites the boot to the 7 drive.

gregrocker said:

We are helping dozens of users bail out of dual boots here, each case is involved but doable. You are ahead of the pack by putting 7 on a separate HDD, since it gets complicated when wanting to delete a legacy first partition and move the 7 over onto that space.

Essentially, you want to mark the Win7 drive active in Disk Management, pull the cable on the XP drive and plug it into the 7 drive (or change BIOS boot order to boot 7 first), then boot into the Win7 installer/repair disk Repair console and run Startup repair 3 times, as there are multiple issues to fix/reconstruct.

Afterward you can plug the XP drive back in and format it as you wish. You can even leave in plugged in and use a 3rd party partition manager like Partition Wizard to delete it, mark the 7 drive active, set it to boot first in BIOS, then boot into 7 installer and run startup repair which rewrites the boot to the 7 drive.

What if I just try a clean install on the 500 gig without the other one even connected, then when its all done, plug the 160gb into the next sata port with a different cable, boot up in windows 7, take the stuff i want, then format the drive?

Edit

My head is starting to ache again

If previous posters are right, there isn't really any need to connect the two drives simultaneously at all.

Why not wipe my ipod (120GB - big enough to back stuff up that I want) and put all the data i want on there as a portable hdd, unplug my 160gig drive and shove it in a drawer somewhere safe in case everything goes horribly wrong, install windows 7 on the new drive using the clean install method for the upgrade edition, and get my stuff back off the ipod in win7 after installing itunes?

Surely that's so much easier than mucking about with dual boot?

Noob:

You could do that thing with the IPOD if it will ease your mind.

But I seriously doubt you will have any issues with disconnecting the 160 before you install Win 7 onto the 500 and then reconnecting it when done.

Windows 7 will be the active partition and you should first set the 500 GB drive to be the first choice to boot from in your BIOS after Windows 7 is up and running and before you reconnect the 160.

Sooner or later you are going to have to reconnect the 160 if you intend to reuse it. Even if you only want to throw it away, you'd want to reconnect it long enough to wipe it clean before it goes to a landfill. You'd want to do that even if your data is also on the IPOD.

When in Windows 7 after you are operating OK, just go to Disk Management and have your way with the 160 GB drive.

Sure if you install Win7 on a separate HDD while the Xp one is unplugged, then you could add the XP drive back in later and boot to it by setting it to boot first in the BIOS.

That way, either drive can come and go as it pleases, without any dual boot concerns.

Simple.