Drive letters...

Thanks for the help.

Alright, had to get off before I could do anything. Now I'm going to proceed with the following...

1. Marking 7 partition as Active
2. Deleting XP partition
3. Extending 7 partition by unallocated space from deleted XP partition

I'm a bit paranoid, because of my last HDD failure. If anything gets messed up, I'll get my ass chewed out. With that being said, before I commence with operations 1, 2, and 3, I would like to know... What can go wrong, performing these three tasks?

What exactly can go wrong? I've already backed up my stuff, but I just don't want screw it up so I can't boot up my OS's again.

Haha, thats funny. Yeah, I'll be paying attention. And I've got quite a nice power supply. Anything else?

Your EISA partition is no longer useable and should be deleted along with your XP partition, then mark Windows 7 active and extend it into the deleted partitions' unallocated space. You can then recover Windows 7 boot by running Startup Repair from the Win7 installer three times.

Let's take it a step at a time. You will need to download and burn free Partition Wizard bootable disk: http://www.partitionwizard.com/

Then remove the EISA partition by booting into PW, right clicking it and deleting. If it is a locked EISA partition here is how to delete it: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/0...tion-in-vista/

Now boot into Partition Wizard to right click XP partition and delete.

Now right click the Win7 partition and Mark Active, then rightclick Move/Resize and drag the left slider all the way over onto the deleted EISA and XP unallocated space.
Allow these operations to complete.

Now boot into the Win7 installer Repair console and run Startup Repair 3 times to fix multiple issues including rewriting your MBR.

You can now change your Win7 partition size, and/or create new partitions for storage and recovery in Disk Management.

When you have it set up as you like, use Win7 Backup Imaging to Create a Backup Image which you store externally (and in its own primary-formatted partition if you wish) so that reinstalls are never again necessary, just boot into the 7 installer Repair console and reimage your HDD or a replacement in 15 minutes.

gregrocker said:

Your EISA partition is no longer useable and should be deleted along with your XP partition, then mark Windows 7 active and extend it into the deleted partitions' unallocated space. You can then recover Windows 7 boot by running Startup Repair from the Win7 installer three times.

Let's take it a step at a time. You will need to download and burn free Partition Wizard bootable disk: Partition Wizard is a Windows based FREE Partition Manager. It works as partition magic and supports Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 server and Windows 7. FREE for Home and Business user.

Then remove the EISA partition by booting into PW, right clicking it and deleting. If it is a locked EISA partition here is how to delete it: Delete and Remove to Unlock EISA Hidden Recovery or Diagnostic Partition in Vista My Digital Life

Now boot into Partition Wizard to right click XP partition and delete.

Now right click the Win7 partition and Mark Active, then rightclick Move/Resize and drag the left slider all the way over onto the deleted EISA and XP unallocated space.
Allow these operations to complete.

Now boot into the Win7 installer Repair console and run Startup Repair 3 times to fix multiple issues including rewriting your MBR.

You can now change your Win7 partition size, and/or create new partitions for storage and recovery in Disk Management.

When you have it set up as you like, use Win7 Backup Imaging to Create a Backup Image which you store externally (and in its own primary-formatted partition if you wish) so that reinstalls are never again necessary, just boot into the 7 installer Repair console and reimage your HDD or a replacement in 15 minutes.

Very descriptive. I still need to restore the MBR even if my 7 partition says-
(Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)?

TheAnonymity said:

Very descriptive. I still need to restore the MBR even if my 7 partition says-
(Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)?

You may not need to, but I always include booting from WIn7 installer to run Startup Repair in case you can't boot up after deleting an EISA sitting on the boot sector of the HDD.

EISA is a wild card - only about 5 out of 50 who have recently used this method successfully had an EISA.

I will be here for another two hours tonight if you need assist.