I have a dual boot PC with XP installed initially on the C: drive. I added Win 7 64 BitPpro on D: I would like to remove XP and ideally move Win 7 to the C: drive I have some programs D: that run under Win 7 will I break links if I try to move the Win 7 installation? Presumably I need to back up the Win 7 installation and apps first? and delete partitions? Thanks. Link to a known good guide very welcome!
Probably easiest to make an image of your win7 partition, then when running the image restore, delete the c and d partitions and restore to the unallocated space.
First, you will need to make sure you have the boot files on your restored windows7. Most likely they are currently on the first partition.
Boot into your win7. Open an elevated cmd prompt. If the OS letter of win7 is C when you are booted into it , Type:
bcdboot c:\windows /s c:
(then press enter)
If your win7 os letter is D when you are booted into it , Type:
bcdboot d:\windows /s d:
Then make your image.
There are several free imaging programs. I suggest aomei backupper as the simplest to use. Install it. Then get it to make boot media before creating the image.
Best Windows Backup and Restore Software | AOMEI Backupper
Video here shows you how to do it.
YouTube
One important difference - you do not want a system image backup. You want a partition backup, so you click Partition Backup instead of System backup. The rest is the same.
Remember, in your case, you must run the bcdboot command before creating the image
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