Solved Change system partition?

[danime91]

I had installed Windows 7 to dual-boot along with my old installation of Windows XP so that I could finish backing up the old files before deleting it. Well now I've pretty much got everything off the XP partition so I don't need it anymore. So I set 7 as the active partition, and it was already set as C:. The 7 partition comes after the XP partition, and though it is marked as (Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition), the XP partition is marked as (System, Primary Partition). Is it safe to delete it? Or if not, how do I make the Windows 7 Partition the System partition?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello danime91, welcome to Seven Forums!


Are XP and Windows 7 on separate Hard Disk Drives?


Before we make any specific recommendations will you please post a snip/screen-shot of the entire disk management drive map with a full description as to which drive/partition is which, so we can see what you have going on as there may be a fairly simple way to resolve the situation.

In the Windows start menu right click computer and click manage, in the left pane of the "Computer Management" window that opens click disk management and post a snip of that.


How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

 

[danime91]

I have both partitions on one HDD. C: is the drive that Windows 7 is installed on. D: is the unneeded Windows XP drive.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

After you have copied out or made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media, have a look at this tutorial at the link below to recover all the space to the left of Windows 7 into the C: partition and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.


Partition : Recover Space Used by an Older OS

 

[danime91]

So now apparently I need to load the drivers for my hard drive. Been looking on google, but no luck. Does anybody know where to download drivers for a WD5000AAKS-75A7B2 HDD?

 

[gregrocker]

What makes you think you need your SATA controller drivers? You'd really only need them if you were installing XP, not removing it.

What is the exact error code you are getting and when is it encountered?

 

[danime91]

It is not so much an error code. Before I get to the system recovery options screen, it tells me to select the operating system I would like to repair, but the field is blank. At first I tried just going ahead with this, but it doesn't work. So now I'm trying to go with the option of load drivers.

 

[gregrocker]

At the first screen after booting DVD/Repair CD, press Shift + F10 to open a Command Line, type:

bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec.exe /fixmbr

Now enter Repair console to see if it finds an installation to repair.

 

[danime91]

For the /fixboot it returns the message "Element not found" but for the /fixmbr it returns "The operation completed successfully". And it still doesn't find an operating system to repair.

EDIT: I don't know whether this is significant or not, but when I open the command line the address is X:\Sources

 

[gregrocker]

Use free Partition Wizard bootable CD, rightclick Win7 partition to Modify>Set to Active, click OK.

Then from Disk tab choose Rebuild MBR, Apply all steps.

If this fails, click through to Recovery Options to run Startup Repair anyway.

 

[danime91]

It is already set to active, and just thought to mention that none of the partitions seem to have drive letters. Anyway, everything under the Disk tab is greyed out, so I can't do Rebuild MBR.

 

[gregrocker]

Boot back into Repair Command Line and run "bootrec.exe /fixboot" and "bootrec.exe /fixmbr" or if those don't work "Bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force".

If this will not force WinRE to see the installation, try running Startup Repair x3 anyway.

If that fails, what I would do now is make a small partition at the front of your HD to install Win7 upon, at startup install EasyBCD to Add OS, selecting Win7 and the stranded partition's drive letter. Restart to see if you can now boot it. http://neosmart.net/blog/2010/welcome-to-easybcd-2/

We will help you later remove all of the files except those for booting on the rescue install, shrink the partition down to around 200mb to serve as a boot partition, then Resize Win7 into the rest of the recovered space.

I would wait til morning to see what BareFootKid has to suggest since you are using his tutorial to recover deleted XP space into Win7 install.

 

[danime91]

I'm sorry but could you be a little more detailed as to how to use EasyBCD? The documentation is not very helpful in this. And by install do you mean boot from a disk? Because right now I cannot boot Windows 7 due to the missing bootmgr error.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Here's how to add using EasyBCD, though this says Vista it's the same.

click to enlarge

​

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, boot from the disk to install Win7.

 

[danime91]

Alright, so now there seems to be a problem. Now when I try /fixboot and /fixmbr they both give me "The system cannot find the path specified." the Bootsect.exe part seemed to have worked, since it gives a "Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes." But I still can't see the installation. So I try running Startup Repair. But now Startup Repair gives me a "Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically" error. Here's the problem signature.

Problem Signature:
Problem Event Name: StartupRepairOffline
Problem Signature 01: 0.0.0.0
Problem Signature 02: 0.0.0.0
Problem Signature 03: unknown
Problem Signature 04: 0
Problem Signature 05: unknown
Problem Signature 06: 1
Problem Signature 07: unknown
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

So then I used Partition Wizard to create some free space at the front of my HDD, then tried installing Windows 7 on it. But after I click "install now" it gives me

Load Driver
A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.

It seems that all this happened because I marked my Windows 7 partition as the boot partition. Could I at least be able to boot in to 7 again if I make Windows XP active?

 

[mjf]

Your problem suggest you need to rebuild your BCD. You were probably originally booting through the XP partition.

Do the following from the system repair disk command prompt.

>bootrec /scanos
This should come back and identify the Windows 7 OS partition.
then
rebuild the MBR
>bootrec /fixmbr
then
Fix the Partition Boot Record/Boot sector.
>bootrec /fixboot
then
importantly, rebuild the BCD
>Bootrec /rebuildbcd

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[danime91]

Alright, I tried it, but /scanos returns 0 identified Windows installations.

 

[mjf]

When you boot the system repair disk it generally also has a look for an OS - does it find one?

Anyway try the other 3 bootrec commands. The BCD rebuild is important and shouldn't succeed if an OS isn't present.

 

[danime91]

fixboot and fixmbr both return that the system cannot find the path specified. rebuildbcd also scans for windows installations and finds none.