Solved How do I remove dual boot with Win7?

[Mazter81]

Hi. I hope you'll be able to help me. I've searched the forum for a thread with my issue - didn't seem to find it though.

I've just found an oldish computer with Vista 32 bit as OS. I've got my hands on a win7 upgrade and installed Win 7 on my D-drive without problems. Vista is on the C-drive.

I moved on and installed all my programmes and stuff, figuring that I would later find out how to remove the dual boot and Vista completely. So I browsed around and thought I had it all done, which resulted in a situation, where I couldn't boot at all.

So I had to upgrade the Vista on my c-drive to Win7, which leaves me with win7 on one partition (D-drive) with all my supporting programmes etc installed, and a OS-only installation on the other partition (C-drive).

Now I want to remove the OS-only installation on the C-drive, but how?

I have 2 useable partitions on 1 drive (3 partitions actually, but 1 is predefined for re-install by Acer)

I've attached a screenshot of my diskmanager in the Win7 I want to keep, which is in the d-drive. (Sry about the danish language - it says: C: System, Active, Primary partition & D: Boot, page file, crash dump, Primary partition)

What should I do in order to first remove the OS-installation on C: from my Boot and then delete it, so I'll only have the OS on D:?

 

[theog]

Take a look at this tutorial:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/109752-partition-recover-space-used-older-os.html

 

[Mazter81]

thanks for a swift reply.

So basically:
1) make D: active
2) Perform Reboot, which will use the win7 upgrade DVD to make a system repair and create the necessary boot files on the active drive?

 

[gregrocker]

Because the installer wasn't correctly booted when you installed Win7 to D, it will not now show as C when booted into Win7 as it would had it been booted for install.

If you don't mind having Win7 on D drive then you can use free Partition Wizard bootable CD to rightclick D to Modify>Set to Active, click OK. Then click on Disk 1 to highlight it, from Disk tab select Rebuild MBR, Apply. Reboot to see if Win7 starts. If not boot into Win7 DVD Repair console or System Repair Disk to run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times.

Once Win7 boots you can boot back into the PW CD to rightclick C to Delete, click OK. Then rightclick D to Resize, slide left grey border all the way to the left to take up deleted C space, click OK, Apply all steps.

You can also try cueing up Factory Recovery from boot to see if it still works, or if there are System Diagnostics available from boot try booting into them. If neither of these work you can also delete and recover the first partition's space.

 

[theog]

So basically:
1) make D: active
2) Perform Reboot,

3) Delete Partitions 1 & 2.
4)

which will use the Windows 7 upgrade DVD to make a system repair and create the necessary boot files on the active drive?

 

[Mazter81]

So basically:
1) make D: active
2) Perform Reboot,

3) Delete Partitions 1 & 2.
4)

which will use the Windows 7 upgrade DVD to make a system repair and create the necessary boot files on the active drive?

Cheers. I'm through 1 & 2, but I still have to choose which OS I want to load during boot.

However, the right drive (D is System, boot, page file, active and crashdump now, so I should be good to wipe partition 1 & 2 right? and that will remove the other option during boot?

 

[gregrocker]

Delete C now if D boots on its own.

Are you wanting to recover the space from D into C as well? I gave you steps that include that.

 

[Mazter81]

Delete C now if D boots on its own.

It is, if by on its own you mean that no DVD is necessary??

Are you wanting to recover the space from D into C as well? I gave you steps that include that.

Yeah, i noticed. thanks.

However, I think I'll just wipe the space and continue with 2 partitions

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, does it boot into Win7 with no DVD in drive now?

I would Resize D into the lower address to take advantage of slightly faster reads.

 

[Mazter81]

Yeah - boot's fine with no DVD - still has to choose which partition to boot from, but I assume that is because I haven't wiped partition 2 yet.

How do I readdress D to C?

 

[gregrocker]

I explained in my first post that when you don't boot the Win7 installer but instead run it from another OS it will lock out C so it isn't available without a booted reinstall. This is why installs should always be done from booted installer.

As long as D is labeled System Active Boot you are good to delete C. But I would confirm those listings since you're still getting the Dual Boot menu which should have vanished along with Vista boot, unless the repairs reconfigured a Dual Boot which is rare. In that case the Dual Boot should disappear when Vista is deleted - if not install EasyBCD 2.02 to Delete Vista from Edit OS menu tab.

 

[Mazter81]

I did just as you said and it works perfectly now.

Thanks a lot for your help. It's really appreciated. Happy New Year

 

[gregrocker]

Glad to help.