Solved remove XP bootable partition

[DocDJ]

I have a question on deleting my old XP bootable partition. I have this arrangement on one drive:
Primary Logical Primary
XP-SP3....... data........ Win-7 64bit
D: ................ E: .............. C:
The data partition is set up as drive E: and contains multiple files, including "my documents".
XP was on the system 1st, then Win 7 was added.
Both OS’s are bootable and show up and system startup.

I followed the procedure below and when I re-booted Win7 it showed my login background wallpaper and userids, but when I logged in to any of them, I got an empty (light-blue) background, no "start" button or task bar and a message in the bottom right corner saying it was not a genuine copy of Windows 7. I did a system restore from images.
My system is now back to where it was before I started.
What did I do wrong??



Procedure I followed (all partitioning done via bootable Partition Wizard):

1. Deleted the data partition (after saving it elsewhere)
2. Deleted the XP partition
3. Moved the win7 partition to 1st position on the drive
4. Marked the Win7 partition active
5. Tried to run system repair from my original Win7 DVD (but it said it did not match the version of the OS I was trying to repair) so I used the system restore disk I made after saving my images (glad I am paranoid enough to have made one)
6. Ran the system repair 3 times
7. No luck, so restored all 3 partitions from images.

I also had to delete the E: partition to be able to move the Win7 partition to the beginning of the drive (I saved E:'s data on aother drive first).

 

[gregglee]

Tried to run system repair from my original Win7 DVD (but it said it did not match the version of the OS I was trying to repair)

This happens if you have installed SP1 and you original does not include SP1. Repair will work if you uninstall sp1, run "repair your computer" from the original disk to rebuild boot loader, then reinstall SP1. At least it worked for me.

If you are saying you have also restored the xp partition, use bcdedit freeware to delete it.

If you are not using it, minitool partition wizard works well for partition rearrangement.
Free Partition Magic alternative. Free Partition Manager Software for Windows 7/VISTA/XP/2000 and Windows Server 2003/2008/2000.

 

[DocDJ]

Tried to run system repair from my original Win7 DVD (but it said it did not match the version of the OS I was trying to repair)

This happens if you have installed SP1 and you original does not include SP1. Repair will work if you uninstall sp1, run "repair your computer" from the original disk to rebuild boot loader, then reinstall SP1. At least it worked for me.

If you are saying you have also restored the xp partition, use bcdedit freeware to delete it.

If you are not using it, minitool partition wizard works well for partition rearrangement.
Free Partition Magic alternative. Free Partition Manager Software for Windows 7/VISTA/XP/2000 and Windows Server 2003/2008/2000.

I did use Partition Wizard (bootable), but it would not slide the Win7 Primary partition past my logical partition. Had to delete it first. Still womdering about the other problem (not genuine, etc).

 

[gregrocker]

We see the non-genuine lockout after imaging or repartitioning about once per month here. It results from drive letter slippage and is resolved using Paragon Rescue CD as follows: Paragon Rescue -change drive letters.

Since you have your data backed up, I would use Acronis free version (if you have Seagate or WD HD's involved at all), Macrium Reflect, or Paragon 11 freeware to reimage to the first partition space after deleting XP and resizing data to make enough room.

Then after marking Win7 active, I'd try the Rebuild MBR tool on PW CD Disk Tab, as it might preclude the need to boot the Win7 DVD/Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write the System Boot Files to Win7 and start it up.

If you'll post back a screenshot of your maximized full Disk Mgmt drive map with listings, we can give you the exact steps and see if there are any wild cards.

 

[DocDJ]

We see the non-genuine lockout after imaging or repartitioning about once per month here. It results from drive letter slippage and is resolved using Paragon Rescue CD as follows: Paragon Rescue -change drive letters.

Since you have your data backed up, I would use Acronis free version (if you have Seagate or WD HD's involved at all), Macrium Reflect, or Paragon 11 freeware to reimage to the first partition space after deleting XP and resizing data to make enough room.

Then after marking Win7 active, I'd try the Rebuild MBR tool on PW CD Disk Tab, as it might preclude the need to boot the Win7 DVD/Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write the System Boot Files to Win7 and start it up.

If you'll post back a screenshot of your maximized full Disk Mgmt drive map with listings, we can give you the exact steps and see if there are any wild cards.

Thanks for the valuable links and tips. I've attached my drivemap so you can see if there are any special problems. Because I am back to using my original system for accessing my work-related data, I can't apply these tips until late May or early June (I teach), when I won't be needing the system for that. I've downloaded the Rescue Kit and will get the Acronis Free too. I suppose I'll have to move my E: logical partition to another drive, so it isn't sitting between XP and 7 (or will Acronis slide 7 across it?).

 

[gregrocker]

It isn't necessary to move your middle Documents partition, just delete XP using PW CD, create a new partition in the space to the left of E, reimage C there.

Boot PW CD, mark Win7 partition Active, from Disk tab click Rebuild MBR, see if Win7 will start. If not boot the Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times until Win7 starts. Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

This might be able to be accomplished by simply copying the partition using PW CD, since there is no MBR to copy. You can leave the source partition on the HD until you make sure the copy works, as it will be inert once it's System Active flags are transferred to the copy by marking Active and Rebuilding MBR or running Repairs.

 

[gregglee]

I did use Partition Wizard (bootable), but it would not slide the Win7 Primary partition past my logical partition. Had to delete it first. Still womdering about the other problem (not genuine, etc).

I have used partition wizard, running from windows, to "slide" a system partition to the beginning of the drive. However I did it in steps rather than queue several steps at once, just be be cautious. 1. move the existing first partition contents then delete the partition. 2. Expand the system partition left (as depicted on the PW display) to the beginning of the drive. 3.(Optional) reduce the system partition from the right side to whatever size you want. I have done this both to the active system partition, and to another inactive system partition in the multiboot. (One advantage of a multiboot system is that you can (carefully) edit or manipulate partitions of another inactive system.

I concur on using acronis for cloning a system to another partition. I used the WD version. I have only used it to move from one drive to another, rather than between partitions on the same drive. Note that acronis, like many apps, installs a startup program that is not straightforward to kill. Not sure what it is for. Uninstall acronis after you are finished to get rid of it.

 

[gregrocker]

I do the same with Acronis, Gregg, although those services can be turned off in Services.msc or msconfig once Acronis is run.

With Acronis installed OP might be able to backup the image, delete XP, create Partition and apply the stored image, all from Win7 on C.

What do you think about OP copying C over to first partition using PW CD? I have done this before when the MBR isn't included and it worked fine - even lets you change the drive letter. Others think you must use imaging.

 

[gregglee]

I suppose I'll have to move my E: logical partition to another drive, so it isn't sitting between XP and 7 (or will Acronis slide 7 across it?).

I'm not sure where you want Win 7 partition to end up. The simplest approach may be to for example.
1. Use partition Wizard to shrink the freeagentdrive partition on disk 1 to leave unallocated space at the beginning of the drive. You could also use PW change S to a logical partition.
2. Use acronis to clone the Win7 system to that unallocated space which creates a new system partition.
3. Use Bios to change boot drive to disk 1. That will assign C: to the Win 7 system and may change drive letters of other drive. Immediately used windows disk management to change the drive letters to match those assigned by XP, to avoid confusion. I assign x, y or z to other systems. e.g when booted in Win7, xp is Z, when booted in xp, winz=7 is Z. All other drives same. I include the desired drive letter in the drive name to make housekeeping easy. e.g freeagentdrive s, mydocsplus e. Disk numbers may be different from XP also, but doesn't matter.
4. Rebuild bootloader with bcdedit, Win7 install disk repair or tool of your choice. (I haven't personally tried PW for this.)

The great obvious advantage of having systems on different drives is that a drive failure doesn't take out both.

 

[DocDJ]

It isn't necessary to move your middle Documents partition, just delete XP using PW CD, create a new partition in the space to the left of E, reimage C there.

Boot PW CD, mark Win7 partition Active, from Disk tab click Rebuild MBR, see if Win7 will start. If not boot the Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times until Win7 starts. Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

This might be able to be accomplished by simply copying the partition using PW CD, since there is no MBR to copy. You can leave the source partition on the HD until you make sure the copy works, as it will be inert once it's System Active flags are transferred to the copy by marking Active and Rebuilding MBR or running Repairs.

Thanks. I'll try that when I finish the semester.

 

[DocDJ]

I suppose I'll have to move my E: logical partition to another drive, so it isn't sitting between XP and 7 (or will Acronis slide 7 across it?).

I'm not sure where you want Win 7 partition to end up. The simplest approach may be to for example.
1. Use partition Wizard to shrink the freeagentdrive partition on disk 1 to leave unallocated space at the beginning of the drive. You could also use PW change S to a logical partition.
2. Use acronis to clone the Win7 system to that unallocated space which creates a new system partition.
3. Use Bios to change boot drive to disk 1. That will assign C: to the Win 7 system and may change drive letters of other drive. Immediately used windows disk management to change the drive letters to match those assigned by XP, to avoid confusion. I assign x, y or z to other systems. e.g when booted in Win7, xp is Z, when booted in xp, winz=7 is Z. All other drives same. I include the desired drive letter in the drive name to make housekeeping easy. e.g freeagentdrive s, mydocsplus e. Disk numbers may be different from XP also, but doesn't matter. change also
4. Rebuild bootloader with bcdedit, Win7 install disk repair or tool of your choice. (I haven't personally tried PW for this.)

The great obvious advantage of having systems on different drives is that a drive failure doesn't take out both.

Thanks for the good advice. My 2 systems are on one drive, because that was all I had big enough, when I built the machine. I'll take your advice into account when I retry in May/June.

 

[gregrocker]

OP wants to delete XP.

Not mentioned yet is that you could delete XP, leave Win7 in place, mark Active and Repair. We tend to want OS partitions in the lower address where reads are faster.

Let us know how it goes. We'll be here to help.

 

[DocDJ]

OP wants to delete XP.

Not mentioned yet is that you could delete XP, leave Win7 in place, mark Active and Repair. We tend to want OS partitions in the lower address where reads are faster.

Let us know how it goes. We'll be here to help.

So you're saying I could just use pw to delete the XP partition & mark W7 active, then use my restore/repair CD to fix the MBR? And LATER I could move the W7 partition or just absorb the leading space into it? OR is the 2nd step more complex than it appears because the ptn is bootable?

 

[gregrocker]

It doesn't matter where the partition is when you mark it Active and run Repairs to write the System Boot files to it.

With PW CD you don't have to worry about copying or resizing the partition as it never fails, so moving it is no issue.

The only hitch could be that in rare cases Win7 will not repair to recover it's boot files. For this reason you might want to back up a Win7 system image of both OS partitions so you can start over, or you can clean reinstall Win7 which is always a nice fresh start. Reinstalling Windows 7

 

[DocDJ]

Thanks for the PW CD info. I have a hundred applications with all their settings,so I REALLY don't want to re-install. But just in case, that's why I moved "my documents" off the boot drive. And I will DEFINITELY create image backups before i jump into this again.

I'll keep you posted when I get into it.

 

[DocDJ]

It isn't necessary to move your middle Documents partition, just delete XP using PW CD, create a new partition in the space to the left of E, reimage C there.

Boot PW CD, mark Win7 partition Active, from Disk tab click Rebuild MBR, see if Win7 will start. If not boot the Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times until Win7 starts. Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

This might be able to be accomplished by simply copying the partition using PW CD, since there is no MBR to copy. You can leave the source partition on the HD until you make sure the copy works, as it will be inert once it's System Active flags are transferred to the copy by marking Active and Rebuilding MBR or running Repairs.

Thanks. I'll try that when I finish the semester.

I finally got time to get rid of the old XP partition. I first created a system image (C, (win7), D (XP) and E (my docs). Then I deleted the old XP, marked C as "active" and booted the system repair CD. It recognized there was a problem (the C drive did not show up as a system) and offered to repair it. I said "yes". Then I tried to re-boot C:, but no go. So booted the CD again (this time the C: drive showed up in the repair window), got to the command prompt and issued the usual 4 repair commands. System rebooted perfectly.
Made a NEW system image (and a new system repair CD - DID I HAVE TO MAKE A NEW CD???) and copied the E: ptn to a different drive and swapped drive letters. This allowed me to have all my folders keep their correct dates, which XCOPY would not do. Re-booted and now E: shows up on new drive(hooray).

Last step will be to Slide the C: drive to the beginning of the physical drive (leaving a 200MB space for a possible future bootmgr ptn), using PW and increase it's size.

 

[gregrocker]

Those line commands are automated in Win7 Startup Repair which will do the job if run up to 3 separate times. There may be other issues it needs to address as well.

Be prepared with DVD/Repair CD in rare cases to do it again when you slide C to the left or otherwise resize/move on the boot sector. Partition Wizard Move/Resize Partition Video Help.

 

[DocDJ]

I was just surprised to see the message, since many postings on this topic just say to go to the command prompt.
Do you know if I need to build a new repair CD after EVERY time I save an image? Or will one repair CD work for any future saves?

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, the Repair CD is fine as long as it is made after the latest SP, as with the installer.

 

[DocDJ]

Thanks. That will save a lot of CD's and time.