Removing Dual Boot Vista 64

[dread74]

Hi,

I have a dual boot setup on 2 physical disks. the first install was Vista 64 bit and then i added Windows 7 ultimate 64. I would like to remove the Vista 64 so i am just using W7

I have tried to find info on the best way to do this but it all mostly talks about XP.

i know that my bootloader is stored on the vista drive. i know it is in boot\bcd
i don't know where i should copy this file too on the w7 drive. when i installed W7 i didn't use the option to have the 200mb drive created.

Can anyone please tell me the steps required please.

thanks in advance

 

[Arc]

Hi,

I have a dual boot setup on 2 physical disks. the first install was Vista 64 bit and then i added Windows 7 ultimate 64. I would like to remove the Vista 64 so i am just using W7

I have tried to find info on the best way to do this but it all mostly talks about XP.

i know that my bootloader is stored on the vista drive. i know it is in boot\bcd
i don't know where i should copy this file too on the w7 drive. when i installed W7 i didn't use the option to have the 200mb drive created.

Can anyone please tell me the steps required please.

thanks in advance

It would be the best that you post a screenshot of your disk management to understand the situation correctly ( http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-how-post-screenshot-seven-forums.html ).

Roughly it can be said that as you installed vista earlied, it is the primary and system active partition. For the pourpous of recovery you must need the Free Download Partition Wizard . At first, download it and burn in a cd. Without this tool , the process will be very hard.

In if you upload the disk management window, it would be easier to understand the entire situation.

 

[Saltgrass]

You can put the boot files on the Win 7 install using the bcdboot command. You can then make the Win 7 partition active and boot to it if the Vista drive is either removed or set to secondary in the bios.

Boot into Win 7 and use the drive letter of the Win 7 install. Open an administrative command window and type the following and hit return and wait for a response.

bcdboot C:\Windows /s C:

You should now see bootmgr and a boot folder in the Win 7 install, and it is a hidden system file.

Now open Disk Management and make sure the Win 7 partition is active. Then you should be able to swap drives in the bios, or disconnect the Vista one. If you have an F12 option during boot, you could use that each time.

If something goes wrong, put the Vista drive back to primary in the bios and you will be back where you started.

As Arc mentions, having a third party partitioning utility is sometimes useful in case of some type of emergency.....But alway back up....

 

[dread74]

So all i have to do is type this bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: then shut down and unplug the vista drive and it should work fine?



Disk 1 is the vista drive
Disk 2 is the W7 drive.

the only difference is the vista drive shows it as the system drive... if i run that command that should set disk 2 as the system right?

 

[SIW2]

You also need to set the HD containing 7 as first in the bios HD boot order.

 

[dread74]

ok i will give it a crack and let you know... i was hoping it was going to be this easy as i really didn't want to do the repair installs

 

[dread74]

Well i gave this a go and it worked. followed all the instructions and i am now single booting W7. thanks for your help. i was hoping it would be this easy. i have rearranged the drives so the c is now Disk 0