Removing Windows XP from a dual boot with Windows 7

[jayg999]

Hi, for many years I had Windows XP installed on the hard drive. About a year ago I created a new partition and installed Windows 7 on it. I now no longer need Windows XP and would like to reformat the partiton to free up space.

I've searched around the forums and can find similar threads but I dont know much about this kind of thing and don't know if somebody else's solution applies to me and I don't want to take the risk. The easiest and most straight forward solution would be very much appreciated. I've still got the Windows 7 installation disk. Thanks in advance for your help

 

[theog]

Warning: Make sure you backup your Data first.
You may need to copy boot files from XP partition to your Win7 partition, before deleting the XP drive.

1) Make sure you have these files on the Windows 7 partition.



2) Mark the Windows 7 partition ACTIVE,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html?ltr=P

3) Boot to DVD,& open a Command Prompt,
Boot DVD, & Press Shift+F10 (for command prompt)
or
Boot DVD, & http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/682-command-prompt-startup.html
(for command prompt)

4) Delete Win XP partition,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2668-partition-volume-delete.html?ltr=P

5) Than do a startup repair.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html?ltr=S
Note: You may need to do startup repair 3 to 4 times.

 

[Night Hawk]

Hell jayg999 Welcome to the Seven Forums!

I'll go a bit further from looking at your present partitioning scheme and advise backing everything up to another drive in order to wipe the present partitions off the XP/7 drive unless you want to continue with it split in two parts. Moving the 7 primary forward to front of the drive would be time consuming and doesn't always guaranty working results when going to expand it to fill in the vacant space where the second partition had been.

You woulc simply reformat the XP primary and simply nuke the present C primary 7 is on for a clean install on the old XP primary but run into problems expanding that to fill the drive after. The best option would be nuking both for the new single large primary to be created afterwards.

With a fresh new primary to work with you wouldn't have to worry about running into corrupted partition tables such as seen lately when the XP/7 RC saw the RC removed and the expanded XP primary failed! You would still want to see everything backed first however before making any drive changes.

 

[jayg999]

Thanks for the replies. Thanks Night Hawk, I think I'll keep the partitions how they are after reading that, it looks like the easiest thing to do and I don't fancy a clean install. I'll probably turn the XP drive into a drive for all my media stuff or something.

Thanks for the instructions theog. I don't really know much about this kind of thing so please could you tell me where to copy the boot folder and bootmgr from and to. Thanks

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello jayg999, welcome to Seven Forums.





You would need to copy them to the Windows 7 root C: have a look at the snip below and don't put them in a folder/file, just copy them as they are.

click to enlarge

​

 

[Mark Phelps]

Or ... you could install EasyBCD from the NeoSmart Technology website (get ver 2.0x, a free download), install it, and use it to transfer the boot folder and files from your XP partition to your Win7 partition.

 

[theog]

Thanks for the replies. Thanks Night Hawk, I think I'll keep the partitions how they are after reading that, it looks like the easiest thing to do and I don't fancy a clean install. I'll probably turn the XP drive into a drive for all my media stuff or something.

Thanks for the instructions theog. I don't really know much about this kind of thing so please could you tell me where to copy the boot folder and bootmgr from and to. Thanks

Hope this of help.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Thanks for the replies. Thanks Night Hawk, I think I'll keep the partitions how they are after reading that, it looks like the easiest thing to do and I don't fancy a clean install. I'll probably turn the XP drive into a drive for all my media stuff or something.

Thanks for the instructions theog. I don't really know much about this kind of thing so please could you tell me where to copy the boot folder and bootmgr from and to. Thanks

Thanks Ray, the "from" didn't resister with me I only saw the "to" part.




The Free Partition Wizard is very easy to use to resize partitions and very reliable, there's even a bootable version.

 

[jayg999]

Hi, I've removed Windows XP and have turned the unallocated space back into a partition for my media stuff. Thanks a lot to everyone who helped me. I've been wanting to do this for a while now and it's put a right smile on my face. Thanks again.

 

[theog]

Well done.

You are welcome, we are here 24/7 to help.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello again Jay, Glad you found a solution; thanks for the update.