Solved Uninstall Vista (Native OS), but leave Windows 7 (Secondary OS)

[cdmoomaw]

Hi, I have searched these forums all day and can't seem to find answers relevant to my particular situation, so here goes.

My current machine (HP Pavilion dv7) natively runs Windows Vista Home Premium x64. Just over a year ago, I decided to install Windows 7 Pro x64 via dual boot, as I still needed some of the programs installed on Vista. Now I have reached the point where I no longer need the Windows Vista. What I need to know is how to uninstall Windows Vista, But still be able to boot Windows 7 (I would really appreciate it if I didn't have to reinstall Windows 7). If it helps, these OSes are installed on two separate physical drives, as opposed to a single disk, partitioned. I am familiar with the registry, command line, and other power user tools.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello cdmoomaw, welcome to Seven Forums!



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 maximized snip of that.


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

 

[fireberd]

Since you have installed Win 7 on a separate drive, all you have to do is remove the dual boot option (msconfig) Boot Tab in Win 7. You can then physically remove the Vista drive or reformat it (or whatever you want to do with it). I did that on my PC, I had Vista on one hard drive, I installed Windows 7 on a new (separate) hard drive. When I wanted to remove Vista I did exactly what I've stated.

Click the start button and then enter msconfig and press the enter key. The System Configuration Panel will come up and click on the "Boot" Tab. Highlight the Vista entry and then click the Delete key.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Since you have installed Win 7 on a separate drive, all you have to do is remove the dual boot option (msconfig) Boot Tab in Win 7. You can then physically remove the Vista drive or reformat it (or whatever you want to do with it).

Click the start button and then enter msconfig and press the enter key. The System Configuration Panel will come up and click on the "Boot" Tab. Highlight the Vista entry and then click the Delete key.

This probably won't work as I'm sure the "System" boot files are on the Vista partition and will have to be recreated to the Windows 7 partition or the new Windows 7 System Reserved partition if it is present on the Windows 7 HDD.

 

[cdmoomaw]

Already had the window open. The unallocated space was previously used for linux. I will expand it later.

 

[fireberd]

What I stated worked for my system. The dual boot option was in Windows 7

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

If it's a desktop.

First in Windows 7 disk management mark the Windows 7 partition as Active, then power down the PC and disconnect the Vista HDD and connect the Windows 7 HDD to the #1 SATA port of the motherboard and set it as the second boot device in the BIOS after the CD/DVD drive.

Then run the 3 separate startup repairs outlined in the main body of this tutorial at the link below to recreate the "System" boot files to the Windows 7 partition.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times


Then this method clean all (#7) can be used to wipe the Vista HDD if needed from within Windows 7.

Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command


Then have a look at Option One in this tutorial for additional storage options.

Partition / Extended : Logical Drives

 

[cdmoomaw]

It is a notebook computer with two internal SATA bays, will this still work?

 

[cdmoomaw]

"bcdboot" was not recognized as a valid command. Any suggestions (I am now running on the Vista side of my computer.)

 

[cdmoomaw]

If I am not mistaken, I do believe that Vista still used boot.ini, and that Windows 7 is the only OS (for now) that is different.

My apologies on the other thread, I figured that it was another issue in itself.

 

[SIW2]

Nice try BFK.

The simplest way is to make sure the windows 7 drive is the first Active partition in boot order.

Then boot the 7 dvd/repair disc and run startup repair - takes up to 3 runs.

I don't usually bother trying to give people commands any more in straightforward cases.

 

[fireberd]

As I noted what I did, disconnect the Vista drive and then see if you can boot with the Windows 7 drive. And, if all is well that proves what I said that they are totally separate and other than the possible dual boot in Windows 7 (and I outlined how to get rid of that) there is nothing else you have to do. You can take the second physical hard drive, remove it or reformat it and use it for whatever.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello SIW.

So he would mark the Windows 7 partition active and set Disk 1 as the first boot device in the main BIOS and use the esc key (one-time boot menu for HP) to select to boot the CD/DVD drive and do the startup repairs.


It's a lappy and he can't disconnect a HDD without taking the thing apart.

If he did remove the Vista HDD the PC wouldn't boot at all as that's the "System" partition.

 

[cdmoomaw]

Yeah.....about that. One problem, no install disc. Anything else?

 

[SIW2]

That's exactly right BFK.

Hello SIW.

So he would mark the Windows 7 partition active and set Disk 1 as the first boot device in the main BIOS and use the esc key (one-time boot menu for HP) to select to boot the CD/DVD drive and do the startup repairs.


It's a lappy and he can't disconnect a HDD without taking the thing apart.

If he did remove the Vista HDD the PC wouldn't boot at all as that's the "System" partition.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

How did you install Windows 7 to start with.


Create this and boot that.

How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc



Thanks for your help SIW!

 

[SIW2]

I was going to link you to the Neosmart download - but you can run off your own as you can still boot into 7.

The tutorial BFK linked shows you how.

[For those who don't have a cdrom drive - there will almost certainly be an inbuilt recovery disc creator of some kind so you can create a bootable flash - assuming your 7 was preinstalled.]

 

[cdmoomaw]

I HAD an installation disc, but where it is now, I couldn't tell you.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I HAD an installation disc, but where it is now, I couldn't tell you.

Create the repair disk within Windows 7 I linked to in the previous post, that'll work.

 

[gregrocker]

In addition to marking Win7 partition Active in Disk mgmt, if you can't move Win7 HD into DISK0 slot then you'll need to mark Vista partition Inactive using Diskpart from Win7 command Line: Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Forums

Otherwise running the Win7 Startup Repairs will continue to write the System Boot Files to Vista partition since it will remain the first Active partition.

If you want to delete Vista partition at this time, you can also wipe it first using Diskpart Clean All command from Win7 DVD/Repair CD which will remove it as an issue:
Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command
Elevated Command Prompt - Windows 7 Forums