Solved XP/Vista dual boot. Install 7, kick out Vista. How to?

[Chakonari]

Well I've been reminded of what I often tell others "Read what's on the screen... all the info is there" plus I could have asked "why disconnect the Vista drive?"

Anyway, I'm now going to:

1. back up my Win 7 install (onto my data drive) from within XP with Macrium Reflect
2. format the Windows 7 drive (also from within XP)
3. repair the boot sector on the XP drive with fixmbr or should I use the Windows 7 DVD and execute "bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force"?
4. disconnect the XP drive
5. clean install Win 7

What I haven't been able to find out, is which files I can (should) delete from the XP drive, that were created by my dirty install of Win 7.

 

[TwoCables]

Well I've been reminded of what I often tell others "Read what's on the screen... all the info is there" plus I could have asked "why disconnect the Vista drive?"

Anyway, I'm now going to:

1. back up my Win 7 install (onto my data drive) from within XP with Macrium Reflect
2. format the Windows 7 drive (also from within XP)
3. repair the boot sector on the XP drive with fixmbr or should I use the Windows 7 DVD and execute "bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force"?
4. disconnect the XP drive
5. clean install Win 7

What I haven't been able to find out, is which files I can (should) delete from the XP drive, that were created by my dirty install of Win 7.

I don't know, but you don't need to format the Windows 7 drive from within XP. Just boot to the Windows 7 DVD (when you're ready to install) and make sure you do this part:

1. When you get to the part where you can select the XP drive, click "Drive options (advanced)".
2. In this order, click Delete, New, Format and then Next

After this, installation will begin.

I don't know if you need to do anything else, such as fixmbr. Wait and see because you can always do it later.

 

[Chakonari]

...When you get to the part where you can select the XP drive, click "Drive options (advanced)"....

LOL... you did it again. Are you testing me? I guess you mean the Win 7 drive (remember I'm going to remove my dirty install of Win7 and do it so I can use post boot options instead of the Windows boot menu). The XP drive will be disconnected when I install 7.

Is there any difference between formatting the drive from XP and doing it during the Win 7 install(apart from one being faster)? It's just NTFS right?

Anyhow, the question remains: Which files can I delete from the XP drive when I'm done?

 

[TwoCables]

...When you get to the part where you can select the XP drive, click "Drive options (advanced)"....

LOL... you did it again. Are you testing me? I guess you mean the Win 7 drive (remember I'm going to remove my dirty install of Win7 and do it so I can use post boot options instead of the Windows boot menu). The XP drive will be disconnected when I install 7.

I wish I could say that I was testing you, but it was just an honest mistake. lol Oh well. I guess I have a thing against XP and I don't even know it. The funny thing is, I'd rather have XP than Vista any day.

Is there any difference between formatting the drive from XP and doing it during the Win 7 install(apart from one being faster)? It's just NTFS right?

With the way I'm recommending it, you're also deleting the partition and creating a fresh one and then formatting it. I don't know if that's better than just the quick format, but I like to believe it is.

Anyhow, the question remains: Which files can I delete from the XP drive when I'm done?

I don't know if there any that you'll need to delete.

 

[Chakonari]

So instead of reinstalling Windows 7. I thougt I might as well try and repair the boot sector (with the XP drive disconnected)

So after fixing XP's MBR and some googling to understand a bit of what I need to do, I followed the following three tutorials (thanks to gregrocker's hint regarding clean install):

1. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html (Method 2)
2. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html
3. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/104341-bootmgr-missing-fix.html

I can boot XP and 7 through the post boot options without issues.

I was still willing to perform a fresh install from scratch but figured I might as well give it a go.

Now I just need to figure out why Thunderbird won't connect to servers (started a thread but it's been days and lot's of views but no solution). Anyhow, the disk/boot issue is resolved.

THANKS GUYS!

 

[gregrocker]

The correct method as developed here during beta is to Mark Active the Win7 or it's 100mb System Reserved partition (preferred if you have it), then run Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times.

To only run the dated XP-era bootrec/bootsect commands (which are automated in Startup Repair) misses out on multiple other tests and fixes which are automated in Startup Repair. For example, you will not now have the Repair console link restored to F8 Advanced Boot Options.

This reason alone disqualifies the other methods as Best Practices. We shouldn't be advising repairs that deliberately leave out an important OS function like WinRe.

 

[Chakonari]

Here's my F8 boot menu:

If I select the first option (Repair Your Computer), the system boots to the System Recovery Options window (Startup Repair, System Restore...)

If this shouldn't be the case, perhaps it's explained by the fact that I ran Startup Repair 3 times(before having read the guide here). Even though no OS was listed in the window where you are supposed to select the installation to be repaired, Startup repair did find issues and fixed them (I didn't make a note of them though).

I continued doing it without an OS listed, because I thought this would be one of the issues Start.Rep. would fix, as the install was correctly identified in the details of the repair shown at the end.

It was only after this, that I read that the disk needs to be active :bangheadit's hot here and it's been a while since I messed around with boot menus and records).

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, good job. Startup Repair restores the hot link to WinRe on F8 in one of the later stages, as it runs myriad tests trying to find, fix, and then write fresh the boot files to their new home. Then it tests all parameters again and finds anything else needed to fix. This is why its best to run it 3 times.