Hope someone here can point me in the right direction. I currently have a dual boot machine. Win7 and Vista. I bought the machine with Vista and shortly after 7 came out. So I installed 7 and never looked back at Vista. I want to delete the Vista partition so I can regain space on the drive but it wont let me. It's an active primary partition. Even though I am logged into 7 it says that I can't delete a primary partition.
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I made a dual boot system about a month and a half ago and I now no longer have need of Windows XP. Windows 7 is my primary OS, so how do I go about removing the XP partition?
View 6 Replies View RelatedI'm a long-time reader but new poster. I am currently running Windows 7. I want to install Windows XP onto another disc and have a dual-boot setup. I keep Windows 7 up to date and secure, but for the XP partition, I would rather not have antivirus running or even installed, in order to limit background processes. I will not be logging into any place or making any credit card purchases when booted into Windows XP. It will just be used for surfing, games, etc. Further, if and when XP becomes compromised or buggy, I will simply overwrite the partition with a backup image.
If I use Bitlocker to lock down the Windows 7 partition (with the encryption key on a thumb drive) and boot into Windows XP, am I correct in thinking the XP installation see or can't access the Windows 7 partition? If XP gets compromised, can a virus access or write to the Windows 7 partition?
Is there any other reason why this would not be secure? Can a virus write to the BIOS?
A few months ago, I set up my computer to dual boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04. It worked fine. Now I rarely use Ubuntu, and I would like to remove it. I would like to know all of the steps I would need to go through to do this. I have a large partition for winows 7, its recovery partition, then i have one partition for Ubuntu.
View 5 Replies View Relatedmy problem is that now i have two operating systems:
1)XP Sp2
2)Linux Fedora
now my boot loader is GRUB and with that i select which of them start,the default is windows Xp, now i want to delete linux and just have windows xp and then install windows 7.
so i think i shoud first change bootloader and then install windows7,but i don't know how to do this this.can u plz help me?
another thing where can i see windows7 requirements,and the file system for installing it shoud be NTFS is it right?
at least how many GBs shoud i have for installing it?
i have windows 7 rc1 32bit dual booted with windows vista home premium 32bit. I want to remove windows 7 safely without the chance of breaking my vista. Can someone please tell me what the best way is?
View 1 Replies View RelatedAll I have a dual boot Win 7 and XP, I want to remove the XP as I no longer use it. Both are active and on seperate discs, can I just format the disc? I have used easy BCD to edit the boot menu so only Windows 7 default yes.
View 4 Replies View RelatedI have windows 7 and Vista installed, both ultimate and 64bit.
they are install on 2 seperate physical drives.
Vista was installed first about a year or so ago. i added a new drive and put windows 7 on it. i would like to remove the vista all together as i am happy with windows 7.
in disk manager when i look at both the drives they are showing up and both being active and primary. but the Windows 7 is showing as the boot drive. i am not able to format the vista drive. the only options that are not greyed out are change drive letter and shrink volume.
I have been doing some research and i have tried this option
bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force
i have done it remotely and if it worked it should have rebooted the system and i should be able to remote to the system. i am unable to reach it now until i get home.
my question is why am i unable to format the vista drive in Windows 7 and have i just screwed up my bootloader?
I recently did an install of Windows 7 (a clean install) and accidenlty selected to dual boot somehow (I chose to install 7 on the D drive instead of C, where Vista is installed)
I do not want Vista anymore. How can fix this?
I have 2 hard drives with XP installed on 1 and then i installed windows 7 on the other. On bootup i get the option to select the operating systems.
Now i want to only have windows 7 and remove XP completely so that i can format the hard drive with xp on and use as backup.
The problem is that when i switch boot sequence to boot off the win 7 hdd first, i get BOOTMGR is missing. I have tried the startup repair from the win 7 cd but it also fails with an error saying Missing boot manager.
If i switch back to use XP hdd as 1st boot device, i get the OS options screen again and can boot into both without issue.
Does anyone have any idea of how i can get rid of XP and boot with only windows 7 as first boot device?
i had install windows 7 32bit on XP and now i am using Dual Boot OS i want to know how can Remove XP from Dual Boot with 7
View 3 Replies View RelatedI have two questions:
I am running Windows 7 dualbooted with WinXP, everything works fine. I want to get rid of the XP partition, and keep the Windows 7 one only, but there is a problem. THe partition on which XP is installed is set as system and active. I've googled around but I've found no easy solutions to this. Any ideas on how to do this without reinstalling the OS?
My second question would be about the Windows 7 update: I installed the 7100 build, when it got released, but as I saw now, the latest builds are like 7200+. Are the changes updated on my build somehow, or I would have to reinstall to have the new build?
I have recently "tried" a Linux .ISO CD and took the wrong option and partially installed ubuntu as a dual boot option. Since that time I have discovered Oracle VirtualBox and much prefer this route to look at and experiment with linux. However I have a legacy of my untutored fiddling in the form of a splash screen at power up [straight after POST] of a dual boot option - Windows 7 or ubuntu p which I dont want. Its an annoyance rather than a catastrophy but I am at a loss as what/how to 'edit' this startup file to remove the dual bootup option. I have tried FIXMBR from the repair option but the dual selection option remains.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI am dual booting Vista and Windows7 RC 7100. They are both on the same Hard Drive on different partitions. I have made the decision to stick with the new OS (Windows7) and give Vista the boot. So I want to get rid of the extra partition and revert to a single OS (Windows7).
I don't want to reformat the whole hard drive and completely re-install the windows7 operating system. I want to remove Vista from the dual boot menu and keep windows7. Then I want to format the Vista Partition. How can I do this and keep my present installation of Windows7 without having to reinstall Windows7?
1st. Installed XP on IDE drive, 2nd. installed a Sata drive, installed Windows 7 on that drive, want to remove the IDE drive, is it as simple as disconnecting the XP drive and do a startup repair, or is there going to be an issue with the XP drive being the Active drive, will startup repair make the Sata drive the Active drive?
View 3 Replies View RelatedThis tutorial describes how to install Windows XP and Windows 7 on the same partition (first tutorial for one partition written).The short concept: Install XP twice and have 7 replace the first installation.Need more testers to confirm it works for everyone and the instructions are clear enough.Requirements: Both Installation discsA Windows XP LiveCD (might work with other OS, but no guarantees)EasyBCD.Install Windows XP normally if you're not already running it.Don't bother installing any drivers or software on it.Start another installation of Windows XP. Choose the same hard drive and leave it unchanged without formatting. When it asks you what to do then choose to install in a different directory "C:Windows.xp".Finish installing that one and only the necessary drivers.afterwards.Install Windows 7 on C: over the regular C:windows. A warning will tell you that it will move the old files to "Windows.old" directory. The good thing is it doesn't touch the Windows.xp directory.Install and run EasyBCD. Go to "Add/Remove Entries" and add an entry of "Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3" type and a name of your choice. (as shown in the attached image)Don't forget the "Save" button.You may also want to adjust the loader timeout from "Change Settings".In C: you will find a (hidden) file "boot.saved". Open it, remove the entry to the "WINDOWS" directory and make the "WINDOWS.XP" your default one (if it's not) and save as boot.ini".Restart and boot from the Windows XP LiveCD (which you should have burned and tested on CD or DVD before starting).Open the Command Prompt (Run "cmd") and enter the following lines in order
[code]...
I installed Win7 on the same Partition as WinXP. I was in a hurry and forgot totally to partition the HD before I installed, was doing 100 things on the side during the Installation, and noticed my mistake only after the install was complete. Is there any way I can do a Multi boot for those two OS now? The WinXP folder has been renamed to Windows.old, and even with EasyBCD there's no way I can get the Comp to boot into WinXP.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI built this machine using a caviar green HD and loaded Windows 7 64. It seemed pretty slow, so soon after I added a 128GB SSD and loaded Win 7 64. On start up I got the dual boot option and would just select the SSD as the main OS drive.I got tired of the dual boot option and foolishly formatted the OS partition on the Caviar.I has assumed with on OS on the caviar it would default to the SSD. Dumb me.I can rectify this with out reloading Win on the SSD. I finally got all my applications set up right.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI have a dual-boot of Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit on separate partitions. I want to replace the Windows 7 32-bit partition with Windows XP and keep the Windows 7 64-bit partition. What's the easiest way to do this?
View 4 Replies View RelatedIn a dual boot system with 2 hard drives, one for Vista and one for Win 7, do both OS partitions need to be "Active & Boot & System"?
View 7 Replies View RelatedI'm currently running Windows 7 and I'm trying to partition my hard drive so I can dual boot Mac os x Leopard. I have 133 GB free on my 230 GB internal hard drive, but when I partition the drive the computer will only let me open about 5 GB of space. I have defragged the drive and nothing changed.
I am new to dual booting and I am really only doing this as an experiment. If anyone can give me any advice as to how I can partition more space or how much is needed I would be very grateful.
I installed DOS into 2GB FAT 16, then installed Windows 7 Ultimate expecting Windows 7 to install itself in a partition with a drive letter other than C (just as XP had done in a previous dual-boot setting with DOS) But no, Windows 7 has hijacked the C drive letter for itself. How can I stop Windows 7 from "stealing" from DOS, the drive letter C, for itself?
View 5 Replies View RelatedI've just installed Windows 7 64-bit on my desktop PC as it worked so well for the past month on my laptop I shrunk my Vista 64 partition and installed Win 7 x64 build 7000 on the new partition. All went smooth and well!
As I wanted to transfer some files and settings from my Vista install to my new Windows 7 I assigned a drive letter to my hidden Vista drive in the "Disk Management" utility and went on with my business. Now, as I'm done I'd like to hide my Vista partition again but I can't get it to work
When I select my Vista partition and select the "Change Drive Letter and Paths" and then press the "Remove" button I get the following error box:
"Windows cannot remove the drive letter of your volume. This may happen if your volume is a system or boot volume, or has page files."
My Vista volume is the first volume of the physical drive, the boot files is there but I don't have any page file on it. How come this drive could be hidden and revealed in the first place but not hidden again?
See the video tutorial on how to Remove Windows 7 From Dual Boot With The Bootsect Command.
View 0 Replies View RelatedI would like to make my PC dual-boot with Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit version & Linux Ubuntu. I know about Wubi to install Ubuntu within Windows, But would like more space than the 30gb limit that Wubi uses. How do I create an partition with Windows that can be used for a dual-boot. doctorwhovian11-24144041650249291689021989539000 has chosen the best answer to his/her question. Click here to view the answer that was selected.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI'm wanting to install Windows 7 as a dual boot alongside my existing XP set up and have been trying to follow the excellent guide at Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP
But I'm stuck at resizing the existing partition as described at Partition or Volume - Shrink
I get as far as the command prompt and selecting the drive, but as soon as I type "shrink querymax" or "shrink desired=15360" or even just "shrink" I get the message
"Diskpart has encountered an error: This service cannot be started in safe mode"
Now I can't see any way of getting a command prompt WITHOUT starting in safe mode.
Can i format the primary partition in a dual booted system that is xp and windows 7 where xp is the primary partiyion. And would the other os still work
View 1 Replies View RelatedI have read that using a computer specifically for financial transactions with known and trusted entities (such as a bank) is a good way to reduce (though not eliminate) the risk of your accounts being hacked by reducing the likelihood of inadvertently installing a malware, spyware, or virus by reducing internet sites visited. Assuming this is correct, I was wondering about dual booting one computer with two physical hard drives (each with its own OS) versus one hard drive with two partitions. I figure the former would be "more secure" since one drive would be isolated from any unwanted programs. However, since they shared a few things (motherboard and such), is this set up as "secure" as having two computers? If so, how does one go about setting up a dual boot with two separate hard drives of the same operating system using one computer?
View 5 Replies View RelatedI am having a problem that seems more like a Win XP problem, but since its part of my migration to Windows 7 and many people these days may be trying the same.
As I said, I am in the progress of migrating to Windows 7. As a transient solution until I have transferred and re-installed everything under Windows 7 I want to have a dual boot capability, i.e. I bought me a larger HD, created two partitions on it, installed Windows 7 on the first partition, and then I used a disk-imager (Acronis Disk Director) to copy my entire old XP disk 1:1 to the second partition of the new HD. I then set things up so I can choose between the two partitions using the Windows 7 boot manager. After some fiddling the choosing and booting in principle works fine.
BUT, when I try to start WinXP, I have the very strange effect, that the system at first boots and starts WinXP up fine up to the point where it presents the login screen. When I then enter my name and password my credentials at first seem to be accepted, i.e. I get a "Loading your settings..." dialog but to my dismay only seconds later that dialog always turns into "Logging off..." (???!@#@$&!) at which point the system hangs for some long period. If I wait long enough (~5 minutes) it eventually returns to the login screen again. I also tried to login as Administator but that failed as well (the error message mumbled something about no domain server to verify my id which is complete nonsense, since my XP system was never part of any domain, so there is no server in the world that could verify anything here!).
Any idea what could cause this and why can't I not log into that copied/moved 1:1 Window XP installation? Any hints/suggestions/pointers would be highly welcome!
I have a small query about this whole partitioning business. I'm trying to set up a partition so I can dual-boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu.
My computer came with a Dell Recovery partition and an OEM partition as well as the main C: drive, which are all primaries. I've created a new logical drive, which I've called Z:, with the idea being to install the Linux OS in that chunk of the drive.
My first question: First up, I've formatted it as "exFAT" - is this the same as FAT32?
Next question: can I divide this 'Z' into smaller chunks with different formats, or do they all have to be the same format? I was hoping to be able to format a small bit of the drive into a Linux file-system so that both OSs can be kept entirely separate from each other, but leave the bulk of it as FAT so that I can see my files with both OSs. If this is not possible, what would be the best way to achieve the desired result?
My boot drive is a 120Gb Samsung spinpoint, previously one whole partition containing XP. This XP wasnt a clean install, it was an upgrade to Windows 98 I think, and this may be the problem. I have a number of other hard disks, 1 PATA and 2 SATA, which I am using for video editing stuff.
I downloaded GParted, shrunk the XP partition to 76Gb and created a new 35Gb partition for Windows 7. A bit small, but I figured once everything was tested out, I could grow out the Windows 7 partition.
This was successful, and I inserted the Windows 7 disk...selected custom install, and installed to my newly created partition.
Windows 7 did its reboots and I filled in the usual bunff to create basic accounts, etc.
Then I rebooted, and was a bit surprised I did not get the dual-boot menu, it went straight into Windows 7. Using F5 and F8 did not provide any further options, specifically the 'Previous version of Windows' one.
Going into Windows 7 Disk manager, i could see the partition was still there. I read other posts of what Windows 7 does (belately) and yes, it had 'hidden' the XP partition. I gave it a drive letter (D, but Windows 7 saw it as an empty disk!
I downloaded EasyBCD, and it showed only one entry in the bootloader. I tried to add a new entry, using type:"Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3", but the Drive was greyed out; if I selected "Vista/Longhorn" I could then change the drive to D: and then change type back to XP (odd). I then clicked 'Add Entry', but it came back with an error message "EasyBCD could not locate a copy of NTLDR on your hard drive. Please download a copy of NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM from Htpp://(blah blah) and copy them to the drive D: in order for your newly-created entry to work.".
Does this mean my XP partition is truly trashed? Is there a way to get back my XP partition?
I am thinking of maybe inserting the XP disk and repairing, maybe it will detect XP and fix it, but if it will blow away both my installations, I might not bother.
Last resort is to use File Scavenger on the dead partition, but when I checked it out in GParted again just now, it said that 3Gb out of the 76Gb had data, could it be that Windows 7 has just not recognised my original XP partition as an XP partition, thought it was its configuration partition, and just overwrote stuff?
