How do you remove a dual boot (Vista/Windows 7)

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Satch

1985 posts

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#31363 14-Mar-2009 16:21

Hi guys,

I've got both Vista Home Premium and Windows 7 beta 7000 on my HTPC. I'd like to remove the Vista installation safely, but don't know how to do so. Vista is installed on it's own HDD.

I've found so many answers via Goggle, but they all differ and are centered around XP.

Can anyone give me some help please?

Cheers,
Satch.

Dratsab

3946 posts

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#201223 14-Mar-2009 17:57

Satch: Hi guys,

I've got both Vista Home Premium and Windows 7 beta 7000 on my HTPC. I'd like to remove the Vista installation safely, but don't know how to do so. Vista is installed on it's own HDD.

I just went the other way round after having some major problems with W7. Like you, my installations were on different HDD's, but this could apply to seperate partitions just as easily.

First I moved everything I wanted to keep from the W7 HDD. Then I used EasyBCD to edit the bootloader, making Vista the default O/S and removing the W7 entry.

From there it was simply a matter of formatting the W7 HDD to clean off all the files, including the protected ones. I used the quick format option and it worked a treat.

Satch

1985 posts

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#201233 14-Mar-2009 20:32

Hey thanks for the advice. EasyBCD allowed me to edit the bootloader, but I am still unable to format my Vista drive. This was the first OS on my HTPC, so I'm guessing that's where all the boot files are etc. I think I'll have to move them too somehow.

Athlonite

1828 posts

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#202045 18-Mar-2009 22:29

hmmm two drives one primary and the other secondary looks like your vista install is on the primary hdd and this is where win7 would have placed its bootloader files and because windows wont allow you to format the partition that holds the boot files so your only (easiest) hope is to re-install win7 on the primary Hdd then format the secondary disk thats how i'd do it

Satch

1985 posts

Uber Geek

#202146 19-Mar-2009 12:29

Yes, Windows 7 did place its bootloader files on my Vista partition.

I got around it by using EasyBCD to 1) change the bootloader to make Windows 7 the default, and 2) move the bootloader files to my Windows 7 partition.

From there I was able to format the old Vista partition and all is well since.

Athlonite

1828 posts

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Inactive user

#202434 20-Mar-2009 21:14

thats great news satch it's similar story to when you install windows on a raid array it'll try and stuf its bootloader files on any other disk that isn't in a raid type array very annoying so i just unplug the power to all drives i dont want to use and then plug them back in after the install