Getting rid of the partion that holds the bootloader

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rlsx

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I had Windows XP installed (first) in a primary partition: [P1]
I created a second primary partition: [P2], and installed Windows 7-x64, from a DVD, on [P2].

Everything went smoothly: Win7 installed its Bootmgr and \BOOT on [P1], and the rest of the system on [P2].
Dual booting works fine, Win7 assigns C: to [P2].

I now want to get rid of the Windows XP partition, I tried the following:
1 - Copy Bootmgr and \BOOT to [P2]
2 - Make [P2] the active partition
3 - Boot from the Win7 DVD and "Repair"

This didn't work (too simple minded?): no boot at all (machine hangs).
I undid (2) and got the previous situation back.

Can EasyBCD help here?

TIA
 
Set p2 as active again. Reformat p1. If startup repair doesnt do it the first time it may take a few times to fix everything.
 
Reformat partition 1 and try startup repair again with partition 2 set as active. If you'd rather it be a raw partition delete the partition and recreate with the free space, not formatting it.
 
kairozamorro said:
Reformat partition 1 and try startup repair again with partition 2 set as active ...
Click to expand...
You don't see a solution preserving Partition 1 and its contents? Quite a bit of work went into its installation.
Doesn't EasyBCD provide any help here?
 
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Post a screenshot of disk management so we can see the curent state of play.
 
Here is the relevant part.
The very first partition is a hidden diagnostics partition created by the manufacturer: Dell. Thank you for your time.

partitions.jpg
 
You need to set Windows7 (C) partition to "active" instead of (X)...:wink: Just right click on (C) in Disk Management, and select "Mark partition as active".
Then run Startup Repair 2-3 times from the Win 7 DVD, and your problem will be solved. You will be able to keep your (X) partition the way it is, like you want, just it will no longer be the partition that you're booting from. So you will be able to do what you want with it.
 
rlsx said:
You don't see a solution preserving Partition 1 and its contents? Quite a bit of work went into its installation.
Click to expand...

Sorry, when you mentioned raw partition I figured you wanted one with no filesystem for one reason or another for use with Win 7. With the instructions above you should be able to perserve it, but if not you'll need to backup the data and reformat to fool Win 7's startup repair utility into fixing it properly.
 
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