How do you safely remove Windows 7 Pro (32-bit) from a dual boot with Windows 8 Pro (64-bit)? I'm quite happy with Windows 8 Pro (since I've got Start8 to give me the Start button, menus, and booting directly into the desktop). There's a twist involved, though, because EasyBCD changed the Boot Manager from Windows 8 to Windows 7 as explained below under "Here is the Problem." Please forgive the length of this post, but I wanted to include what I hope is all relevant information.
The scenario:
Both are on the same hard drive (an SSD). Only the operating systems and applications are on this drive. My data is safely kept on a physically separate "D" drive (a conventional hard drive).
Windows 7 was on the SSD "C" drive initially. I added Windows 8 on a new partition and am ready to completely abandon Windows 7.
I have not been able to find information on how to safely remove the Windows 7 partition.
The advice I've come upon online suggests:
(1) Reformat the Windows 7 partition or delete the Windows 7 partition.
(2) Expand the Windows 8 partition to occupy the entire drive.
(3) Remove the Windows 7 choice from by going into System Configuration (via Administrative Tools) - then select the "Boot" tab and delete the Windows 7 choice.
But since Windows 7 was the original operating system, isn't there some concern about losing the Master Boot Record that Windows 7 had established on the drive?
To address this, I've seen advice to:
1. Install and run EasyBCD in Windows 8
2. Open the BCD Backup/Repair, and set C: as the default boot drive
3. Delete the Windows 7 partition and expand the Windows 8 partition to include the whole physical drive (using your partitioning program of choice)
Here is the problem:
After I installed EasyBCD (and didn't knowingly make any changes), my computer seems to now use the Windows 7 bootloader and I get the Windows 7 text-based interface rather than the graphic-based interface of Windows 8 (where the choice of Windows 8 or Windows 7 is made). Windows 8 is still my default OS. But from the information that EasyBCD shows me in "View Settings" (detailed Debug Mode), the Boot Manager is now the one on Drive "O" which is Windows 7. How do I change the Boot Manager back to using Windows 8 ("C" partition) -- which I presume is necessary for me to remove the Windows 7 ("O" partition) partition (and later expand the Windows 8 partition to the entire SSD drive). Please note that physically on the SSD drive, the O partition (Windows 7) is first.
Here's exactly what EasyBCD shows:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=O:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
integrityservices Enable
default {bf069147-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
resumeobject {bf069146-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
displayorder {bf069147-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
{bf069141-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 4
displaybootmenu Yes
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {bf069147-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 8
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {bf069148-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
integrityservices Enable
recoveryenabled Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {bf069146-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
nx OptIn
pae Default
bootmenupolicy Standard
sos No
debug No
useplatformclock Yes
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {bf069141-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
device partition=O:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {bf069142-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=O:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {bf069140-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
nx OptIn
pae Default
(I can't get the rest of it visible)
So I'm a bit perplexed and hope that the good experts here could steer me in the right direction with a step-by-step.
How do I change the Boot Manager to the "C" (Windows 8) partition form the "O" (Windows 7) partition -- which I assume I need to do before I delete the "O" parition?
Thanks for your insights and guidance.
The scenario:
Both are on the same hard drive (an SSD). Only the operating systems and applications are on this drive. My data is safely kept on a physically separate "D" drive (a conventional hard drive).
Windows 7 was on the SSD "C" drive initially. I added Windows 8 on a new partition and am ready to completely abandon Windows 7.
I have not been able to find information on how to safely remove the Windows 7 partition.
The advice I've come upon online suggests:
(1) Reformat the Windows 7 partition or delete the Windows 7 partition.
(2) Expand the Windows 8 partition to occupy the entire drive.
(3) Remove the Windows 7 choice from by going into System Configuration (via Administrative Tools) - then select the "Boot" tab and delete the Windows 7 choice.
But since Windows 7 was the original operating system, isn't there some concern about losing the Master Boot Record that Windows 7 had established on the drive?
To address this, I've seen advice to:
1. Install and run EasyBCD in Windows 8
2. Open the BCD Backup/Repair, and set C: as the default boot drive
3. Delete the Windows 7 partition and expand the Windows 8 partition to include the whole physical drive (using your partitioning program of choice)
Here is the problem:
After I installed EasyBCD (and didn't knowingly make any changes), my computer seems to now use the Windows 7 bootloader and I get the Windows 7 text-based interface rather than the graphic-based interface of Windows 8 (where the choice of Windows 8 or Windows 7 is made). Windows 8 is still my default OS. But from the information that EasyBCD shows me in "View Settings" (detailed Debug Mode), the Boot Manager is now the one on Drive "O" which is Windows 7. How do I change the Boot Manager back to using Windows 8 ("C" partition) -- which I presume is necessary for me to remove the Windows 7 ("O" partition) partition (and later expand the Windows 8 partition to the entire SSD drive). Please note that physically on the SSD drive, the O partition (Windows 7) is first.
Here's exactly what EasyBCD shows:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=O:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
integrityservices Enable
default {bf069147-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
resumeobject {bf069146-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
displayorder {bf069147-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
{bf069141-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 4
displaybootmenu Yes
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {bf069147-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 8
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {bf069148-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
integrityservices Enable
recoveryenabled Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {bf069146-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
nx OptIn
pae Default
bootmenupolicy Standard
sos No
debug No
useplatformclock Yes
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {bf069141-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
device partition=O:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {bf069142-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=O:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {bf069140-ea42-11df-ae4d-e2e0b5f76ab9}
nx OptIn
pae Default
(I can't get the rest of it visible)
So I'm a bit perplexed and hope that the good experts here could steer me in the right direction with a step-by-step.
How do I change the Boot Manager to the "C" (Windows 8) partition form the "O" (Windows 7) partition -- which I assume I need to do before I delete the "O" parition?
Thanks for your insights and guidance.