Remove indows 8 but keep EasyBCD - is it possible

jmans25

jmans25

Member
Ok, so I decided to try out windows 8. Its ok, but the beta is glichy (expected) and M$ assumes that every user 's computer is a tablet. The constant switching from tablet UI to desktop UI is not the best, anyways, that's not the point of this thread :wink:

So I want to remove win8 and still keep my other OSes (XP, Ubuntu 10.10, Mac OS X), but still use the EasyBCD program to manage my bootloader. It has a nice UI and works from within windows, the OS I use the most. The thing is, I know for a fact that XP does not use BCD.

In Summary: Will removing Windows 8 also remove the (nice) EasyBCD menu or am I able to still use it from XP after the uninstalliation of Win8?!

PS: I'm on a custom build PC. I'm NOT on an actual Mac! Just saying...
 
From W8 Disk Management check the flags
Disk Management flags have the following meanings

"boot" = "this is the system you're running"
"system" = "this is where I found the boot files for the currently running system"
"active" (on the first HDD in the BIOS boot sequence) = "this is where I started the search for the boot files"
"active" (on subsequent HDDs in the BIOS boot sequence) ="this is where I will look if I don't find something in the MBR on the first HDD"

If W8 put its boot files on the XP partition (XP marked "system") then you can format the W8 partition and its bootmgr will continue to operate from where it is.
If W8 put its boot files on a separate small partition, you can keep that and format the OS.
If you want to get rid of everything that was W8, and that includes what is now "system", you can use EasyBCD > BCD Backup/Repair > Change boot drive while W8 still exists (point it at XP)
Changing the Boot Partition - EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
and once XP is "system" and booting successfully, you can remove W8.
 
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