How-To Geek Forums / Windows Vista
Removing Xp on a dual boot config...
(26 posts)
This should work:
1. Move any data you want to keep from the Windows XP partition to the Windows Vista partition or external drive.
2. Go to VistaBootPro->Manage OS Entries tab->Select "Windows XP" and click the red x button to remove the boot menu entry. Then click Apply changes and close VistaBootPro.
3. Open Disk Management, right click on the Windows XP partition and click delete. Right click on the Windows Vista partition and click expand.
Notes:
1. This cannot be undone and all data on the Windows XP partition will be lost, make sure in step 1 to get all data you want to save like Documents, Certificates if you have Encrypted Files, Licenses for things like purchased Music Files, etc.
2. If those steps aren't detailed enough I can be more specific about how to do it.
I decided this was a good thing to write an article on so I just wrote one about this.
It's at http://www.techoddity.com/howt.....ows-vista/
ok...I followed the steps...when I get to Disk Management, and delete the XP partition, it gives me a confirm dialogue, which I confirm, then it tells me the partition is in use and I have to force the deletion. When I click on ok, for this action, it tells me: it cannot perform the requested action on volumes containing system partition, boot partition, and pagefile. What am I doing wrong here?
it says Healthy (Boot, Pagefile, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
I said this at the beginning of the post, but just to be clear, I had XP installed first. Could this have something to do with the problem?
also, the first time I went to Disk Management, it showed the XP partition as the "Active" partition,which I had to set Vista as the Active to get as far as I did. But, yes, I am in Vista while doing this. In fact I haven't booted into XP since setting up the dual boot.
Ok. I missed that part. Yes that probably is the problem.
The boot loader must have been installed to the Windows XP partition and can't be removed with Disk Management because of it.
If you have a Windows Vista install/repair disc you can delete the partition and install the boot loader on the Windows Vista partition.
Do you have a Windows Vista disc? If so I can list instructions on using it to do that.
yes I do. I have a disc for 32-bit Vista and one for 64-bit. Does it matter which I use? ( I have 64-bit installed) I really appreciate your help! I am leaving my house for a little while, so I won't be able to reply promptly, but as soon as I get back, or first thing in the a.m. I will try whatever you tell me. I will prob have more questions, so check back if you can. thanks again for your help!
You use the one that matches what you have installed. The 64-bit one in this case.
I just remembered that due to the Windows Vista partition being second you will need to use gparted to delete and move the partition or you will be left will an unallocated space the same size of the Windows XP partition you can't use. You will need to also repair the Windows Vista install after but it's easy to do with the Windows Vista disc.
Here is how:
1. Download and burn a disc with the gparted livecd.
If you don't know how to burn an ISO file I can list instructions for doing that.
2. Boot from it.
3. Right click on the Windows XP partition and click delete.
4. Follow the steps at http://www.howtogeek.com/howto.....partition/ to resize your Windows Vista partition to use the whole drive and repair the Windows Vista install when that causes it to not boot.
Note: While these steps have worked for many people before you should still backup any important files first just in case something goes wrong.
ok. Do I still need to use VistaBootPRo to delete the XP bootloader first, as I did in the original instructions? (Since it didn't work for me, I restored the Bootloader, so I would be starting at the beginning again) Or do I just use Gparted to delete the partition, then resize/move the Vista partition, then use the Vista Disc to repair, without going into VistaBootPro first?
Ok...I went about this a little differently, out of necessity!...Before I had a chance to do what you suggested, I rebooted my computer. Right after POST, I got a message saying something like Boot MGR could not be found. This was probably due to me deleting the XP entry in VistaBootPro and then restoring it. Anyway, Since I couldn't get into Windows, I put the Vista disc in, and selected repair, and indeed it brought me to the choice to select Vista or XP...I selected XP to see if it still worked, and it just restarted the computer...entering Vista was fine. So I went to Disk Management and now it showed the XP partition as just a primary partition..the system files, etc are now listed under the Vista drive. So I went back into VistaBootPro and once again deleted the XP entry, and then went into Disk Management and this time I was able to delete the XP partition. So now I have the Vista partiton and an unallocated partition...BUT I don't have the option to extend the Vista partition in Disk Management...Do I use G-Parted to extend the volume? are the steps the same as you suggested before?
I booted from the g-parted cd, and it went through alot of DOS type writing before finally giving me a FATAL SERVER ERROR and then sat there with a blinking prompt...I was unsure what to do, so i restarted the computer and received the error upon restart saying I needed to reinsert my Windows disc and select repair, which i did, and now its fine, I'm back in Vista, but I still have 131gb of unallocated space......any ideas?
im just new here, im searching for anything that can provide me additional info about my vista pc, but sometimes its soo "techie", I want something that could provide me low level user instructions...
I heared that [MOD-REMOVED]
but on this forum I was also able to get a lot of useful info..nice forum guys.....keep on posting!!!!!
My Vista partition is listed as second, with my unallocated space first...I think this is why I can't extend the Vista partition, because as i understand, you can't extend to the left, only the right. So I guess I need to move the Vista partition to the left first and then I'll be able to extend it out....so how do i move it? anyone have any idea what went wrong with my G-parted Live Cd? anyone?...........
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