Vista - Removing XP from Dual Boot with Vista Ultimate

I added Vista to my Xp system on a different partition. Here's what
is shows now

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {current}
Boot Drive: C:
Windows Drive: C:
System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Microsoft Windows XP Pro
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Boot Drive: D:
System Bootloader: \ntldr

The D partition shows as System, Active, Primary Partition
The C partition shows as Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Logical Drive

I want to remove XP from the Dual Boot and drive and have only Vista.
Any help would be appreciated.

Hello ucrazy51,

You can use Method Two (step 7) in Vista to remove XP from the OS boot list.

Boot Partition - Default


If you would like to have one large drive again instead of two partitions, then this tutorial will show you how to delete the XP partition and extend C: back into it for the one large drive again.

Disk Management - Delete and Extend

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi,

If you want to keep both partitions but get rid of XP , remove XP from the OS boot list as above, then in Vista's disk management, right click your D partition and format it.

SIW2

On Sep 1, 4:01*pm, SIW2 <gu...@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote:Looking at the instructions it won't let me delete the D partition.
"You also cannot delete the system partition, boot partition, or any
partition that contains the virtual memory paging file, because Vista
needs this information to start correctly. You will have to use the
Vista installation disk to delete it." Now what.....

Hi,

Ah, you had Xp first so Vista has placed BOOTSECT.BAK. on what is now D: but was originally C:

Does disk management show the C partition on the right of the D partition ?

( confusingly, system means the boot files, and boot means the o/s ).

One way to remove XP and end up with just Vista is to install Vista on what is now called D but is actually on the outer part of the HDD ( you need to format both partitions during install ).

Then what is now called the D partition will revert to being called C and vice versa


Clear I hope ?

SIW2

Hi, ucrazy51.

I don't know what's going on. My Sent Items says I've already sent this
twice, on 9/1/08 at 2 pm CDT and again today, 9/2/08 at 3:26 pm, but neither
is showing up in the newsgroup. So this time I'm using Reply to All, so you
should see two copies, one in the newsgroup and the other via email. Sorry
for the duplication. RCW


Hi, ucrazy51.
Is this in Disk Management when WinXP is running? Or when Vista is running?
The two OSes may NOT agree on which drive letter applies to which partition!
That's why it's a good idea to always give each volume (partition) a label
(a name), which will be written to the disk and will be the same, no matter
which OS is running. My guess is that your D: is the first partition on the
first (only?) hard drive, and that your C: is the second partition on that
drive. WinXP is installed into that first partition and Vista into the
second partition. In a change from prior practice, Vista always assigns C:
to its own Boot volume; WinXP and prior assigned that letter to the System
volume. Often, the System volume is also the Boot volume, but not always,
as in your case.

Contrary to what most of us expect, the meanings of "system volume" and
"boot volume" are backwards. We BOOT from the SYSTEM volume and keep the
operating SYSTEM files in the BOOT volume. For details, see:
Definitions for system volume and boot volume
http://support.microsoft.com/default.../314470/EN-US/

So, the lines I quoted above mean that D: is the partition that actually
boots the computer; the one that was designated in the BIOS as the boot
device when the computer was started for the current session. And C:, the
Boot volume, is the one that holds the \Windows folder for whichever OS is
currently running. (The boot volume for the other OS is "just another
volume" so far as the current OS is concerned.)

Removing WinXP involves two parts, which can be done in either order. You
must remove the lines in the start-up files that start WinXP. And, to keep
from wasting tons of hard-disk space, you also want to delete the gigabytes
of space used by WinXP's files, probably in your Vista's folder D:\Windows.

You can make the start-up file corrections using Vista's built-in
BCDEdit.exe. Many users find that program inscrutable, so you might prefer
a third-party app, such as VistaBootPro ( http://www.vistabootpro.org/ ).
Then you can recoup a little more disk space (probably less than 1 MB) by
deleting WinXP's startup files (D:\NTLDR, D:\NTDETECT.COM and D:\Boot.ini)
from the system volume.

When you are running Vista, you should be able to delete WinXP's \Windows
folder, just like deleting any other folder. (You can't delete the \Windows
folder for whichever system is currently running, of course; that's like
trying to saw off the limb you are sitting on, and even MS-DOS wouldn't let
us do that.)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

<ucrazy51@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:88a19275-f05a-4d21-bc17-74360d49cd39@xxxxxx

Hi R.C,

Your explanation of which is the first and second partition, and the meaning of system and boot volume is probably more comprehensible than mine.


Well maybe it's just me, but I would rather boot from the Vista dvd, format both partitions and install Vista on the first partition. Then the system volume and the boot volume will both be on the first partition, and XP will be gone.


SIW2

On Sep 2, 3:45*pm, "R. C. White" <r...@xxxxxx> wrote:Thanks R C, for the detailed explanation of what I've got. The C
drive shows the above partitions when I'm running Vista. The XP shows
on the D drive. I've got Vista Boot Pro but was not certain about the
correct procedure to follow. I believe you've cleared it up for me.
Thanks again.

Hi, ucrazy51.

Well, I'm glad my post finally got to the NG. I still don't know why the
first try didn't work - or the second.

And I'm glad if it helped solve your dilemma. Thanks for the feedback. ;<)

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

<ucrazy51@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:3294e0bf-7ca2-49a3-8f4f-ed9c5598ae54@xxxxxx