Dual Boot, how would one remove one of the operating systems? 1

If you wanted to get rid of XP:

You would have to use bcdedit.exe from the command line in Win 7, to delete the "Legacy" line of the boot file, and then delete everything related to Windows XP from the hard drive.

If you wanted to get rid of Windows 7, you'd have to boot into Windows XP, and run the
[Optical Drive Letter]:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force
from the Windows 7 install media.

Then manually delete all Win 7 files form the partition they reside on.


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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Thanks vacunita

I'll save this message in case I need to do either of these things later on.

Nohj

Make sure you know where the booting files reside, whether they are XP's or Windows 7. It is likely they will be on only the one partition while booting both operating systems.

Linney, correct they are on the ACTIVE partition...

lets say you totally reformat the partition that XP was on, then W7 would not boot either (as most likely you installed W7 after XP)... in that case you would need to boot with the W7 DVD and run through the BOOT REPAIR option...

if you wanted to remove W7, then use the BCDedit program from within XP, then remove the line that references W7... then go to the Drive Management and reformat/repartition the W7 partition... this would leave the Vista/W7 Bootloader and all it's files on the XP drive...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

Regarding the scanner, have you tried out Windows XP Mode for Windows 7? It's basically a Windows XP virtual machine that runs in the new version of Virtual PC - check out this link for more info and free download. Unlike Virtual PC 2007, the new version supports USB so you can connect USB devices directly to the virtual machine. I haven't tried that out yet though.

It's a free download for Windows 7 RC. When W7 is released it will be a free download with the Professional and Ultimate editions. Your CPU needs to support hardware virtualisation in order for it to work though so check that before downloading.

Regarding editing the list of bootable operating systems, if you don't fancy the idea of running BCDEDIT.EXE at the command line have a look at VistaBootPRO. It's essentially a nice graphical front-end for BCDEDIT and it works under Windows 7.

Regards

Nelviticus

As an alternative AND if disk space isn't an issue, you can also go into the system Startup and Recovery options. Choose your default OS, and set the time to display OS's to 0 seconds. That way your default OS will start without listing any other OS's.

Just a thought.

Hi

Thanks for the info, I'm downloading the virtual XP mode beta right now.

I tried it with my old scanner at the weekend - as far as I can tell you can't permanently re-direct a USB device to the virtual XP machine, so you can't use the scanner transparently (i.e. in XP mode, where the scanner app looks as if it's part of Windows 7).

You can, however, launch the full XP virtual machine and manually attach the scanner to it each time you want to use it. Not ideal but slightly better than dual-booting just to scan something.

Unfortunately once the RC expires XP mode will only be part of the Ultimate, Professional and Enterprise editions.

Nelviticus

Hi

I seldom use my scanner any more, so rebooting isn't a big issue.

Every thing I get is digital any more not like in the old days when people would actually send me photo prints and slides.

I think I have only used it once in the last month to tell the truth.

I'm assuming that be the time that Windows 7 goes retail that Epsom will have some drivers for it.

I hate to steal this thread, but I can't figure out how to start a new one. I am new to this stuff.

I have two active drives on my computer right now and want to only have one so I can choose which OS I want to boot into.

1. Running windows 7
2. Made a partition to install OsX on
3. Installation successful able to dual boot Windows 7 and OS X (it would boot straight into OS X as active drive through Darwin Boot Loader if I didn't press anything).
4. I went into Disk Management and made my Windows 7 drive active (thinking that I would boot into that first). It will only boot into Windows 7 without giving me a choice in Darwin like it did before.

SO, how do I make only my OSX partition active?

Let me know if there are any questions...thanks

nevermind, Easy BCD did the trick!

xxNimoxx,

Welcome, glad you got it fixed.

As to starting your own thread (for next time), look at the bottom of the XP forum page where all the questions are. There is a big blank box, similar to the Reply box you have already used. Above that blank box is the "Start a New Thread" heading. Post your question in there and you will have your own thread up and running.