In need of help!

Alright, here's the deal.

My computer is currently set up for dual boot, one partition is XP while the other is Vista. XP was the first OS and has the boot sequence. I want to get rid of the XP partition and only have the Vista partition. I have product numbers for both. What is the best way to go about doing this?

Thanks so much,
Kelly

 

As you've installed Vista behind XP I'm assuming you have a Vista retail DVD? If so, boot to Vista and format the XP partition. Now reboot to the Vista DVD and select the Repair console and from that the DOS prompt. At the prompt type bootrec.exe /fixmbr, and then bootrec.exe /fixboot

Remove the DVD and reboot. You should now only have Vista.

To recover the space previously used by XP you could use Vista's disk management to extend the partition. If that doesn't work vey well try EASEUS.

http://majorgeeks.com/google_search...f;S:http://majorgeeks.com;LP:1;FORID:11&hl=en

 

Thanks for the reply. I will try this and get back to you.

 

Actually...I have another question.
If I format the XP partition from Vista. Will my computer boot sequence be effected? From what I understand, my computer boots from the XP side..

 

You are correct in the sense that when using Microsoft's dual boot method, daft as it is, files needed to boot Vista are indeed located in the XP partition. However it's the Master Boot Record that searches for and passes control to the Active partition and the MBR is not part of XP's partition. It is in the very first sector of your hard disk, so is not affected by anything you do to any partition.

The two bootrec commands sort all this out and set Vista as the default boot partition.

 

Alright, so I tried to format the XP partition from the Vista Device Manager. I was given an error message saying "Windows cannot format the system partition on the disk". Then I read about how you can format a disk from the Vista DVD. So I tried, but when I restarted my computer, nothing different happened. The DVD is in the DVD drive (just so you know). I tried putting it in right when it started and just starting it with it in there. I went into my computers BIOS and was looking at the Primary boot drives, the DVD drive was 3rd on the list. Should I move it to first?

I've attached a capture of my Device Manager.

Thanks again,
Kelly

 

You could change the boot order in BIOS as you say, but most computers have a boot menu option, often F8, that allows you to choose which device to boot from this time only. Either approach will do, and when you get into the Repair Console DOS Prompt you could just bypass the reformat and execute the bootrec commands. That should remove XP from the boot options and we can delete the XP partition from Vista afterwards.

 

Thanks. I'll try that now