Dual boot - remove one OS.

[Guest]

Single HDD with two partitions:
With XP installed on drive C:\ and Vista on D:\, how can I get rid of XP on
C and change the Vista partion from D to C?

 

[Jawade]

Single HDD with two partitions:
With XP installed on drive C:\ and Vista on D:\, how can I get rid of XP on
C and change the Vista partion from D to C?

You cannot change your Vista from D: to C:, that will never work.

 

[AJR]

Vista, in a dual boot setup, installs boot files on "C" in additon to files
on "D". Removing XP will result in Vista being unbootable - however all may
not be lost - download VistaBootPro - check the documentation on making the
Vista partition bootable.

 

[John Barnes]

Vista installs the boot files on the 'system partition'. The only way to
get the boot files on the Vista partition would be to make that the active
partition before doing anything. A 'repair startup' after making the Vista
partition active using the install DVD should work fine. Some times it has
to be run more than one time.
If Vista sees itself as C when running, you can then delete the first
partition and add the space to the Vista partition using a third party
partition managing product such as BootItNG or Acronis.

 

[Jawade]

Vista installs the boot files on the 'system partition'. The only way to
get the boot files on the Vista partition would be to make that the active
partition before doing anything. A 'repair startup' after making the Vista
partition active using the install DVD should work fine. Some times it has
to be run more than one time.
If Vista sees itself as C when running, you can then delete the first
partition and add the space to the Vista partition using a third party
partition managing product such as BootItNG or Acronis.

Since Vista is D: it is not possible to make it C:. The "D:\" is
arond the installation and the registry.

 

[John Barnes]

If Vista sees itself as C, regardless of the DOS drive lettering, there will
be no problem. Drives are often lettered differently within each system
installed on the computer.

 

[Jawade]

If Vista sees itself as C, regardless of the DOS drive lettering, there will
be no problem. Drives are often lettered differently within each system
installed on the computer.

Of course, but he sayd it was D:.

 

[John Barnes]

and I said if it was labeled C from within Vista. He didn't say where he
got his drive lettering from and many, if not most installations of Vista
end up with Vista labeling itself from within itself, so it is important to
determine where he got his lettering from.

 

[Guest]

Thanks,
the fog is lifting.

Vista installs the boot files on the 'system partition'. The only way to
get the boot files on the Vista partition would be to make that the active
partition before doing anything. A 'repair startup' after making the Vista
partition active using the install DVD should work fine. Some times it has
to be run more than one time.
If Vista sees itself as C when running, you can then delete the first
partition and add the space to the Vista partition using a third party
partition managing product such as BootItNG or Acronis.

 

[Jawade]

and I said if it was labeled C from within Vista. He didn't say where he
got his drive lettering from and many, if not most installations of Vista
end up with Vista labeling itself from within itself, so it is important to
determine where he got his lettering from.

If you setup Xp, and later Vista at a second partition, Xp has C:,
and Vista gets D: or another. The only way to give Vista a C: too,
is to hide XP. It's possible, yes, but in most cases it isnt.

 

[John Barnes]

You are wrong, anytime that Vista installs from the DVD it sees itself as C.

 

[Jawade]

You are wrong, anytime that Vista installs from the DVD it sees itself as C.

No, if you have XP on C: and you install Vista on a second partition,
it wil get D: or another free driveletter.

 

[John Barnes]

No sense responding to someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.
Do some research. Goodbye.

 

[Jawade]

No sense responding to someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.
Do some research. Goodbye.

You're really wrong. I'm sure because I did it by mijself. First
at the 1st partition XP, in C:. At the second partition Vista, and
it being driveletter D:.

 

[Yop]

You're really wrong. I'm sure because I did it by mijself. First
at the 1st partition XP, in C:. At the second partition Vista, and
it being driveletter D:.

When you boot from vista what drive does cista report?

 

[Jawade]

When you boot from vista what drive does cista report?

Oh, sorry, it is E:. Vista turns as E:. D: is the DVD.

 

[Velcroman]

I'm in much the same boot boat--does that make sense? I've got XP installed
on the C partition (the system partition, according to the Disk Management
app) and Vista installed on a later, F partition. As you point out, the C
partition is the "active" partition--even though my XP installation doesn't
even really work anymore. I just want to delete it entirely and make my Vista
disk (the F parition) into the only partition--and ideally rename it C. How
do I make the Vista parition active? and then how do I "repair startup"?

 

[Velcroman]

Okay, using the Microsoft Management console, I made the Vista partition the
active partition. Then I rebooted, or tried to: I get an error message:
BOOTMGR is missing. How do i fix / "repair startup"

 

[John Barnes]

Run the Vista DVD and run start-up repair. That should put boot manager on
your active partition. Some have had to run it several times, so run at
least 4 times before posting back. You can always change the active
partition back if it doesn't work for you.

 

[Velcroman]

Had to run it a few times, but eventually I was able to reboot the PC
successfully. However, I feel like I'm back where I started. Vista is still
the F partition, my broken XP partition still sits in the C slot. That said,
Microsoft Management Console now reports far fewer things are going on with
my XP partition. It's merely listed as a "primary partition", while the Vista
partition has everything else going for it. Still, I'm not much closer than I
was before. Should I try again? I had turned off the dual-booting
feature...it's been reenabled. So that much is definitely different. And the
partiitons are certainly listed differently. I keep getting error messages
when I try to shrink the XP partition.