Re: Remove XP from dual-boot

Okay - that was WAY too hard. There must be must be an easier way, but this
is how I did it. Actual steps are short - finding them took a long time!

1. Mark the Vista partition as active in Disk Manager.

2. Copy Boot.ini, bootmgr, and boot subdirectory from XP drive to Vista
drive. Two files in the boot subdirectory will not copy because they are in
use - that's okay.

3.Turn off computer and disconnect the XP drive. This may not be necessary
if your bios allows the next step.

4. Move the Vista disk to the first disk position in the 'hard disk boot
order' in bios.

5. Boot to the Vista DVD (64-bit in my case)

6. Choose repair windows and let it fix, repair, install ,whatever, the boot
sector on the vista disk.

Voila! Now does not ask which OS, just boots right to Vista.

It amazes me that there is not a standard built-in way to does this - When
upgrading from XP x86 to Vista 64bit, installing to another drive seems like
a natural way to do it.

Ned

"Ned Buckmaster" <Ned@Buckmaster.com> wrote in message
news:%23HdG8MrUHHA.496@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>I upgraded an existing XP MCE install to Vista Ultimate 64-bit. Vista
>installed to a partition on another hard drive - a 74G Raptor. System is
>now dual-boot between Vista and XP. Both drives are SATA.
>
> I am happy with Vista, and want to remove XP from Disk 0 which (under
> Vista) is the D drive. However, that partition in Disk Manager is marked
> as (System, Active, Primary Partition) and cannot be formatted or deleted.
> The Vista partition on disk 1 is marked (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump,
> Primary Partition), but not Active. I'm wary of marking it as active....as
> I'm not sure what I'm doing there.
>
> I've tried to boot the computer with the XP drive disconnected, but it
> won't boot. I've tried to do a repair from the Vista disk with the XP
> drive disconnected, but it can't find ANY windows installs. I've tried
> loading SATA drivers but that doesn't help - I don't think I need them
> anyway - I can SEE the Vista drive when I browse for drivers....
>
> Is there any way other than a complete new install without the XP drive
> connected and a format of the Vista drive?
>
> Ned