I have my pc triple booted on one HD with win Xp showing as system on the HD. Now my question is if i wanted to completely remove Win Xp and just leave Win 7 x64 and x86 how would i go about that and having either Win7 showing as system and not logical? I have Xp as C:, Win7 X64 as E:, and x86 as F:. If anyone can tell me the proper procedure that would be great.
You'll probably have to backup and redo all partitions, unless you want to reuse the XP partition, if so reinstall whatever version of Win 7 you want to appear as system there...the extended or logical information is written to the partition table...it's not an OS issue. Bloodbat
Gotcha, was not sure if there was a proper procedure if i were to reuse that C: partition. Was really worried about how the MBR would react if i were to format XP and install Win 7 on that partition.
Something i'll proly do in a month or 2 just wanted to get an idea of what i would be in for before i jumped in the frying pan. Also i'll give Acronis Disc Director Suite a shot see how well it works. Thanks for everyone's input.
If you are using Windows 7 Boot Manager You can use BCDedit to remove the Windows Xp boot entry Command Prompt (Admin Permission) BCDEDIT will show all boot entries Type BCDEDIT /? to show all command and remove the relevant entries using the corresponding commands then go Admin Tools >> Disk manager to destroy the xp partition and reclaim it as freespace.
Now if i go that route will the next Partition space be auto renamed to C:? or will it just stay as it was but have just the 2 options remaining Win7 x64 + win7 x86. Just have heard stories about others trying and getting stuck or it won't load into windows 7.
Be careful, I have had problems with Acronis Disk Director before. The last time I used it, it nuked my Windows XP install when I was trying to re-size a partition, so I just said screw it and reformatted into 1 partition and installed Windows 7. Backup everything you cannot afford to lose first, before you mess around! Lucky me I have a few external USB HD's.
I agree ^^ Had some major issues too. Reformatting is the best option, if you're willing to perform that action.
No it won't be C:\ Windows will always recognize the current installation you have booted up to as C:\. The other partition are label relative to the partition you have boot up on.
So, after Xp is nuked the next partition in this case I:\ will be recognized as C:\ but without it being renamed, did i understand that properly?
For example your Xp is located in front of the Win7 x86 and Win7 x64 and you are on Win7 x86 therefore Win 7 x64 will be E:\ and Xp will be D:\ when you nuke Xp and you boot on Win7 x86 you will still get a new partition as F:\ or D:\ but you can relabel them in disk manager by setting it to recognise it as D:\ because it is unused and available. The point is drive letters are dynamic and allocated according to availability it has nothing to do with boot sequence hence it is safe.
I forgot to mention since the boot manager is installed on a Windows 7 partition the only partition you cannot destroy is the partition which holds the boot manager.
If you manage to do that...there's a big chance Windows will barf on itself... Vista and 7 both label their disks as "C:" even though it might or might not be C: on the partition table, what I understood from your question was that you no longer wanted them to be extended partitions...not that you wanted them both labeled as "C" when you boot the OS, which, BTW should be done automagically in most cases.... Disk manager won't let you relabel them (really..try it...if the swap file lives there, disk manager will most likely give you the finger, that holds true for boot managers too...even if it's not the swap file or manager for the current active OS...I tried doing that to an XP drive letter from Vista...no dice) Good luck Bloodbat