Remove XP and keep Vista

Hi to all,

I posted this topic a long time ago, but I need more information about how to remove a dual boot configuration on my laptop. It's a HP Pavilion dv8320us, with Windows XP MCE 2005 installed first. It came with two hard drives, 80 Gb each, and installed Windows Vista Home Premium in the other drive. I did this because I was worried about Vista, so I can go back to XP if anything goes wrong. After seven months of using Vista, I never had a problem, and It's performing very good .

I no longer use XP, all my programs are working great and all of them are now Vista compatible. I don't need XP anymore, so I want to recover that disc space and keep only Vista. How can I do that?

Laptop specifications:

Processor: Intel Centrino Duo 1.60 Ghz
Memory: 1.5 Gb DDR2
Hard Drive: 2 x 80 Gb
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 7600 - 256 Mb

Thanks in advance.

PS: sorry for my english...

 

Depending on how you have it setup, you may only have to format the XP drive. There may be some extra steps such as modifying the VISTA bootloader to remove the Windows XP option, but it shouldn't be anything too difficult.

Here is a decent write-up on using Vista's bcdedit: http://www.vistaforums.com/FORUM/Topic587-9-1.aspx

 

Thanks for your answer, but in another site I read something about a "Drive 0" and "Drive 1" thing, that can make difficult the process.

 

Vista's boot loader is in the MBR. A format shouldn't effect this. Even if it does, pop the Vista disk in and use the repair option.

Good to hear a positive experience about Vista. I'm on the other side, Vista just can't do what XP can (apps won't run in Vista.) In the future...
For now, I dual boot.

 

I've been reading the VistaBootPro forums searching about my question, and found this. Basically they talk about the BIOS configuration of the "system" drive, where XP is installed, and I have to make some changes to the BIOS to make Vista the "system" drive. Now I'm confused . Please HELP!!!

 

Any ideas?

 

Anyone? Please help me...

 

Disk 0 and Disk 1 are just the two hard drives. Ideally, you should have Vista installed on Disk 0. All you should have to do is format Disk 1 and then you'll have that as a free hard drive.

You may even be able to format that drive completely from within Vista. Go to Disk Management by right-clicking on Computer on the desktop or My Computer in the Start Menu, then choose Manage, in the Computer Management window on the left-hand side choose Disk Management. In the right hand pane you should see your two hard disks listed. The one that says it is your system and boot partition is the one you'd want to leave and should ideally be the one you're actively using with Vista. And the other drive listed should be that XP install. You should be able to completely remove its partition, create a new one, format it and have just a second free 80 gig hard drive to use.

 

All that thread really refers to is just making sure that the Vista drive is first in the BIOS boot priority. Just make sure that its listed before the XP drive. The easiest way to achieve what you are wanting is to go ahead and format the XP drive from within vista. If for some reason the MBR was still located on the XP drive, then it may tell you 'No OS found.' Do not panic. As MonsterMaxx said... Just boot off of the Vista cd (You may have to adjust the boot priority again) and run a repair. That will get you back up and running on the vista drive.

 

My XP install (from factory) is on disc 0, and the Vista Install is on disc 1. Are you saying that I can format safetly my disc 0 from Vista and then run a repair install from my Vista DVD to boot normally, with no need to unplug my drive cable?

Here's a screenshot of my Disk Management window

 

I downloaded and installed EasyBCD, and removed succesfully the Windows XP entry from the boot menu. Now every time I boot my laptop, It enters directly to Vista. But now I'm not so sure to format the XP drive. Is there any files that Vista needs to boot in the XP partition. If I format the drive 0 (where XP is installed), will Vista boot normally?

Thanks in advance...

 

Please, It's the last question....

 

No, but if you would like to make absolutely sure before you format the drive, you can simply remove the drive from the computer. If it boots fine without the XP drive installed then it will be perfectly fine to format.

 

Hmm. This becomes slightly more complicated if Vista is on the second hard disk. From what your screenshot shows, it would appear that both partitions are primary, which is good because it should be able to boot alone. However, since XP shows as the Active partition and the System partition, Vista has probably put its bootloader into the XP partition on the first drive, so if you remove XP it will remove the bootloader and you won't be able to reach your Vista partition. However, according to this thread: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1088537 if you remove the XP partition and then run a Vista Repair it may be able to fix the bootloader so you'd have no problem.

There is quite a bit written about this specific situation you're in. Some people seem to think it is possible to make this work, others suggest just formatting everything and starting with a clean Vista partition on drive 0. Before you remove the XP partition you may want to try a few searches for additional leads or wait to see if anyone else has anything to suggest here. Or make back-ups of important files and try to remove the XP partition and repair Vista.