Replies

Fred and Ted, I thought you’d like to know that I resolved my problem with removing Vista from my tri boot setup. I’m not exactly sure how I got to the point where the light went on but it became very simple after that point. I played around with easybcd until I discovered that both Vista and XP were removed from the bootmgr. I added Vista back with just a click and I added XP back and opted for the auto boot config. When I booted my machine I was able to boot into all 3 systems with no problem. I removed Vista from bootmgr and inactivated the Vista partition using DISKPART program. That allowed me to delete the Vista partition from within Windows 7. I’m finally back to dual boot with Windows 7 and XP Pro and now have a free drive which I can use for data and backups. I want to thank you both for all your help. I couldn’t have done it without your giving me tips and pointing me in the right direction. If I can ever be of any help please feel free to contact me anytime.

Happy Computing, Ralph.

Ted, Ralph,
OK, lets do this.
1. First you do not “Change Settings” to begin with as there are no settings until you add them .
2. So…. click on Add / Remove Entries
3. Go to Add an entry ,and use the drop down to select the “Type” Vista , 7, etc.In the name Box , add your “Tag” (Mine is Vista-0) see my screen shot in post#10
4. Select Drive (your first entry should be the OS that you want as “Default” …C:
5. Click Add Entry
6. now go to “Change Settings ” and select the “Bootloader Time out” Enter your desired time from drop down
7. Click “save settings”
8. Start over and click “add / remove entries” In the add an entry, Select the next drive or partition you want as a choice at boot time,D: , E:, (whatever one you want to appear at boot time) Add a Tag, Windows 7 etc.
9. Repeat steps until you have all the systems that you want in the Que.
10. Once you have it the way you want, Click Save, and “X” out… now when you reboot you will have a choice as to which system you want to boot to.
I do not know what would happen if the MBR on the OS that you select as the default is damaged. If Ralph can boot into 7 now it does not matter if the Vista MBR is damaged, as it would not be part of the Que anyway. I use EASUS partition manager and it seems that as long as your not “mounted” on the Vista drive at the time, you could then either delete / format / then extend the the partition as you choose with any of the managers. (don’t have any experience with partition wizard) Hope this Helps Regards Fred
Additional Info… EasyBCD manages the “entries”that you select,to be placed in the Que. It does not “repair” the MBR. Sorry but my one working brain cell just “kicked in”

Does it matter which disk I boot from? Will I have to set the correct disk in bios. Remember, disk 0 has vista but is not active and has no boot feature while the win 7 which id on disk2 has all the features?

I made some changes using easybcd and diskpart. The current siuation is stranged. I’ll do my best to explain.I made the win 7 parttion active(driveC:). I made my data drive inactive(E:). I did nothing with Vista drive(D) for fear of not being able to boot at all. I was going to make it inactive but didn’t. I removed Vista from system list in easybcd. I tried playing with the repair and set mbr tabs in easybcd not really knowing what I’m doing but here’s the result. When I set my bios to boot from the vista disk(D) i get a boot menu for Win7 and XP and can enter either OS OK. When I set bios to boot from disk on which XP and Win7 reside(C:) I get a menu for win7 and XP but cannot get into XP. When I click on XP the system just restarts. It looks like at this point I need to keep Vista so that I can a goot boot. What do I need to do so I can boot from the XP/Win7(C:) disk and get same results I get when I boot from Vista disk. Something is available on the vista disk that is not nb the win7 disk. What is it and how and where do I put it.I hope you understand what I’m saying. Anu thoughts?

Fred, I think I understand most of what you and Ted are telling me except for how I fix the mbr on win7 partition. I’ve mad win7 partition active. Do I have to use repair to fix mbr from original win7 disk or can I fix the mbr using easybcd and is so which tab(s) do I click on.

Is it possible to move the boot records from either XP or Vista to win7 si it has the right boot manager? I think I may have done this once when I was dual booting XP and Vista.

Thanks for all your help.

I did some stuff last night and almost messed up my system I first tried to delete vista partition in disk management but it would not let me do it. So I tried partion wizard and it seemed to do it. Then I couldn’t boot into any system. I inserted win 7 disk and booted from there and win7 seemed to recover vista for me and I’m back in business. As I see it the boot records are on Vista. I tried moving these files to Win7 root but could not move all of then because they are being used. I changed the boot drive in bios to boot from win7 disk but got an error that the system32hal.dll file is either missing or corrupt. So now I’m back to my original seup.The only differece I see now is that win7 partition has the additional status of boot and this status is no longer on the vista drive. I also tried to remove vista as a system with boot manager but couldn’t get that to work. I hope this all makes some sense and you can put me on right track. Just a thought. Now that win7 has boot status why can’t I boot from win7 disk. Would it work if I delete vista partition, set win 7 to active and try to fix mbr on win7. Can I do this al with Easy bcd. I’m sending alng the latest copy of disk manmagement report in attachment.

Ted, I appreciate your clarification. I’ve been there myself. It’s been so long since I’ve worked with this stuff it’s tough to remember exactly what I did. Just one more question if I may. I’ve used Easy BCD spariringly. Could you point me in the right direction as to how I do this. Which tab do I select?

Thanks again, Ralph

Ted just so I understand. You are suggesting a 2 step process:

1. Fix Vista MBR with XP repair program
2. Delete vista partition using Win 7 disk manager or with partition wizard ( I also use Partition Wizard)
No changes required to win 7 mbr? After doing above and I reboot will I be left with XP and win7 dual boot.

Thanks again for your help.

I do not have the reserve partition but maybe this additional info will help:

Disk 0 VISTA64 (D:) Heathy(System,Active,Primary) 64 bit
Disk1 Apps_Data (E:) Healthy(Active,Primary)
Disk2 XP_PRO (F:) Healthy(Active,Primary) 32 bit
Disk2 WINDOWS7 (C:) Healthy(Boot,Page File,Crash Dump,Primay) 64 bit

Can I just do a repair of master boot record on disk 2, change boot sequence in bios to disk2 and then remove Vista?

Thanks, Ralph

Look in Disk Management, on the drive that has XP and Win7, is there a 102MB partition labelled “System Reserve”? If there is, then you can simply restore the master boot record (MBR) on that disk (and change you BIOS to boot using that disk). See this for restoring the MBR:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4836283_repair-mbr-windows.html

You can also google “windows 7 restore mbr” for other site with similar instructions.

If you do not have that 102MB partition, then the problem gets harder…