Win 7/XP/Vista Tri to Dual boot: Boot loader and partition queries

[antispam246]

I have 2 Hard disk drives "HDD1" and "HDD2"

HDD1: This has 2 partitions, The primary partition has my windows XP installation

HDD2: This has 3 partitions, The primary partition has my windows vista installation

Now I've just installed Windows 7 making it a tri-boot system, everything worked fine until I started having major errors in windows 7 that was due to the partition being formatted and created by Acronis 9 which (only found out afterwards) is not compatible with windows 7 and has major issues. Not a huge problem.

So I redid windows 7 installation and let windows 7 setup format the partition for it to remedy this. So now I have a triple boot with wndows 7 on the 3rd partition on HDD2.

I've been preparing for installing window 7 for awhile and intend to replace vista instllation with it, just wanted to install win 7 first to ensure everything worked smoothly with compatibility etc..

Now I have no issues I want to remove vista and my main query is, what is the best way to do this? To reiterate

HDD1: Windows XP
HDD2 1st partition: Windows Vista
HDD2: 3rd partition: Windows 7

I've already backed up all my important data on my vista partition so I'm set to remove it now. I'm just not sure the best way to go about it.

My operating systems were installed in this order
1st: XP
2nd: Vista
3rd: Win 7

I used VistaBootPro3.3 to manage my boot loader after installing vista, so I think the vista bootloader was controlling it, I'm not sure what controls it now having installed windows 7, just that it's still working. Actually I just referenced some notes and I know it was, before installing windows 7, running off the Vista boot loader as I uninstalled the legacy (XP) boot loader.

So, having installed windows 7, will it now be working with windows 7 boot loader? I'm asking obviously because if I remove vista, I want to ensure the boot loader still functions properly and allows me to choose a dual boot between XP and Win 7 still.

Back to removing Vista. As Vista is installed on the same disk as Win 7, different partitons. I intend to use all of HDD2 for windows 7 and HDD1 will be just for XP. Therefore can I simply format the HDD2 partiton1 and partiton2 within windows 7 (computer management), is it as simple as this? Will this cause any issues? specifically with the bootloader.

I'm hoping it's just as simple as this. Format HDD2 partiton 1 and 2 from within windows 7 and the win 7 bootloader will retain a dual boot for win xp and win 7. I'm guessing if at worst it causes an issue with the boot loader I can always fix this in VistaBootPro 3.3 which recognizes windows 7.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

[.one.]

If you have any issues use EasyBCD for the os selections and boot sequence.

 

[antispam246]

If you have any issues use EasyBCD for the os selections and boot sequence.

So, would you say I can remove vista as I hoped to by formating the partiton within windows 7? Easy BCD is win 7 compatibile?

 

[.one.]

So, would you say I can remove vista as I hoped to by formating the partiton within windows 7? Easy BCD is win 7 compatibile?

Yes and Yes even if you lose win7 or xp from your boot up selection EasyBCD is available for both operating systems for rebuild or modification of the boot sequence.

 

[antispam246]

Thanks

Used BCDEdit to remove Vista entry in boot, reinstalled windows 7 and used the advanced options to format HDD2 partition 1 and 2 then installed windows 7 to partition 1. So far it's been working solid, none of the previous errors and Win XP is booting fine too also.

RESOLVED

 

[Deleted member 77746]

Just have to ask is there a reason for you needing to duel/tri boot. Windows 7 is rather mature now and most things work with it.

 

[antispam246]

Just have to ask is there a reason for you needing to duel/tri boot. Windows 7 is rather mature now and most things work with it.

Plenty of reasons, mostly personal. I've always had a dual boot of xp/vista but never really used vista, for me XP was and has always been and still is, solid. I don't tend to change things that work unless there's a really good reason.

I've always been meaning to give win 7 a proper try, I had tried various beta versions when they were available but had a lot of software issues so been waiting until compatibility was way up there, which it appears to be now. Even with XP mode still had issues. Main reason is simply time. I've never had to time to install and setup properly and I need full access to my pc at pretty much all times.

I'll be keeping XP for a lot longer yet and I have too much data and too many unique setups on it, especially with older software that may or may not work with windows 7.