Removing XP from Vista Dual-Boot System
 

I want to get rid of Windows XP Pro, from a dual-boot system where Vista Ultimate 64 was added after XP. I'm not sure how to get it done without having to reinstall everything. In past years, I've formatted, installed the OS, and then done a restore from backup. I'm not sure I can do that with Vista though.
I have all of the following on Drive 0: 1) Drive D: Windows XP on a Primary, System Partition, 2) Drive C: Vista Ultimate 64 in an Extended Partition on a logical drive. 3) I have almost all my applications and data on another logical drive E: in the same Extended Partition that Vista is on.
I want to get rid of the Windows XP D: and keep the Vista C: and E: drives. The problem is that Vista Ultimate 64 has a complete system backup I could restore from (if I formatted), but it forces me to backup the XP drive with it. I don't want to wipe Drive 0 only to be forced to restore the XP C: drive. Can you selectively restore from a Vista complete system backup? How can I do this? I haven't found any partitioning tools out there that will work with the 64 bit version of Vista. I have 2 other 250G hard drives I use for backups by the way.

Can anyone help?

There is some good information in this thread that should help you out.
http://www.syschat.com/remove-xp-xp-...boot-1927.html

Good info, but I've already read it
 

Thanks for the link squirrelmoose. Notice that I posted my dilemma right at the end of that thread. I'm not sure I can just boot the installation DVD and format the XP Partition because it is the System Partition. Notice that the Vista OS is in an Extended Partition on a logical drive, as is the other logical drive I want to keep that has all my data and applications. I fear that I may have shot myself in the foot by not putting Vista in a Primary Partition. Is there a way to deal with this situation - eliminating the XP Partition and reclaiming the space for Vista's volume?

P.S. See my attachment jpg that shows my partitions from Disk Management.
:confused:

Vista has a 4 part restore program for its back up...it will allow you to back up any single partition (it sees it as a drive) Just do a full back up of drive c and burn the back up to disc. Do the same for drive E..

Now follow the instructions for removing xp from the link:

http://www.syschat.com/remove-xp-xp-...boot-1927.html

use the installation CD to wipe out the boot info for xp and then format the D drive and use it for extra storage.

If you wish to recapture the D drive into C then forget about fixing the boot and just use the installation disc to remove the XP partition and reformat the C and D as one vista partition and install vista to it. Leave the E drive stuff alone.

Once you have reinstalled the OS then use it to recover everything from the C back up disc that you burned previously....That will restore it all back to work with all applications and storage that you have on E drive!

Hmmmmm
 

Hopefully, you're right lurkswithin. Since I've never done the restore from system backup (as opposed to the file backup), I didn't know you could choose what to put back, or where to put it back. The latter part of your post describes what I want to do - repartition while reinstalling Vista, and do a restore from backup so that I end up with no more XP drive, and just have a Vista drive and what is currently my E: drive.....and end up with all my applications still installed and working. Wonder if I will be able to pull that off and not have drive letter problems. Your post is the most helpful so far.

See if this is a bit more informative for using the back up and restoration program that is built into vista

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tec...p/default.aspx

There should not be any drive letter problems....the partitions will retain the named letter designations...like the title of a book...doesn't change. When you remove 'D' and reinstall.....the system should install as "C" or local drive..."D" would become the main optics drive...."E" would remain......all others would be renamed as needed.....

If it does change....all you will need to do is to change the partition back to "E" and all other pathes should be ok from within.

Remember though...this takes TWO actions complete deletion of xp partition and new installation of vista to that partition....then the second action is to believe that the new installation is corrupted and you will use the restore capabilities of the new vista installation to revert back to the back up copy.......that should keep all pathes and links the same as before.

One thing after another!
 

Thanks much lurkswithin. I think I understand what you're saying now. Only problem is that now something is wrong with my Complete System Backup program in Vista. I tried over and over the last 2 days to create a new Complete System Backup onto one of my hard drives, and it gets maybe 3/4 of the way done and then blue-screens every time. The blue-screen says "DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" and also mentions nvstor64.sys. I'm debating on whether to maybe do a repair install of Vista before attempting another Complete System Backup, and then doing your plan. I could also wipe the XP D: partition, recreate it and install Visa on it, and then use that Vista's Complete System Backup program to backup the old Vista drive. Only, the old Vista drive is a logical drive in an extended partition. Hmmmmm......:confused:

If you are using the Nvidia 64raid driver then try updating it to clear the problem.

With what your plans are: I wouldn't bother doing a complete system back up.

Just back up the "E" drive and burn it to disc
Just back up the "C" drive and burn it to disc.
then using the installation CD do either:
kill the XP partition, reformat it as a storage partition and the reinstall vista on the "C" partition
or
kill the xp partition and the "C" partition and create a single new "C" partition and install vista to that.

The problem I had with the Vista bakup and dual booting is that Vista included XP in the backup image and did not allow me to only image Vista. I had mine on 2 different hard drives, I had to use a boot manager to remove the XP boot before I could get Vista to repair its boot sector to a sigle boot.

If you are concerned about the state of your current Vista partition, you can use a partitioin program, like partition magic or similar, to to non destructive partition changes. Just make sure the program you use will do Non Destructive changes, not all are capable.

The saga continures
 

Exactly, squirrellandmoose (cool name by the way). The complete system backup forces me to backup the XP drive with the Vista drive. The checkbox is checked and greyed out.

Lurkswithin, I think I'm going to do something like what you suggested. I'm going to use the Vista install disk to delete the XP partition. Recreate it as a 10gig disk - I'll use it for when I make cd or dvd images. This way I'll have the original disk letters. Then I can modify the Vista partition and expand it. Can also expand the E: drive. I'll do this as part of the Vista reinstall. I have a good complete file backup from yesterday, and an old Complete System Backup from New Years' Day also. I could try the Complete System Backup once the D: drive is too small to restore XP to. I'm assuming the Complete Sys. Backup doesn't repartition.....anyway....will probably get started soon.:mad: