Removing dual boot menu from dual hard drive

Topic

New Reply

I thought I was doing the right thing by having 2 identical hard drives on my home built machine. I installed XP as the primary operating system and it has served me well for several years. I recently installed Windows 7 on the second hard drive which resulted in a dual boot screen when I reboot the computer. I would like to remove Win 7 since I am building a new computer dedicated to Win 7. I have combed the net and have found several questions about doing this but can’t seem to figure out how to remove the dual boot screen at reboot.

I have this same setup on an older machine and was evaluating the beta release of Win 7 and after it expired, I formatted the secondary hard drive thinking this would eliminate the bootup screen but it still shows up when I reboot. Can anyone tell me how to get either machine back to only one operating system and not having to go through the “Select older operating system” screen when I reboot?

I have read about using the “Advanced” “Startup and Recovery” settings but this dosen’t apparently apply to a dual hard drive setup.

Thanks for any help on solving this issue,

John Foster

Reply | Quote

Replies

The easiest way, I think, is to download and use EasyBCD. Windows 7 takes over the bootloader and automatically makes it a dual boot system, so not only can you zap the entry(s) under Edit Boot Menu, but you should also install the Windows XP bootloader to the MBR of the correct partition again (the XP drive system partition) so the system will boot after the Win 7 entry is removed.

Edit: Just for giggles you can edit the entry name as well. Instead of earlier versions of Windows, mine says XP Bay-Bee! and I made it the default instead of Win 7…little customizations that make me smile when I see them because I usually forgot I put them in until I see them again.

Reply | Quote

I installed EasyBCD and followed it once it was loaded and it recognized the Earlier version of Windows (which was the one I want to keep) as well as the Windows 7 system. I removed the Windows 7 boot option and selected Windows XP as the default operating system and save the setup. Now when I reboot, I get the dualboot screen but it only shows the Windows 7 and since it has been deleted via the format of that hard drive, I can’t get into XP now. I have booted from the XP disk and ran the recovery console and tried the fixmbr but it still comes up with the boot menue with only Windows 7 listed. Any ideas?

John

Reply | Quote

Try this method! many other sites show this same methodas well.

You say you installed Easy BCD and it did not work as expected. Very unusual as Easy BCD is an excellent app for these typr problems. Where is you install it, Win 7 partition or Win XP partition? It did take me a while to undwestand the workings of Easy BCD, but it worked as advertised when I used it correctly.

Reply | Quote

You must have removed the XP entry when you selected it as the default. For future reference don’t select a default when there are only two entries, remove one entry and the other becomes the default…ah…by default
You had no way of knowing but this is also why you should leave both installations intact until after the entry is removed. Then if a mistake is made, one can just undo it with EasyBCD in the other installation. Think of it as plowing the driveway first, then demolishing the home.
Hopefully following Ted’s links you’ll be right as rain again.

Reply | Quote

Thank you for the insight. I am going to need some guidance with a very similar situation. My primary home built computer again has 2 identicle hard drives and Windows XP is on the C drive. I installed Windows 7 on Drive D. I have on order, a new kit that I am going to build and dedicate it entirely to Windows 7. Once I get it up and running, I will want to remove the Windows 7 from Drive D. I suspect I will encounter the same situation as with my older computer as described in the original post. Could someone outline a course of action so that I can do the following:

1. Remove Windows 7 from the secondary drive D. ( I would normally just format that drive and have a spare drive for that machine)
2. Get rid of the dual boot screen that now comes up with both operating systems showing
3. Have a computer that boots up with no dual boot screen and not have to do a repair installation of Windows XP on the C: drive.

Thanks for any help with my project.

John Foster

Reply | Quote