I must be the only person wanting to get rid of XP and use vista.

September 1, 2008 12:41 PM

I started with XP. Installed vista. Then I could choose between XP and Vista. I'm not using XP any more. Can I just delete the XP partition?

Picture the scene. I built a HTPC and put XP media center on it. I didn't like it. So I bought vista, and amazingly it works brilliantly! When I installed vista it placed me in a dual boot scenario. I'm not using XP any more and my vista partition is running out of space. So I want to get rid of the XP partition and then expand my vista partition into the free space.

If I delete the XP partition from within Vista will I bork the boot process?

What would be the best way to get rid of the XP partition and still have a working system?

Thanks in advance.

posted by gergtreble to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Should be ok to do. You can delete the entire partition. When the computer boots it should run the vista bootloader anyway.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:19 PM on September 1, 2008

Id backup critical data before too.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:20 PM on September 1, 2008

All data is backed up no need to worry about that. So its all good?

Brilliant.
posted by gergtreble at 1:32 PM on September 1, 2008

Ah. Its deleted ok and vista reboots thats good. But I cant seem to stretch the vista partition I think its at the opposite edge of the disk. Any ideas?
posted by gergtreble at 2:16 PM on September 1, 2008

Dowload the live version of GParted. Burn it or put it on a USB-drive, boot from that and resize your partitions to your heart's desire.
Do back up first, though. These things are delicate.
posted by signal at 2:20 PM on September 1, 2008

Vista supports extending a partition.
posted by damn dirty ape at 2:33 PM on September 1, 2008

Here's what you do (done similar things dozens of times now, so it should be no problem):

1) Get everything off the XP partition you want to keep - don't forget things like bookmarks, downloads, program settings, etc.)

2) In Vista, hit the start button, type "Computer Management", and select that item

3) Double click storage, then Disk Management, and let it load.

4) Select the XP partition (either in the top of bottom section), right click, and select delete. You'll get some warnings, just go ahead.

5) Right click the Vista partition, and choose "Extend Volume", and take as much space back as you can (usually there will be a small amount you can't, like 1-20MB)

Here you may get a message that the changes can't be made while the OS is active, and you will need to reboot in order to apply the changes. Go ahead and reboot, and like the disk check, there will be a screen that comes up before Windows that shows the progress.*

Hooray! No XP!
BUT, you'll still have the entry when you boot. Download EasyBCD (free, easy to use Vista Bootloader editor). Just delete the XP entry and save. Reboot to make sure it works as it should.

You're good to go!

* - I had one incident where the partition editor wasn't shown during the reboot where it resizes the partition size. Wait 5 minutes and check you hard drive activity light. If it is lit solid or flickering, leave the computer alone for a good 2 hours (unless you have a nearly full 1TB drive, wait 4 just to be safe). If it is off, just reboot, and post here. Basically the program sometimes runs without actually showing it on the screen, which still works, but it can also crash right away with certain configurations. THe activity light will let you know if it is doing its job.
posted by neuroking at 2:39 PM on September 1, 2008