Didnt find such a tutorial if I installed windows 7 on a partition of my vista or xp and then removing vista or xp if I decided to keep windows 7 permanently.
by trial an error I managed to get it done with the following steps. if you are unsure, do a full PC backup first before you attempt.
1) boot into windows 7
2) create boot record on windows 7. in command prompt type bcdboot c:\windows /s c:
3) remove all page files running on vista (d
if you have them
4) right click on my computer select manage. select disk management. right click on the partition containing your windows 7 OS and choose "make partition active"
5) reboot (should boot from windows 7 boot manager) without showing the OS selection screen
6) only if you are sure that the previous steps are done correctly and your computer is booting from windows 7 partition. delete vista/xp partition from disk management. might need to use "remove" first from change drive letter option
7) to recover unallocated free space before your windows 7 partition
a) use partition wizard to expand your current windows 7 partition (free and compatible partition software Partition Wizard is a Windows based FREE Partition Manager. It works as partition magic and supports Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 server and Windows 7. FREE for Home and Business user.)
b) norton ghost to clone windows 7 to unallocated partition, make new partition active
delete and recover old windows 7 partition (I did the previous step a. this step b is just how I would do it if step a failed. not tested. only would work if your windows 7 partition is smaller than your xp/vista)
Let me know if it worked for you.
by trial an error I managed to get it done with the following steps. if you are unsure, do a full PC backup first before you attempt.
1) boot into windows 7
2) create boot record on windows 7. in command prompt type bcdboot c:\windows /s c:
3) remove all page files running on vista (d
if you have them4) right click on my computer select manage. select disk management. right click on the partition containing your windows 7 OS and choose "make partition active"
5) reboot (should boot from windows 7 boot manager) without showing the OS selection screen
6) only if you are sure that the previous steps are done correctly and your computer is booting from windows 7 partition. delete vista/xp partition from disk management. might need to use "remove" first from change drive letter option
7) to recover unallocated free space before your windows 7 partition
a) use partition wizard to expand your current windows 7 partition (free and compatible partition software Partition Wizard is a Windows based FREE Partition Manager. It works as partition magic and supports Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 server and Windows 7. FREE for Home and Business user.)
b) norton ghost to clone windows 7 to unallocated partition, make new partition active
delete and recover old windows 7 partition (I did the previous step a. this step b is just how I would do it if step a failed. not tested. only would work if your windows 7 partition is smaller than your xp/vista)
Let me know if it worked for you.
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