Windows 8 Remove XP from dual Boot

B

bcfl

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I have an older tower running W8.1 update 1 and Wxp - each OS is on a separate hard drive, when I boot the computer I get the choice of booting to W8.1 or earlier OS. I am now ready to remove the XP drive and delete all the information, my question is:

Is there a proper method to remove the choice of OS on the boot screen, or will it be removed if I just remove the hard drive with XP on it?
Thanks for your assistance.
 

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Hi

First, remove Windows XP from your boot menu.
This is very important, if you delete Windows XP before removing it from the boot order your computer won't boot.

To do this the easiest way is to use EasyBCD but you can do it through the command prompt too.
I just like the visual interface that shows just what it happening.

Just tell it that Windows 8 is the default OS and remove Windows 7 from the boot options.

Also check the box that says to skip the boot menu at start up.

Next Reboot you computer to make sure it boots directly into Windows 8 without opening the boot menu screen. Try it a couple of times.

Once you are sure that it's booting into Windows 8 directly it's safe to remove Windows 7.

If the boot menu is on the...
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You need to make sure where the boot files are. Could you attach a picture of your Disk Management window taken with the snipping tool? Attach using the upload a file button.
 
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Remove Earlier Version of Windows boot option: Also you may need to read the following if XP still shows up in your Boot process
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Hi

First, remove Windows XP from your boot menu.
This is very important, if you delete Windows XP before removing it from the boot order your computer won't boot.

To do this the easiest way is to use EasyBCD but you can do it through the command prompt too.
I just like the visual interface that shows just what it happening.

Just tell it that Windows 8 is the default OS and remove Windows 7 from the boot options.

Also check the box that says to skip the boot menu at start up.

Next Reboot you computer to make sure it boots directly into Windows 8 without opening the boot menu screen. Try it a couple of times.

Once you are sure that it's booting into Windows 8 directly it's safe to remove Windows 7.

If the boot menu is on the Windows 7 disk don't format the disk or do anything to remove the boot menu from the drive.

I'm pretty sure that you can use EasyBCD to create a new boot sector on the same drive that has Windows 8.1 on it.

Here's where you get EasyBCD...

http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

It's very simple and easy to use.

Mike
 
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Solution
Saltgrass said:
You need to make sure where the boot files are. Could you attach a picture of your Disk Management window taken with the snipping tool? Attach using the upload a file button.
Click to expand...

OK, here is the pic of the dsk mgt window.
 

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This is not clear. Both system drives are active. To be safe, disconnect the XP disk and see whether 8.1 still boots. If yes, you can just delete the XP partition.
 
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I assume that xp is on the e drive in that picture and that it has it's swap files on the c drive… ie Windows 8 is controlling the dual-boot interface. in this event just make windows 8 the default choice and the system will boot & adjust itself without the xp drive.

If for some strange reason you don't have windows 8 in charge but some legacy system like windows 7 or perhaps some Linux system was in there in the past then that will require extra steps but is still recoverable by booting into the windows 8 system recovery drive.

In any event it is simple enough to test safely as whs said by temp disconnecting the xp drive at the power or sata cable and see if the system will then boot up.
 
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Hi

Since the boot files are on the Window 8 disk, in your image, you can just remove Windows XP from the boot list reboot and then remove Windows XP.

As I said the easy way it with EasyBCD.

My guess is that you won't be able to boot to the Windows 8 install if you disconnect the drive with Windows XP on it unless you remove it from the boot menu first.

At least every time I've seen a system where one of the OSes was remove while it was still listed in the boot menu it wouldn't boot.
But there's no real risk in trying.

You can always just plug it back in, unlike people I know who just deleted their second OS, and found their computer unbootable.
I was one of them once upon a time, when I had a Windows 7 Windows XP setup and removed XP. LOL

That was a bad experience.

Mike
 
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I guess I'm getting a little confused, my current setup is:
SATA 0 on MB is my 'HPwXPcDrive' drive
SATA 1 on MB is my '750gb drive' drive
SATA 2 on MB is my 'HPw8cDrive' drive

if I boot to W8.1.1 my disk mgt looks like W811Boot.jpg
if I boot to XP my disk mft looks like WxpBoot.jpg

if I remove my XP drive and plug my W8 drive into SATA 0 on the MB I get an error on boot that says
NTLDR is Missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

is that what EasyBCD will add to the W8 drive once I remove "older OS from the boot menu?"
Thanks, Bob
 

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Please clear up two points;

a. Did you set this system up… know what windows was installed first?

b. Is the windows 8 installed in legacy mode or is there an efi partition?

p.s. Yes that would give you an error because the boot drive is no longer in slot 3.
 
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In Windows 8, the boot files are where the System is indicated, so they are on the XP drive.

Do you have Windows 8 bootable media to repair with if you were to need it?

If you are removing the XP drive and still showing the boot system is looking for NTLDR, you may need to run a bootsect /nt60 command. Hopefully the Repair on just the Windows 8 drive will repair that first, but it may take several runs for the system to be normal.

Since the Windows 8 partition is already marked as active, you should be able to do a startup repair and get your system setup. Make sure and remove the XP drive.

I had a situation, self inflicted, where I removed the boot files. The repair system did fix the problem, but did not know it had done so. If you get a message with a suggestion to Restore your system, cancel out and reboot, the system may boot normally.

You also have an option to use the bcdboot.exe utility to place the boot files, but if you were to do that, we will need to reset your Recovery options.
 
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Hi

If I'm reading this right it shows Drive HPw8cDrive (C: as the boot drive, and the Drive with Windows 8 on it.
And HPwXPcDrive (E: as the drive with Windows XP on it, with no Boot Sector.

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So once you have removed Windows XP from the boot list the computer should just boot into Windows 8 by default.

Some of the confusion is because when dual booting, which ever drive you boot into becomes the C:\ drive in Windows Explorer and Disk Manager.

It will also show as the System Disk depending on which one you are booted into.

But the image above shows that the boot sector is on the same drive as Windows 8.

Try using EasyBCD to remove Windows XP from the boot menu and see if it boots directly into 8 without a boot selection screen.

If it does then it's safe to remove Windows XP, but you can test this just by changing the name of the Windows folder for the Windows XP installation to Alt Windows when booted into Windows 8, you don't have to actually remove it to see if having it gone makes any difference.

Remember don't do this without removing it from the boot list first or you computer won't boot.
You would have to boot your computer into Ubuntu or something and change the name back.

Here's my copy of EasyBCD showing my computer.

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If I also had Windows XP installed in a dual boot setup, it would show under Widows 8 in the list above.

That's what you should see when you open EasyBCD, try it there's no risk to looking at it and it will show you exactly what your boot setup is.

To not have it on the boot menu all I would have to do is tell it to delete it, and make sure Windows 8 is set as default.

It won't remove anything from your computer, just remove it from the boot options.

You can also use the Skip boot menu option but I don't think you will see one if you only have one OS anyway.
This is how my computer is set up and I don't.

If you wanted to you can use the Add New Entry option to add it back into the boot list or to add any other OS that's on your computer.

Mike
 
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The other images you posted show that the Boot Sector is on the Windows 8 drive too.
However as long as you don't delete it, it doesn't make any difference eitherway.

I have to admit that I'm surprised that it's shown on the drive with Windows 8, usually is will be on the drive with which ever OS was installed first.

Or did you add Windows XP after having Windows 8 installed?

Just don't format the XP drive and it will continue to read the boot sector where ever it is.
 
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Resolved - XP disk removed - Thank you all - Steps taken:
1. used EasyBCD2.2 (thanks Mike) to eliminate the "Older Operating System" (xp) from the W8.1 Boot Menu
Renamed Windows Directory on XP drive to oldWindows, this allowed me to boot directly to W8.1.
pulled the plug on the XP drive and the system gave NTLDR missing Error.
2. Used original W8 disk to attempt repair, reported "unable to repair" used bootsect /nt60 thanks Saltgrass) on W8.1 drive
still wouldn't boot.
3 Used original W8 disk to attempt repair, and it repaired!

Now I only have the W8.1 hard drive and the 750g hard drive in the system utilizing SATA0 & SATA1 respectively and the XP
drive is on the desk, wouldn't have been able to do it without everyone's help
THANKS AGAIN
 
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