I have a dual boot system with Windows7 and WinXP - both 64bit.I can now do without the XP installation, but Windows7 won't let me either delete or format the XP disk.I'm assuming it's because that disk probably contains the vital boot-up files etc but don't know for sure?Is there a way I free up that disk and just keep the W7 installation on the separate disk?Thanks

If your XP partition have Win7 boot files then the best thing to do would be to install Win7 from scratch and format the whole drive over.There is a program called EasyBCD that can move boot files. I have never used it. Try posting your question under the hard drive or Windows section over at www.overclock.net There are people over there that know how to use EasyBCD.

You can use Mini Tool Partition WizardJust format your XP partition with it, then resize your W7 partition to take the free space

I have a dual boot system with Windows7 and WinXP - both 64bit.I can now do without the XP installation, but Windows7 won't let me either delete or format the XP disk.I'm assuming it's because that disk probably contains the vital boot-up files etc but don't know for sure?Is there a way I free up that disk and just keep the W7 installation on the separate disk?Thanks

All you need to do is go into controlpanel>administrator tools>computer Managment>Manage disk, now go to the partition that has XP and change it from being a boot partition and then you will have full access to delete the files and the partition.

All you need to do is go into controlpanel>administrator tools>computer Managment>Manage disk, now go to the partition that has XP and change it from being a boot partition and then you will have full access to delete the files and the partition.

yep, that's right, actually you can resize partitions with the disk manager too, so no need for Mini Tool Partition Wizard or anything

yep, that's right, actually you can resize partitions with the disk manager too, so no need for Mini Tool Partition Wizard or anything

The problem I have is Win7 Disk Manager says it can't format the partition.The menu items shrink and expand are greyed out out.

The problem I have is Win7 Disk Manager says it can't format the partition.The menu items shrink and expand are greyed out out.

Because you have to change it from being a bootable drive first (re-read my post).

It's not marked as a boot partition, though it is marked as an 'active'.It doesn't give a option to remove active status.Thanks

I'm guessing you might have a problem because the Win 7 bootloader is pointing to / and files installed on the partition that you have XP on (marked as active). If you were to just remove that partition win 7 could no longer boot, as the MBR for the disk isn't set up right. If your win 7 is installed in an logical drive / extended partition you may be stuck as I think you have to have a primary (not extended) partition set as active for the initial bootloader files. You could probably delete all the Win XP files off the active partition (C:\Windows, C:\temp etc) and then shrink the partition down to a nominal size (8 Meg or so) then add the free space from that into the extended partition. Assuming you just have one logical drive in the extended partition, you could then grow the logical drive to once again fill the entire extended partition. If you have multiple logical drives in the extended partition, you will have to ensure the free space is contiguous to the logical drive you want to grow.scott s..