Hi, Iris.
To get rid of WinXP, you need to do just 3 things:
1. Delete WinXP's boot folder tree, with all those GBs of files and
folders.
2. Remove WinXP's startup files (NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and Boot.ini) from
the Root of the System Partition (but these 3 files total much less than 1
MB).
3.` Remove WinXP from the startup menu (but you can just leave this and
ignore it if you like).
For background, please read this KB article:
Definitions for system volume and boot volume
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314470/EN-US/
Note a couple of key points in that KB article. First, the terms "system
volume" and "boot volume" seem backwards to most computer users. ("We boot
from the system volume and keep the operating system files in the boot
volume!") But that usage is rooted in computer history and is not likely to
change. Second, each OS will have its own boot volume, but there will be
only a single system volume for the whole computer.
Boot into WinXP and run Disk Management. Assign a name (label) to each of
your volumes. Drive letters are transient and can change, depending on
which OS is running, but the volume labels are written to the disk and will
stay the same, no matter which OS is running. For now, let's assume the
names will be "First" and "Second".
Now, in WinXP's Disk Management, note which volumes have the System and Boot
status. I expect that Drive C: will be labeled "First" and will be both
System and Boot. Then reboot into Vista and run Disk Management. Drive C:
will now be the one labeled "Second"; it will have the Boot status, but not
System. The System status will now be on Drive D:, the one still labeled
"First".
If all that is as I expect, then to get rid of the WinXP installation, all
you need do is delete WinXP's boot folder, D:\Windows.
You cannot delete D:\Windows while booted into WinXP because no OS will
delete itself, or its own boot folder. But when you are booted into Vista,
WinXP's boot folder is "just another folder" and can easily be deleted.
Note that I did not say to delete or reformat the system volume. Neither
WinXP nor Vista will do that.
Reliance on "drive" letters may be causing some of the confusion. Part of
that is because the lettering algorithm changed in Vista's Setup.exe. If
you had installed Vista by booting into WinXP and running Vista's Setup.exe
from the WinXP Desktop, Setup would have seen that WinXP had assigned the
letter C: to "First", the System Partition - which also was WinXP's boot
volume. But you apparently installed Vista by booting from the Vista DVD.
This is a perfectly valid method, but Vista's Setup could not see WinXP's
drive letter assignments in this case, so it started assigning letters from
scratch. First, it assigned the letter C: to its own boot volume, which is
"Second". Then it assigned the next letter, D:, to the System Partition,
"First" - which WinXP called C:.
So, both WinXP and Vista agree that "First" is the System Partition, but
WinXP calls it Drive C: and Vista calls the same partition Drive D:. And
both WinXP and Vista think their own boot volume is Drive C:, but WinXP
means "First (C
" and Vista means "Second (C
".
> The XP partitions says "System, Primary Partition". I set the Vista
> partition to be 'active'.
Only one partition on each HDD should be marked Active (bootable). This
should always be the System Partition.
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@grandecom.net
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100
"irisbu" <guest@unknown-email.com> wrote in message
news:2cb67a55a7cabf3e744099ebf352478f@nntp-gateway.com...
>
> Hello,
>
> I installed Vista on a PC that previously had XP pro. I basically only
> need vista nowadays and want to get rid of XP pro to gain more HD space.
>
> So, Vista is on partition C and XP is on partition D on the sam
> harddrive.
> I can not delete or partition the XP part. I get an error message
> saying :
>
> "The attempted operation cannot be completed. This operation is not
> valid on volumes containing system partition, boot partition ore
> pagefiles"
>
> The XP partitions says "System, Primary Partition". I set the Vista
> partition to be 'active'.
>
> Anybody here with an idea or suggestion how to get rid of XP in a safe
> way?
>
> Thanks for your help.
> Iris
>
>
> --
> irisbu
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