Creating System Reserved Partition and Deleting Windows 7

Hi

My husband wants me to remove Windows 7 from his computer so he is left with just windows 10. Sounds simple enough but there is a problem in that his active boot disk is the Windows 7 partition - he has no System Reserved or Recovery partitions, just Windows 7 and Windows 10 on his system disk.

To achieve what he wants I am wondering if its a matter of deleting the Windows 7 partition, creating a 450MB partition to serve as the System Reserved partition and making it Active. Then, using the Windows 10 Repair Disk, rebooting his computer three times to get the boot files in the System Reserved partition.

I've also just had a look at another thread I started some while ago where I was advised to use EasyBCD. So looking at this again can I do the following:

1. Resize the Windows 7 partition to make space for a System Reserved partition
2. Make the newly created partition Active
3. Apply a letter to the partition
4. Use EasyBCD to move the boot files to the new System Reserved partition
5. Remove the letter from the System Reserved partition
6. Delete the Windows 7 partition

The only reason I'm doubtful of this process is that when I tried it on my own PC some years ago it didn't work and I believe it took me some time to sort it out.

Both methods sounds very simple although for the reason above I tend to favour the first method if it will work - but really, are either of these processes as easy as they sound? Both sound too good to be true - so maybe they are! I don't know, that is why I am asking.

Any help most appreciated. Thanks.
Tracey

Just clean install 10.

Put it on a USB.
Boot.
Install.

It really isn't difficult. Clean Install Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Your problems with your wife are probably best discussed on another forum.

Thanks for all the responses but I must admit I rather like the one suggested by NavyLCDR. In fact its one I had sorted out prior to typing my post but then got waylaid by something else that occurred to me. I had a feeling that was the way you would suggest if you responded NavyLCDR having dealt with you in my previous problem re UEFI which incidentally is now all singing all dancing at the moment.

Anyway as far as my husband's system is concerned it looks like I've got the way to go particularly as he is extremely reluctant to do a clean install - and its a process pretty much along the lines I thought of in the first place. Thank you very much for confirming my thoughts NavyLCDR.

Tracey

Thanks for your response cereberus. You may well be right thinking about it. A recent thread I started regarding two copies of BOOTMGR has resulted in confirming the BOOTMGR I boot from is on my System Reserved partition and I've managed to rename the second copy but can I remove it? No way. And I haven't tried finding out just how to do it as yet. I tried going into Windows 7 and doing it from there but again I couldn't do it so I've left it for the moment.

What I am saying is that you may be right in that I will not be allowed to delete the Windows 7 partition. All I can do is try it and if I can't then I have to find another way around it. Quite frankly I feel his PC could do with a fresh install as there seems to be several small things going wrong just at the moment. Plus, for someone who reserved the C drive for Windows, the contents of the drive is quite large, something over 70GB - mine is 28GB. He's so stubborn though and he'll carry on until he has no choice but to reinstall. Correction, I'll have to reinstall Windows and set it up for him but he'll have to install all his apps and drivers etc. although no doubt I'll be expected to help out when he runs into trouble as inevitably he will.

Anything that is done will not necessarily be done in the next week or even before the New Year or maybe even many months after that. It'll depend on how things go with his PC. Really I suppose I'm preparing myself for when he does want these jobs done whenever that may be.

Thanks again for your help folks.
Tracey

I'm not clear if you have a UEFI or BIOS based install. I seem to remember installing Windows 7 on UEFI was difficult but I can't remember really.

If you have an old BIOS based install then the data stored in track one of your disk will tell your PC what to boot. Fiddling with that is a bore - you have to use Linux dd command to overwrite it (or copy it from one disk to another). Windows 8 installer will do that automatically but not Windows 7 IIRC.

If it is UEFI (i.e. made in the last decade or so) then your EFI firmware will simply look for a FAT formatted partition with type EE and it is easy - you can simply replace the contents of C (or the ESP or both).

@TraceyW,

Here you go. I set up a hard drive with a Windows 7 and Windows 10 partitions (and installations). The disk is MBR. The Windows 7 partition is set to active and the computer boots from it in Legacy BIOS mode:



I verified the computer will indeed boot into both Windows 7 and Windows 10. I booted into Windows 10. I installed and used MiniTool Partition Wizard Free to delete the Windows 7 partition:



^^^^Click Yes and make sure to click the Apply button on the menu bar.

Then I opened a Command Prompt (Admin) - "Run As Administrator" Command Prompt and did the following commands:

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.16299.15]
(c) 2017 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.16299.15

Copyright (C) Microsoft CorporaACtion.
On computer: DESKTOP-KIP5MKC

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          232 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    Online          931 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 2    Online          465 GB   265 GB        *
  Disk 3    Online          298 GB   100 GB
  Disk 4    Online           28 GB      0 B

DISKPART> select disk 3

Disk 3 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> create part pri size=100

DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

DISKPART> format fs=ntfs quick label="System Reserved"

  100 percent completed

DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.

DISKPART> active

DiskPart marked the current partition as active.

DISKPART> assign letter = t

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

C:\Windows\system32>bcdboot C:\Windows /s T: /f ALL
Boot files successfully created.

C:\Windows\system32>exit

NOTE: your disk number will be different than mine. Probably 0.

After running the above commands, this is my final disk layout:



The computer boots straight into Windows 10 now. From here you can go back into MiniTool Partition Wizard Free. I would suggest removing drive letter T: from the newly created "System Reserved" partition. You can resize the OS partition to fill the unallocated space in front of (or behind) it. If the unallocatd space is in front - MiniTool will want to restart the computer to finish it.

I sincerely hope this answered everyone's doubts.

Well NavyLCDR you really have gone the extra mile haven't you.? Thanks very much indeed for that. I've been a long time user of PW in fact I have a paid for version (I needed some data recovery features the free one didn't have). Its good to know that what you advised me to do and what I had in mind to do will actually work despite the doubts that others place in your mind. Again I'll follow the exact procedure you followed so there shouldn't really be real a problem and I'll copy and print your post so that I have it to hand when I carry out the necessary work. Again, thank you so much for your help over the last few weeks.

Tracey

PS I presume your reinstall went OK.