dual boot xp and 7

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nemidanam

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Jul 21, 2014
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Hi

Info:

  • Have a pc running both windows xp, and windows 7 - using dual boot pro (not installed by myself)
    On the windows xp there is an application that I need, and cannot be installed on newer os, and not interested in upgrading (spending for the newer version), since the xp one does what I need
    Having the windows 7 is not vital
    The pc has stopped booting, and it seems to be the ram

What I have done:
Since I have another unused pc (with different specs) I just took the hdd, and put it on the unused one, when prompted to choose the os if I select windows 7 it won't boot (does all the fixing procedure, and says it cannot fix), if I select windows xp it loads fine, and I can use the application I need.
A peculiar thing I noticed is that while the windows 7 boots as in drive C, the windows xp is set as drive I, when I select windows xp, the drive lables are the same, meaning the windows xp is still shown as running on I, and on C is the windows 7

My questions:
How would I disable the dual boot screen, so that it boots to xp directly (from what I can gather dual boot pro is installed on the windows 7)?
If I delete the windows 7 files, do you think the pc will boot fine?

Open to suggestions on other solutions to mainly save the windows xp, and if possible windows 7.
Buying new ram is not an option (running on low budget)

Thank you
 
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QwerkyPengwen

QwerkyPengwen

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Jan 16, 2014
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since you're not the one who set it up this is difficult to answer since you won't be able to tell me what I need to know about the dual boot configuration.

But to help you understand a little bit more, dual booting is where you create two separate partitions on one drive, so they act like and get recognized as two separate hard drives.

WXP is on one partition while Windows 7 is on the other.

However, each OS requires an MBR (Master Boot Record) to be installed on one of the partitions.
And with this dual boot software you see when loading up the PC, it typically takes the place of the one MBR and is capable of housing more than one MBR within itself which is what allows you to dual boot since only one MBR can be installed at a time.

What you need to find out is which partition the MBR is stored on.
If it happens to be stored on the partition that contains W7, then deleting that partition would render booting into WXP useless and would require you to go through a time consuming process to recreate the MBR and put it on the main partition of WXP in order to get it to boot.

If the MBR happens to be stored on the partition with WXP then it's as easy as deleting the W7 partition to then expanding the partition of WXP to incorporate that extra space for itself.
 
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nemidanam

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Jul 21, 2014
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4,530
Thank you.

The dual boot pro application is on the C partiton under windows 7 program files (x86), am I correct in guessing MBR is on the C partition?
In the case, how would I do?
 
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