Removing Windows 7???

Zeb · 16th February 2010, 18:09

How can I remove the Release Candidate version of Windows 7? My laptop is set up as a dual boot machine between Vista and Windows 7.
Microsoft have emailed me to say I MUST upgrade or my system starts doing nasties....is this the case with dual boot if I am not using W7?

Simon · 16th February 2010, 18:21

If you're not using the RC then no - nothing untoward will happen. Only if you boot in to the RC partition might it start being funny with you.

If however you wish to remove the RC boot completely and lose any data stored on it then you can unpartition that part of the hard disk. More than likely you'll have options to format it too thus erasing the data. You could also simply format the partition but leave it in situ as a separate 'space' for whatever you wish to put in there

Zeb · 17th February 2010, 08:22

Thanks Simon...I just have this nagging feeling that Microsoft's two hourly reboots with no possibility of saving any files might somehow now apply to Vista...just because W7 is still on the system. It does appear to have been installed on a separate partition - I have three - but I cannot remember what options I ticked when I installed it! So I am a bit leery about removing the W7 files as I am not sure what will then happen at boot-up.

DavidNW · 17th February 2010, 08:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeb

How can I remove the Release Candidate version of Windows 7? My laptop is set up as a dual boot machine between Vista and Windows 7.
Microsoft have emailed me to say I MUST upgrade or my system starts doing nasties....is this the case with dual boot if I am not using W7?

If you are dual booting, and you remove the RC version of W7, you will have to reinstall the Master Boot Record (MBR) for Vista or it will not boot at all!

Don't know if this is the case if you are dual booting from the same partition though, but suspect it is. I have always dual booted from 2 drives using XP and another OS. Each time I have decided to get rid of the other OS, I have not been able to boot into XP, until I have reinstalled the MBR for XP. I know how to do this for XP, but now using W7, so will have to find out how to do it.

So, as far as my experience goes, I would say that if you just want to keep Vista on your laptop, you will have to reinstall the MBR for it.

Here's a link on how to do that:

http://www.tomstricks.com/how-to-rep...ot-record-mbr/

Hope this helps.

David.

Zeb · 17th February 2010, 09:00

Thanks David, at least if I try removing it now I can be sure I can get Vista working again!

DavidNW · 17th February 2010, 10:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeb

Thanks David, at least if I try removing it now I can be sure I can get Vista working again!

Just a thought. If you decide to remove W7, I would suggest you reinstall the Vista MBR beforehand. Not sure if this will make a difference, just think it might be an added precaution in preserving the operation of Vista once W7 has been removed.

Zeb · 18th February 2010, 21:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidNW

Just a thought. If you decide to remove W7, I would suggest you reinstall the Vista MBR beforehand. Not sure if this will make a difference, just think it might be an added precaution in preserving the operation of Vista once W7 has been removed.

That sounds like a good move...thanks!

16th February 2010, 18:09	#1
Zeb Banned MGZT V8 & ZTT 190+LPG Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 8,089 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Removing Windows 7??? How can I remove the Release Candidate version of Windows 7? My laptop is set up as a dual boot machine between Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft have emailed me to say I MUST upgrade or my system starts doing nasties....is this the case with dual boot if I am not using W7?

16th February 2010, 18:21	#2
Simon Banned - Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: - Posts: 10,318 Thanks: 0 Thanked 4 Times in 3 Posts	If you're not using the RC then no - nothing untoward will happen. Only if you boot in to the RC partition might it start being funny with you. If however you wish to remove the RC boot completely and lose any data stored on it then you can unpartition that part of the hard disk. More than likely you'll have options to format it too thus erasing the data. You could also simply format the partition but leave it in situ as a separate 'space' for whatever you wish to put in there

17th February 2010, 08:22	#3
Zeb Banned MGZT V8 & ZTT 190+LPG Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 8,089 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Thanks Simon...I just have this nagging feeling that Microsoft's two hourly reboots with no possibility of saving any files might somehow now apply to Vista...just because W7 is still on the system. It does appear to have been installed on a separate partition - I have three - but I cannot remember what options I ticked when I installed it! So I am a bit leery about removing the W7 files as I am not sure what will then happen at boot-up.

17th February 2010, 09:00	#5
Zeb Banned MGZT V8 & ZTT 190+LPG Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 8,089 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Thanks David, at least if I try removing it now I can be sure I can get Vista working again!