Dual Boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 - Delete Windows 7

How to Delete "Windows 7" in your Dual Boot with Windows 8​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to delete Windows 7 in your dual boot with Windows 8 when Windows 7 was installed first and Windows 8 installed second. This will leave you with only having Windows 8 installed afterwards.

   Warning

You will need to have the Microsoft System Reserved Partition.

Part One

Here's How:


1. Start or restart your PC, and boot into Windows 8. (see screenshot below)

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2. Open Disk Management by typing diskmgmt.msc in search bar. (see screenshot below)

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3. In Disk Management, delete the partition that you installed Windows 7 on so that is is now unallocated space. (see screenshots below)

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4. If you like, you could either create a new partition to use with the unallocated space, or extend the Windows 8 C: drive into the unallocated space to add it back to the C: partition. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This will vary depending on how you have your hard drive setup though.

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   Note

For (B) Setup to extend Partition C: you will need a third party partitioning app like Paragon Software,

   Note

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You can download, a free versions from here:​

Paragon Partition Manager Free Edition - Free Download​

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You will need to register for a Product Key.​

http://download.paragon-software.com/doc/PM12Free_en_manual.pdf​

Paragon Partition Manager 11 - How to Resize a Partition - YouTube​

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5. When finished, restart your PC and only have Windows 8 installed and listed in the Windows Boot Manager screen.

Part Two

When you have your Dual boot on a PC with a uEFI setup.




Follow the steps in Part One.

   Note

As Paragon have updated for Windows 8.1, you will need Paragon 14.
Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14 Suite (64-bit) - PC Advisor
Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14 Professional free download - Download the latest freeware, shareware and trial software - Downloadcrew

Paragon Hard Disk Manager Professional - Overview
or try
Install Windows 8 or 8.1 on Removable USB Flash Drive and Boot it from Any Computer

All done.
Ray

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Delete "Windows 8" in your Dual Boot with Windows 7 or Vista
• How to Delete an Operating System Listed in Windows Boot Manager
• How to Do a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 8 and Windows 7 or Vista
• How to Create a Windows 8 VHD at Boot to Dual Boot with Windows 7 or Vista
• How to Enable or Disable the New Windows 8 Startup Options Boot Menu
• How to Choose a Default Operating System to Run at Startup in Windows 8
• How to Downgrade Windows 8 to Windows 7

 

[robert66]

Well it worked I guess but a strange thing happened, there is no 350MB system reserved after I resized the Windows 8.1 partition,
it is 100mb system reserved + (C ) 126MB with two hidden folders "$RECYCLE.BIN" and "System Volume Information"

How did you make the 126mb partition?

You could delete the partition & add to the 100mb partition.

I didn't ,paragon did it on it's own after i deleted W7 completely and resized W8.1.

So how do I add that 126MB to the 100MB partition? If u don't mind can u describe it somehow m8

 

[theog]

Well it worked I guess but a strange thing happened, there is no 350MB system reserved after I resized the Windows 8.1 partition,
it is 100mb system reserved + (C ) 126MB with two hidden folders "$RECYCLE.BIN" and "System Volume Information"

How did you make the 126mb partition?

You could delete the partition & add to the 100mb partition.

I didn't ,paragon did it on it's own after i deleted W7 completely and resized W8.1.

So how do I add that 126MB to the 100MB partition? If u don't mind can u describe it somehow m8

Step 4. Delete & Extend.

 

[robert66]

How did you make the 126mb partition?

You could delete the partition & add to the 100mb partition.

I didn't ,paragon did it on it's own after i deleted W7 completely and resized W8.1.

So how do I add that 126MB to the 100MB partition? If u don't mind can u describe it somehow m8

Step 4. Delete & Extend.

Thanks m8 for this useful tutorial and for the time , it's all right now.

 

[Shawn]

Hello, My scenario may be slightly different depending on what "System_Drv" means for one of my partitions. The tutorial stated that there must be a "Microsoft System Reserved Partition". My laptop is a Leonovo, so it has its built in recovery partition, Lenovo_Recovery. Maybe that is why my smaller partition is labeled System_driv? Or is that the same thing as the MS reserved partition?
How do I proceed? thanks.

 

[theog]

Hello, My scenario may be slightly different depending on what "System_Drv" means for one of my partitions. The tutorial stated that there must be a "Microsoft System Reserved Partition". My laptop is a Leonovo, so it has its built in recovery partition, Lenovo_Recovery. Maybe that is why my smaller partition is labeled System_driv? Or is that the same thing as the MS reserved partition?
View attachment 36632How do I proceed? thanks.

As you have Windows 8 a Logical partition, I would back up your DATA & do a clean install of Windows 8.

 

[Shawn]

Ah, yes. Thank you.

 

[Shawn]

As you have Windows 8 a Logical partition, I would back up your DATA & do a clean install of Windows 8.

I guess my concern is not getting access to the drivers for my Lenovo x220 convertible tablet. With a clean install I may not be able to use the Lenovo Software Updater to automatically get the right touch-screen drivers, etc. since the harddrive will have been whipped clean.

 

[Gilgamesh]

I guess my concern is not getting access to the drivers for my Lenovo x220 convertible tablet. With a clean install I may not be able to use the Lenovo Software Updater to automatically get the right touch-screen drivers, etc. since the harddrive will have been whipped clean.

You might consider backing up your windows 8 partition data, deleting windows 8 and doing an upgrade over your windows 7 partition

 

[Shawn]

Gilgamesh: thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I went into win 7 and wiped and merged the win 8 partition into win 7 so I have not win 8 partition data.

 

[Gilgamesh]

   Warning

You will need to have the Microsoft System Reserved Partition.

Is there a way of doing this if you don't have the Microsoft System Reserved Partition?
I used to have a triple boot of Vista, Win7, and Win 8 and I decided to retire Vista and deleted its partition while making Win 7 the boot partition. Big mistake as my system became unbootable and Win7 and Win8 repairs wouldn't work. So I had to do fresh installs of Win7 and Win8 .

 

[Shawn]

But I thought a full win 8 pro disk could over-write (update) the native win 7 drive. Why would I need a win 8 partition that was created after the fact on an original win 7 laptop? Am I missing something?

 

[Gilgamesh]

Gilgamesh: thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I went into win 7 and wiped and merged the win 8 partition into win 7 so I have not win 8 partition data.

But I thought a full win 8 pro disk could over-write (update) the native win 7 drive. Why would I need a win 8 partition that was created after the fact on an original win 7 laptop? Am I missing something?

I only said backup the win 8 data in case you had anything you wanted to keep there.
As you have already wiped the win 8 partition I'll take that as a no.
So now you can just do an upgrade install over win 7 rather than a full install of win 8, which is the easiest path.

What I would do is check the Lenovo web site to see if they have the win 8 drivers and utilities that you want available for download. If so download them onto a DVD or USB. Then do a clean install of win 8 loading the required drivers/utilities off the DVD/USB. This does have the risk of not all utilites/drivers being there so backup your win 7 before doing anything.

 

[Shawn]

Will do. Thank you.

 

[theog]

   Warning

You will need to have the Microsoft System Reserved Partition.

Is there a way of doing this if you don't have the Microsoft System Reserved Partition?
I used to have a triple boot of Vista, Win7, and Win 8 and I decided to retire Vista and deleted its partition while making Win 7 the boot partition. Big mistake as my system became unbootable and Win7 and Win8 repairs wouldn't work. So I had to do fresh installs of Win7 and Win8 .

If are installed in Legacy mode, mark the partition (of Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8) ACTIVE & do a Start Up Repair.

Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Help Forums


Startup Repair - Windows 7 Help Forums
Note: You may need to do startup repair 3 to 4 times.
Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[chun96]

Will these steps delete Windows 7 from the Windows Boot Manager's list?

 

[theog]

Will these steps delete Windows 7 from the Windows Boot Manager's list?

If your partition layout is the same as in the tutorial, YES.

 

[Clintlgm]

Theog, I have a slightly different set up as I had Windows 7 installed on Disk 4 Samsung SSD X: drive which also contains the System Reserve partition. You'll notice that I have Win 8.1.1 installed on Disk 1 Liteonit SSD With Partition C: and 38 GB of Unallocated space! No System Reserve.

I intentionally set this dual boot up having the OS that is not in use to use the drive letter X:

To complicate matters this is on a Asus P7P55D-E Pro board. I have installed and am using a 4 port SATA 3 PCIe 2.0 card with Marvell chipset.
Current set up is port 0 Liteonit Windows 8.1.1
Port 1 and 2 WD Blacks with Data and some programs
Port 3 has my Samsung SSD and window 7 install with the System Reserve partition.

On Boot up the Win 8 Blue boot screen comes up, with Win 8 as default, I can select either Win 8 or Win 7

My Thoughts are to follow your Guide and mark my Disk 1 as Active
Shut down and remove or disconnect Disk 4 with the Win 7 install and the system reserve partition
Then run from my Window 8.1.1 pro USB install media run a start up Repair?

 

[theog]

@ Clintlgm

Remove HD drive with drive Letter X: as X for the boot disk ram drive.
Remove HD Drive with drive letter A: as A for floppy drives.

1) Make Windows 8 HD Drive, disk 0.

2) mark Disk 0 ACTIVE.
Partition - Mark as Active - Windows 7 Help Forums

3)From the Repair CD/USB:
How to do a Auto Repair:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2843-automatic-repair-run-windows-8-a.html
Note: You may need to do startup repair 3 to 4 times.
Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times - Windows 7 Help Forums

Best to have only one HD Drive Physically connected.

 

[chun96]

Does this works for Windows 10 as well?

 

[Brink]

Does this works for Windows 10 as well?

Hello Tan,

Yes, it's the same in Windows 10.