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how to completely remove windows

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My story: I have win 7 installed in a 250gb hd. Couple days ago I bought a new hd and also install win 7 in there. I then format the old hd with the old os in disk management.

But during start up it still ask me to choose which win 7 i want to boot on. The first one will boot up fine but if i choose the second one, it says "device inaccessible...". How do i get rid of that?
 
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You have to modify the boot.ini file.
I did it once when I dual-booted Vista and 7....

Save your boot.ini on notepad so that if you muck up you have a working copy.
Set the time to choose between operating systems to 0.
Then you have to delete the string which refers to booting the OS from the other hdd.

Sorry if it doesn't sound clear, it's difficult to explain if I don't have the pc in front of me lol.
 
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I already have my stuff back up in an external usb and the 2 hd now are basically blank clean.

How about if I format the 2 drives during windows installing process (i have time so it's not a hassle at all), will it do it?
 
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Well I guess it would work because then you'd basically get a new boot.ini
 

newtekie1

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Editing the boot.ini used to work in WinXP, but Vista and Win7 doesn't use the boot.ini anymore.

Download EasyBCD, it will allow you to remove the second useless entry.
 
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Hmmm, that's the way I remember doing it to remove the Win7 option when dual-booting under Vista 64x :confused: It had worked for me...:ohwell:
 

newtekie1

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The boot.ini file doesn't even exist anymore.
 
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hi say, what will happen if I install 2 windows in 1 drive, will i still be able to us EasyBCD to remove 1 os if i dont need it?

edit: btw EasyBCD works really well. I'm happy. but the above question is still there tho. If I install another os in same drive (it will take up some space..), when i "delete entries" in easyBCD, will it completely uninstall the one i delete and free up space?

edit2: oh damn and one more question. For some reason I cant delete and create partitions while installing windows 7 anymore :confused: normally there is the advanced option or sth like that but it's just not there anymore
 
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newtekie1

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Do not install more than one OS on a single partition.

No, deleting the entry from BCD will not free up any space used by the other OS, you have to delete the OS files manually.

Boot from the DVD, don't run it from inside of Windows itself, and do not select upgrade, that will allow you to delete and create partitions.
 

brandonwh64

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This was from windows help

What happened to the boot.ini file?

In earlier versions of Windows, boot.ini was a system file that contained information about the Windows operating systems installed on a computer. This information was displayed during the startup process when you turned on your computer. It was most useful in multiboot configurations, or for advanced users or administrators who needed to customize how Windows started.

In this version of Windows, the boot.ini file has been replaced with Boot Configuration Data (BCD). This file is more versatile than boot.ini, and it can apply to computer platforms that use means other than basic input/output system (BIOS) to start the computer.

If you need to make changes to BCD, such as removing entries from the list of displayed operating systems, use the command-line tool Bcdedit, an advanced tool intended for administrators and IT professionals. For technical information about Bcdedit, go to the Microsoft website for IT professionals.

If your computer is a multiboot configuration, you can still change which Windows operating system opens by default, and how long to display the list of operating systems, by using System in Control Panel.

Click to open System.

In the left pane, click Advanced system settings. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.

Under System startup, choose a default operating system and the amount of time to display the list of operating systems, click OK, and then click OK again.
 
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