How To Uninstall Windows 7 And Return The Partition To Vista
If you have previously dualboot your Windows 7 and Vista and now you wanted to remove it, either because you don’t like it or you are running out of hard disk space, here is the way to do it:
Remove the Windows 7 boot entry
Previously when you install Windows 7, it modifies the bootloader and makes it the default OS to boot up. If you are going to uninstall Windows 7, you will have to remove the entry from the bootloader so that you don’t have any conflicts when booting up later.
Download and install EasyBCD.
Run EasyBCD. On the left pane, click on the Add/Remove Entries.
On the right pane, highlight the Windows 7 entry and click Delete.
Close EasyBCD.
Download GParted iso file and burn the image to a CD.
Boot up your computer with the Gparted live CD. On the main screen, you should see your Windows Vista and Windows 7 partitions.
There are two ways that you can deal with your Windows 7 partition:
1) reformat it and use it as an additional partition to your Vista partition
2) remove the partition and return the extra space back to the Vista partition
Reformat Windows 7 partition
Highlight and right click on the Windows 7 partition. Select Format to -> ntfs.
Click Apply.
Remove Win 7 partition and return it to Vista partition
Highlight the Windows 7 partition and click the Delete button.
Next, highlight the Windows Vista partition and click Resize/Move. Increase the New Size to the maximum. Make sure that the Free Space Preceding and Free Space Following is zero.
Click Apply.
Once all the operations are completed, exit GParted and restart your computer. You should now boot into your Vista. Depending on the option you choose, you will have either a new blank partition that you can use to store data or a bigger Vista partition.
That’s it. Enjoy!
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Tags: boot, uninstall, windows 7, windows vista
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[Click to close]20 Responses
Nice that you have to use Linux to save your PC from the grasps of yet another Redmond blunder.
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great tips
my tips:
1. don’t install windows7 at all (wait for beta to pass, anyway.. the “beta” will never finish, service packs will come over and over again)
2. install 7 on vmware
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great tips. i have a question to install window xp after removing window 7. i have window 7 and vista. can i install xp to the petition which window 7 will get removed?
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Damien Reply:
February 11th, 2009 at 1:02 am
Yes, you can, but you need to use EasyBCD to restore the bootloader, else your Vista won’t get boot up. You can check out the tutorial at http://maketecheasier.com/how-to-dual-boot-windows-xp-and-vista/2008/12/15 for the full installation guide.
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Nancy Reply:
February 15th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
thank you, Damien for your advice. this was really hard but managed to finish just now. if you happen to know, how can we run Office from Vista in XP?
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Very helpful artical. Could not for the life of me figure out how to get rid of windows seven.
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Actually, you don’t need Linux to deal with partitions in Vista. Run diskmgmt.msc and you do any partition editing you need from there – delete the Windows 7 partition, extend the Vista volume to include the empty partition. You don’t even have to reboot. It’s actually easier and faster than using GParted because you can skip a few steps.
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Thank You for introducing me to EasyBCD !!!
I use EASEUS Partition Master 3.5 myself…
My computer is back to normal :)
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Can you tell me how to reformat the hard drive of a computer that has windows 7 beta installed? Thanks.
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Damien Reply:
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:12 am
Pop in your Windows 7 or Vista installer DVD. At the installation page, select “Format hard drive”.
If not, download gparted Live CD and boot it up. You will be able to reformat your hard drive from there
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i have installed windows 7, so the window period has experied, all i get is a blank screen in the desktop and i need to install windows vista to take off windows 7 but on the installation process it needs to be load drives i dont know what to do, please help
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Wait for the Final release i have it and its great you certainly wont want to go back to vista or even XP for that matter. It is truely a master piece.
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Damien Reply:
August 29th, 2009 at 5:25 am
I do agree with you. Windows 7 is much better than Vista and XP. You don’t wanna go back to the previous version once you have used it.
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well, i used windows 7 beta for like one night it’s not bad, but whatever you do don’t install it until beta passes because i can’t even run my vista now…
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so i can do this if i downloaded windows 7 ultimate and since it replaced my windows vista it will delete right?
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Damien Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 4:30 am
It will upgrade your current version of Vista to Windows 7, so your Vista partition is not really ‘deleted‘
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hey, i installed this last nite, should i leave it on or go back down to windows vista? is it worth leaving on?
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Damien Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 3:49 am
Personally, I feel that Windows 7 is much superior than Vista. I don’t see the need to go back to Vista unless you are facing some driver issues, or your license is expiring soon.
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i tried to install win 7 on second partion. after first restart a problem occured…and nothing worked after (repair,reinstall). now i have 12.8 Gb with that bullshit. i cannot format entire partition because i have many docs and personal files ~90 Gb. at startup boot menu had gone. how can i delete them? are NTFS protected files…..i tried to use disk shredder…but doesn’t work “access is denied”
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Damien Reply:
November 15th, 2009 at 1:40 am
@fly: Can you boot into the first partition? If yes, boot into the first partition and backup all the files in the second partition. Format the second partition and try everything again.
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