windows 7 beta question

[thrash-boy]

i know there's a topic already about windows 7, but i cant find it.

 

anyway a few months ago i downloaded the windows 7 beta, and never got around to trying it out. ive heard some great things about it, so ive decided to give it a go.

 

 

 

Im running windows xp, and my pc meets all the requirements.

 

Im currently defraging before i attempt to make a new partion with Gparted. I have deleted some stuff and ive got about 45 gb free, which is more than enough i would think.

 

 

 

my main concern is when the beta runs out in august i want to be able to delete the windows 7 partion (or uninstall it first, if thats possible?), and expand my xp partion back to full size. i hear people talking about shrinking partions, but never expanding them. is this possible?

 

 

 

Also ive been told that when i do remove windows 7, the screen at startup will still come up asking which os (xp or win 7), just it will only have xp listed. Is this true and if so how do i stop it coming up?

 

 

 

thanks

[Laura]

Yes, you can. I've found expanding/restoring to be a little more cumbersome than shrinking, but yes. I believe, though don't quote me, that there's an option in BIOS to remove the OS selection screen.

[ClareJonsson]

The BIOS knows nothing about OS selection as the BIOS just boot straps to the boot loader on whatever valid drive is first in the boot order, The OS selection is managed by the boot loader on the drive itself and is out of control of the BIOS, soz. But you can use the BIOS to select what drive to boot from if you have more than one Hard Drive in your system.

 

 

 

For me what I have done at home is I have 3 hard drives in my PC, one with Windows 7, one with XP and another with Ubuntu, and I change the boot order to select what drive to boot off. This kills the need for boot loaders, as an animated Meerkat once said "Simples!" :) Unfortunately, this does mean you need more that one hard drive :(

[Sbrideau]

You can remove the Other OS from the boot screen using the msconfig utility in windows, in the boot tab.

[Laura]

The BIOS knows nothing about OS selection as the BIOS just boot straps to the boot loader on whatever valid drive is first in the boot order, The OS selection is managed by the boot loader on the drive itself and is out of control of the BIOS, soz. But you can use the BIOS to select what drive to boot from if you have more than one Hard Drive in your system.

 

 

 

For me what I have done at home is I have 3 hard drives in my PC, one with Windows 7, one with XP and another with Ubuntu, and I change the boot order to select what drive to boot off. This kills the need for boot loaders, as an animated Meerkat once said "Simples!" :) Unfortunately, this does mean you need more that one hard drive :(

Alright, thanks for clarifying.

[thrash-boy]

thanks for the help.

 

 

 

ive got it running now and i can say im very impressed. ive never used vista before so this is a big change, but everything is much smoother than xp. despite all the extra visual effects its actually alot faster than xp i think