Removing Vista

[FarmerPug]

I have an old vista laptop in the house, i bought and put windows 7 on it and performance is drastically better, but how do i get rid of the old vista bit because when i start up i have to choose between each os

[sirwiggum]

Did you install to a different Windows directory?

If so you could lose all of your Vista start menus etc.

To remove you could just remove the Vista entry from boot.ini and delete the vista windows folder

Extreme caution advised!

[FarmerPug]

deleting all the crap off the vista side is no worry, i can work the 7 side perfectly.

[highlander]

Your best best would have been to perform a clean install (i.e. format the hard drive before installing) - but before you do that, make sure you have all your documents backed up.

[FarmerPug]

how do i do that, nothing of value on the computer

[Harshan]

Did you install to a different Windows directory?

If so you could lose all of your Vista start menus etc.

To remove you could just remove the Vista entry from boot.ini and delete the vista windows folder

Extreme caution advised!

I assume it was Vista installed first, doesn't it matters when trying to change the boot config ? I would've taken backups of all data and format and install a fresh copy of 7. Hassle free afterwords..

[highlander]

Pop in the install disc, reboot the PC, boot off the disc

During the initial setup phase, the installer will ask you which drive you want to install the OS on, and will give you a chance to create new partitions, delete existing partitions, or format (blank) any existing partitions.

At a guess, I'd say you have one partition - format that partition, and then choose it as your install destination. Run through the setup from there as before. Hey presto - one OS.

[gumby6371]

This may seem a little over the top but my method for OS reinstalls is to zero write the drive (basically a factory reset to raw status)
Most hard disc manufacturers provide the software on their websites and it usually includes diagnostic tools to check the drive is tip top before you go through the effort of reinstalling all your software. Look for an ISO image and burn to cd, boot machine from cd and follow instructions, it's pretty straight forward. REMEMBER to back up anything you want to keep first!!!!
Once the drive is reset and checked, throw your windows disc in and prepare for a few tedious hours of installing and updating - oh the joys

Anyone thinking - why bother with all that? I remember doing an XP re-install once, formatted the drive via the windows disc and when the OS was back on I checked the start menu and I still had entries for software installed before the format !!!

If you struggle to find software for your particular drive google 'maxblast' which is officially for Maxtor drives but I've found it will flatten just about anything

[FarmerPug]

all this is more complicated than installing windows via bootcamp