Member Avatar for vinodvinu

Hi all,
I have a dual-boot laptop with Windows 10 64 bit and Windows 8 32 bit. I think i don't need that windows 8 any more. I want to delete it from laptop and add that empty hard drive space to the drive where windows10 located. How can i safely do this ? Any help ? Thanks in advance.

Edited by Reverend Jim because: Moved to Microsoft Windows forum
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For : a safe, minimal sequence that avoids a non-booting system — prepare a full image/backups and a Windows 10 recovery USB, verify exactly where the boot files live, make Windows 10 self-sufficient for booting, remove the old boot entry, then delete the Windows 8 partition and grow the Windows 10 volume. That follows the caution in 's reply and is more complete than only removing the menu entry as described.

Detect the firmware mode and the system partition, then put Windows 10 boot files onto that partition. From an elevated Command Prompt on Windows 10 check BIOS Mode with msinfo32, then use DiskPart to locate and assign a drive letter to the EFI or System Reserved partition. Example DiskPart steps (pick the partition marked EFI/FAT32 or "System Reserved"):

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
list partition
select partition X
assign letter=S
exit

Then copy/create the Windows 10 boot files (UEFI vs legacy shown):

bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI

or for legacy/MBR:

bcdboot C:\Windows /s S: /f BIOS

Confirm Windows 10 boots on its own. Remove the old boot entry with bcdedit (use bcdedit /enum to find the identifier, then bcdedit /delete {GUID}) and reboot. If boot fails, use the recovery USB and these repair commands in the recovery Command Prompt:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /scanos
bootrec /rebuildbcd

Once Windows 10 is verified as the sole booting OS, delete the Windows 8 partition and expand the Windows 10 volume. Note: Windows will only extend into immediately adjacent unallocated space; if the freed space is not contiguous, use a trusted partition manager or bootable GParted to move/resize. Do not delete the EFI/System Reserved partition until the boot files are confirmed on Windows 10, and keep a full image backup in case a rollback is needed.

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Member Avatar for rproffitt

Define safely. Not once have I lost the hardware but occasionally one of the Windows fails to boot for a simple reason there is no "uninstall" for an OS. We have to know the boot system as well as have repair methods ready.

For me this would be the W10 USB full install stick I made with Microsoft's Media Creation Kit and full backups of what I can't lose.

With those tools at the ready I can remove the boot item from the boot manager (you have to know this area) and then after testing I can while in W10 head to disk management to remove the old W8 partition.

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

I recently rebuilt a friend's PC. He had dual boot Vista/Win7. All I had to do was run msconfig, go to the boot tab and remove the Vista entry. Once I had done that I was free to delete all of his Vista folders.

commented: +1 for the end of Vista again. Office has no more Vista machines. Hurrah. +12
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