delete FIRST partition if Win7 is booting from SECOND? safe?

[giantbucket]

ok, here's how my current Win7 hard drive (laptop) looks:

|__ shared data __| |__ Win7 partition __| |__ WinXP partition __|

so, Win7 is booting from the second partition and WinXP is booting from the third. the first partition is a FAT32 for shared data (left over from when I had Linux in a FOURTH partition).

can i delete the first partition so that the Win7 is then the first, and will booting be fine? next i'd obviously move the partitions over to take over the space left by the first FAT32.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hi giantbucket.

If there are no system files on the 1st partition you should be able to delete it without anything to worry about. However I'd still recommend that you backup your setup, just to be on the safe side. First, because you don't sound 100% sure that there might be something wrong if you delete it and second - because you won't be able to use the space on the left of the Win7 partition in order to extend the ones on the right via Disk Management. It should be the other way around. This means that you'll have to use a 3rd party partitioning tool and this requires a backup as well, in case something gets messed up.

Please let me know how it goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[giantbucket]

thanks! i did try it out with MiniTools, one step at a time, and it booted fine. i was able to then shift the Win7 partition over, and now the OS is on a new drive. my WinXP got hosed along the way since i did too many things at once - but at least the main Win7 is taken care of.

i guess the bottom line is - as long as it's just a data partition, it doesn't matter that much whether it's before or after a system boot partition.