SOLVED Uninstall W10TP Partition

[jefboyardee]

Just trying build 9926 for giggles. I installed it on a partition adjacent my standard W7HP. On my ancient beast it didn't boot right, or the sound died, too much stuff that I assumed is because of the age of my made-for-XP dinosaur... oh well.

So, using the distro elimination trick, I booted into a Linux, reformatted the W10 partition, and rebuilt the Grub MBR even though I didn't think that would help. Rebooted and the W10/W7 choice still popped up. Booted into MS System Repair to get the command window and enter bootrec /fixmbr, that didn't help either. I can still choose W7 but I keep getting offered W10, which isn't even there anymore and leads to a modern, friendly equivalent of the blue screen.

So, in defeat, I reinstalled W10TP. And even though I had formatted that partition to get rid of W10 the first time, the reinstall somehow remembered most of the control panel stuff I did the first time, like placing my own picture. So I think it must have been storing all that on my W7 partition or in the bootloader something-or-other.

Anyway, I want to completely remove all traces of this W10 experience – can anyone here tell me how?

 

[jefboyardee]

My own guess will be to remove the W10 option in the boot tab of SysConfig, then make sure that works, then go ahead and reformat the W10 partition... but I'd rather not guess.

 

[Trouble]

Many people, including myself, find it easier to use a program such as EasyBCD to edit the boot menu (add, delete, etc.,)
https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/
Free for personal use.
Once you've got the boot menu setup like you want then I would think that deleting the partition containing the unwanted OS.
I, personally, would of course make a complete system image before doing any such thing.

 

[jefboyardee]

Handy app, thanks. Booting to Linux, I was using Grub Customizer. It saw W7 and my two distros but couldn't see W10 at all.

I believe the other mystery, that the W10 reinstall already knew my settings, must've been due to having registered at the W10 site prior.

All solved, I think. But now that I know how to get rid of it, I'm comfortable keeping it for while.

 

[jefboyardee]

After reformatting the W10TP drive, I used EasyBCD to remove its entry in the boot. Didn't work. Still had the W10 splash screen, this time telling me didn't know what to do. Had to repair startup by booting to an MS System Repair disk and having it do whatever it does. Now it works fine, but since reinstalling W10, boot gives a new wrinkle:

Windows 10 Technical Preview
Windows 7 Home Premium (recovered)​

...how embarrassing!