TIM,
I'm not keen on Skype. The following instructions are slightly adapted from TeraBye. Where they refer to SRP you can substitute your WinRE...
Solution:
Copy the Windows 7 booting files to the Windows 7 partition, apply the necessary BCD file corrections, and (optionally) remove the System Reserved partition.
Note: If you are using Windows 7 Ultimate/Enterprise and are using (or plan to use) BitLocker, do not remove the System Reserved partition.
Note: These instructions assume that the Windows 7 partition is a primary partition. If Windows 7 is installed to a logical partition, removing the System Reserved partition will most likely result in a non-booting system unless using a boot manager such as BootIt BM.
Instructions:
Part 1 - Copy the Booting Files and Configure the Windows 7 Partition for Booting
Boot into Windows 7.
To allow access to the System Reserved partition, use Disk Management to assign a drive letter to it:
Click the Start button.
Right-click on Computer.
Click on Manage in the pop-up menu. Computer Management will open.
Click on Disk Management in the tree on the left side.
Right-click on the System Reserved partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths... from the pop-up menu.
Click the Add button.
An available drive letter will automatically be selected. You can keep it or select a different one. When finished, click the OK button. In this example, P: will be assigned to the System Reserved partition.
Leave the Computer Management window open (it will be needed again in later steps).
Note: If an AutoPlay window pops up, just close it.
Click the Start button and then on Computer to open Explorer.
Make note of the drive letter assigned to the System Reserved partition and the letter assigned to the Windows 7 partition. In this example, C: is the Windows 7 partition and P: is the System Reserved (booting) partition.
Note: It's a good idea to give the partitions meaningful labels. This can help you tell them apart more easily. For example, the label for the Windows 7 partition might be Win7. This can be especially helpful when trying to tell which partition is which from the Command Prompt.
Close Explorer once you've determined the drive letter assignments.
Start an Administrator mode Command Prompt. To do this, click on the Start button, then All Programs, then Accessories. Right-click on the Command Prompt item and select Run as administrator from the pop-up menu. If a UAC prompt is displayed, click the Yes button.
Unload the BCD registry hive by running the following command:
reg unload HKLM\BCD00000000
Copy the bootmgr file from the Vista (booting) partition to the Windows 7 partition (make sure to use the drive letters as assigned on your computer). Run the following command:
robocopy p:\ c:\ bootmgr
Copy the Boot folder from the Vista (booting) partition to the Windows 7 partition. Run the following command:
robocopy p:\Boot C:\Boot /s
The booting files have now been copied. If you wish to verify that they were copied correctly, run the following command (make sure to use the drive letter of the Windows 7 partition):
dir c:\ /ah
If the bootmgr file and the Boot folder show up in the list, the procedure was successful.
To update the copied BCD file so it will boot correctly, run the following command:
bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:
Note: If your Windows 7 partition is assigned a letter other than C:, make sure to use that value instead.
Note: If you are using BootIt BM, you can use the BCD Edit feature to update the BCD file instead of running the above command. See Part 2 - Step 3 for details.
Close the Command Prompt window.
Remove the drive letter assignment from the System Reserved partition and set the Windows 7 partition as the Active (booting) partition.
Return to Disk Management (in the Computer Management window).
Right-click on the System Reserved partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths... from the pop-up menu.
Click the Remove button.
Click the Yes button to confirm the change.
Right-click on the Windows 7 partition and select Mark Partition as Active from the pop-up menu.
Click the Yes button to confirm the change. You should see the Active tag move from the System Reserved partition to the Windows 7 partition.
Close the Computer Management window.
Windows 7 should now be configured to boot properly from its own partition.
Part 3 - Remove the System Reserved Partition
Note: This part is optional. Removing the partition will only gain 100MB of unallocated space. However, it will free up one primary partition slot.
Deleting the partition can be done from either Windows Disk Management or BootIt BM.
Using Disk Management:
If Windows 7 hasn't been rebooted since the completion of the Part 1 instructions, reboot Windows 7. It should boot normally.
Start Disk Management (reference Part 1 - Steps 2a through 2d, if necessary).
Verify that the Windows 7 partition is now tagged as both the System and the Active partition. The System Reserved partition should just be tagged as Primary Partition.
Right-click on the System Reserved partition.
Select Delete Volume... from the pop-up menu.
Click the Yes button to confirm the deletion.
The space used by the System Reserved partition should now be shown as Unallocated.
