How to "Un-Partition" hard drive

[mystic7]

I've been using computers for 14 years but one thing I never got into was partitioning my hard drive. I finally did it for the purpose of installing the Windows 7 Beta a few months ago, giving me Vista Home Premium on one partition and Windows 7 on the other (plus the partition with the recovery data, of course), and now that it's expiring I want to go back to my old setup. Do I just delete the partition or do I have to delete Windows 7 first?

[Marlin Guy]

http://www.techspot.com/guides/144-removing-windows7/

[mystic7]

Yikes, I don't like that part about potential boot loader complications. Is that a likelihood or just a precaution?

[tcusta00]

FWIW, the beta has already expired. If you have the Release Candidate it should be good til June, 2010.

[smiddy]

I've been using computers for 14 years but one thing I never got into was partitioning my hard drive. I finally did it for the purpose of installing the Windows 7 Beta a few months ago, giving me Vista Home Premium on one partition and Windows 7 on the other (plus the partition with the recovery data, of course), and now that it's expiring I want to go back to my old setup. Do I just delete the partition or do I have to delete Windows 7 first?
Get yourself a copy of partition magic, I think Symantec owns it now. You boot the OS you are keeping, load it there, and you can delete the other partition and combine it to the current one. Last I knew it runs about $100.00-ish.

EDIT: It is $69.99 here: http://shop.symantecstore.com/store/symnahho/en_US/DisplayProductDetailsPage/productID.44316200/pgm.6037100/ThemeID.106300/Currency.USD?resid=hTe0kwoBAiMAAFWvWK4AAAAY&rests=1254798249122

[Marlin Guy]

Yikes, I don't like that part about potential boot loader complications. Is that a likelihood or just a precaution?

That is a likelihood.
It's not a big deal unless you have an OEM recovery partition.
If it's Dell, it's still not much of a big deal.
Others get more complicated.