win xp pro / win 7 dual boot -delete xp question

Dual booting XP Pro and Win 7. Used Gparted to shrink my original C: partition (XP) for room to install Win 7 Pro. Everything works quite well and I see myself putting XP into the bit bucket soon.
Now my question. Can I "just" delete the XP partition from Win 7 and regain the HDD space with Win 7's tools or will there be some problems with Win 7 after that? I've read several threads and am somewhat confused. Concerned that there might be some cross pollination between the two OS's (g) which will bork the Win 7 install.
Or should I just nuke both partitions, reset the size of the partition to its original size and reinstall Win 7?
Thanks for the help. p

Windows will always place boot files on the active partition. It your active partition is the partition that XP is on. Then removing this partition will effectively remove your boot files. As a safe guard deleting the active partition is not allowed from within Windows.

If you have Windows 7 Install DVD or Windows 7 Repair CD. You can set the Windows 7 partition active and then reboot using one of the CD/DVD media to repair your boot files. Once you have successfully changed your active partition and booted back into Windows 7, the XP partition can then be removed without any troubles.

Thanks for the answer sir! I'll save this page and when its time to make the big step I'll do it as recommended..p