Can't delete my data partition or format it

lostsoul62 said:

whs said:

It is exactly as I suspected. Your bootmgr is sitting on partition G and gets automatically imaged with the system. Run these 4 steps and move the bootmgr to C.

No my bootmgr isn't sitting on partition G. I can go in and delete every folder on G drive and if I have an system file it won't delete.

As has been stated, your G partition shows as "active". This means (a) by definition that's where the BIOS of your machine will go to at boot time in order to find the "boot manager" files, for WinXP, Win7, and any other form of Windows, and (b) by definition there MUST be the boot manager files located there to be found and used... else your system would not boot.

That is precisely what "active" implies.

And since it is the "active" partition required at boot time, it CANNOT be deleted... unless you move the boot manager files off of G and somewhere else, most conveniently into C itself (where the rest of Win7 lives for you). There's no problem having both boot manager and Win7 system files in C. The process of moving the boot manager files over to C will also mark C as the new "active" partition and G will be marked "inactive", and thus will now be eligible for deletion or whatever you want to do with it.

Also, the boot manager files (BOOTMGR and BOOT.INI for Win7, and/or the old NTLDR file for WinXP) are "hidden" files. You would normally not see them with Windows Explorer unless you've changed your Folder Options -> View to "show hidden files". That may be why you think they're not there... but believe me they MUST be there, since it's the "active" partition, in order for your machine to boot to Windows.


Now, how the boot manager files got to be there? Well perhaps did you at one itme use that partition for WinXP? And then did you install Win7 as a second OS? And then did you remove WinXP?

If so then that is EXACTLY how you got the boot manager files onto what you now call G. That's where WinXP was, and thus in your 1-Windows environment the WinXP installer made that partition "active". And when you installed Win7 as a second optional Windows the boot manager and menu needed to support booting to either WinXP or Win7 was placed in that "active" partition (which was WinXP at the time).

Just because you removed WinXP didn't change the nature of that partition from "active". And you obviously didn't FORMAT that partition that partition else you would have erased boot manager and made it impossible to boot your system at all, which is not what happened.

Anyway I'm only speculating as to how it is absolutely possible to end up with boot manager on your G drive which is still marked as "active" even though you never did anything yourself. WinXP's installer marks its own partition as "active". With Win7 being installed as a second OS in an operational WinXP environment, Win7's installer sees the existence of another Windows in an "active" partition and replaces that partition's boot manager (i.e. NTLDR and BOOT.INI) in that "active" partition with the Win7 boot manager (i.e. BOOTMGR and BOOT.INI), and then installs Win7 into its own second partition. The BIOS still goes to that "active" partition at boot time, where it now finds Win7's boot manager. You then pick WinXP (located in the same partition along with the Win7 boot manager) or Win7 (in the second partition where Win7 was installed to)... but it is still that WinXP partition which is "active" and also holds the Win7 boot manager files. Removing WinXP did not remove the Win7 boot manager files from that "active" partition.

NOTE: even if you had formatted that G partition (thus erasing EVERYTHING that was on the old WinXP partition) before installing Win7 brand new by itself, since that now formatted G partition was still marked as "active", then the Win7 installation process would put its boot manager files there. Normally, on a completely formatted drive the Win7 boot manager files go into a small 100MB "system reserved" partition which is marked "active" for BIOS requirements. And the Win7 system goes into a second partition, which becomes C. But in your case, if you'd formatted that G partition but left it "active", the Win7 installer had no reason to create a separate 100MB "system reserved" for boot manager files. It just put them into that "active" G partition (as you call it now), and built Win7 in C where you told it to install. So this is another way you could have ended up with G as "active", even though you formatted it to erase WinXP since you wanted only a pure Win7 system. Sheer speculation, of course, but this is another possibility.


Bottom line: you must move your boot manager files over to C using the recommended approach identified above. This will mark C as now the "active" partition, and G will be marked "inactive". Then you can do anything you want with G.

Not to pile on, but I have to ask...why do so many people over-complicate the process of posting a screenshot? Windows 7 includes the Snipping Tool, and this forum is by far, the easiest at attaching an image.

If people are willing to read your issue and try to help, the least...the very least, you can do, is give people an easy screenshot.

If people are willing to read your issue and try to help, the least...the very least, you can do, is give people an easy screenshot.[/QUOTE]

I've never given a screen shot before. What would be an easier way?