Booting & HDD Partition Problem with new laptop.....

ChrisWill · 31 Aug 2014

I just bought a new Lenovo Idepad z410, it's a non OS Computer

So what I did is to first install Win 7 on it, and FYI I've done it several times before and everything just gone smoothly.

Now here's my problem, after installing Windows 7. I got this message before I can boot into my Win 7

Booting & HDD Partition Problem with new laptop.....-img_20140831_160127.jpg

Okay after this happened, I immediately check my partition in Win 7 using Disk Management. And here's what I got :

Booting & HDD Partition Problem with new laptop.....-img_20140831_160359.jpg

After I saw this there are 2 questions that popped up on my mind :
1. What is this OEM Partition ? ---> After I googled it seems that it has nothing to do with this problem
2. What is this unknown 1000 MB partition in front of my Win 7 Partition ? Why it's in FAT32 Format ? Is it where my System Reserved lived ?

I can't understand this and decided to check this on GParted and here's my result :

Booting & HDD Partition Problem with new laptop.....-img_20140831_160018.jpg

The fat32 Partition has 'boot' flag whereas my Win 7 partition doesn't have 'boot' flag on it, is this why I got that 'option' before I started to get in my Win 7 ?

Here's what I guessed :
that 'option' appeared because my Win 7 Partition doesn't have a 'boot' flag on it & the fat32 Partition which has the 'boot' flag on it doesn't have any OS installed there. So I have to choose manually Win 7 to boot because it's not set automatically to boot to my Win 7 Partition.....

Well gentlemen, Am I correct ? Or I'm totally wrong ?

This laptop is for my brother to use, and I haven't installed anything yet ( except drivers and office ). I want this problem to be solved before my brother use it because he doesn't understand any of this problem.:/

Please help !

gregrocker · 31 Aug 2014

Looks like you didn't boot the installer but ran it from the old OS which locked out the C letter from being available, so now Win7 is booting on D which is not desirable. In Disk Mgmt "System" flag means that partition holds the boot files and is booting the OS, while "Boot" flag means this is the partiition booted now.

I would start over and boot the installer, use the Drive Options pictured in Steps 7 and 8 of Clean Install Windows 7 to Delete all partitions, then create and format new or just click Next and the installer will do it for you.

The OEM partitions can be deleted because Recovery will not boot to run after the reinstall. So you would delete at least the first three partitions during install to create a new partition for Win7 there, But it would be best to delete all partitions to start fresh. Only save D if you don't have a way to back up its data then afterwards you can extend D into the Logical Free space and the deleted 1000mb OEM partition to its right. If these partitions balk at being deleted we can help you work around this. Partition Wizard Extend can extend whatever Disk Mgmt won't, even into non-adjacent partitions.

Since you had problems with the fundmentals I would also read over the Clean REinstall tutorial linked below which has everything that works best to keep a perfect install. It is based on tens of thousands of installs we've directly helped with here, and has over a million satisifed users without a single complaint.

I don't know what the first picture is but if are you using an activation crack as we cannot help you further. Use the Product Key on COA sticker on PC with the installer provided in Reinstall tutorial below.

ChrisWill · 31 Aug 2014

Thx man, I've performed clean reinstall Win 7 on my laptop. Well, I leave that OEM partition alone though.
Well now it's not making any 'unwanted' partition. It's working well now.

It seems that the OEM Partition is in front of my C: & D: Partition. Can I move the OEM Partition to the back using GParted ?

I may be run into problem when I move my C: Partition though

Thx for your help man

You said that I have a problem with my 'fundamentals' can you lead me to the right direction here ? I'm a newbie hehehe:)

gregrocker · 31 Aug 2014

The way it works here is we suggest steps to perform and then you ask back questions until you are sure you can perform them correctly.

I spent almost an hour writing out specific questions for you to answer and steps for you to perform. Are you going to reply to any of them?

ChrisWill · 01 Sep 2014

Thx man, I already reinstalled win 7 and deleted that 1000MB partition. Now it boots directly to win 7. Thx for your help man!

gregrocker · 01 Sep 2014

Let's see a picture of Disk Mgmt so we can see if the other partitions are correct too. If you didn't delete the first two partitions during install as suggested then it may not be correct.

Also I pointed out that you have 584gb wasted Free Space that you can extend D into, along with the other 1000mb OEM partition to its right which can be deleted. Did you attempt this? I gave you several methods to try.

ChrisWill · 02 Sep 2014

Yeah, I did that because I think I maybe want to make another partition in the future. Well, I didn't delete the OEM partition, I just deleted the other one. Maybe I'll move the OEM Partition to the back of the partition, so if I deleted it I can extend another partition with it

gregrocker · 02 Sep 2014

Where is the Disk Mgmt pic requested?

I asked you if you elected the first two partitions to create the new install partition. Since you can't seem to follow the steps it's possible it's been botched.

ChrisWill · 03 Sep 2014

Dude, I told you that the problem is already solved. What I did is deleted all the partition except the OEM Partition & reinstall my win 7

gregrocker · 03 Sep 2014

And I told you that you don't need the OEM partition. Since you can't follow simple instructions it is likely the installation is not configured correctly. So I wanted to make sure you had it correct. If this isn't a concern for you then forget it.

What type of "Loader" do you have installed as indicated by the first picture you posted?