Windows 7: HP laptop has used up all four primary partitions

gregrocker

Many thanks indeed for all the extra information you have provided, which I have taken note of.

I have actually had experience of Revo Uninstaller before on my desktop PC. Had to download it to get rid of a particularly stubborn Adobe program which refused to disappear via Windows Uninstall.

Just be aware that the free Revo works only on the x86 program files. Programs that are in the x64 program files cannot be uninstalled with free Revo - for that you need the Pro version.

Thanks for the reminder Wolfgang.

Would you recommend using CCleaner for 64 bit uninstalls? Or just Windows uninstaller?

If PW CD can't do it, then Perfect Disk 10 trial version is what I use to move System files: Offline Defrag, rightclick partition, select System files.

gregrocker

I thought I would have a go at this before carrying out my proposed Windows reinstallation just to see if I can actually get to the programs on the discs.

Not very successful so far I'm afraid. The first video says to download the automated installation kit for Windows Vista SP1 and that we will be told why he chose that one later. But then he doesn't explain why! Because I have Windows 7 I downloaded the automated installation kit for Windows 7. Unfortunately this version of the installation kit does not have a wimfltr.inf file in C:\Program Files\WindowsAIK\Tools\amd64 so I was not able to right-click on it and install.

However I carried on (thinking that maybe the wimfltr.inf file was already installed and ready to go in the Windows 7 version of the automated installation kit). I added the WIM tools folder to the system variables PATH rather than the user variables, as there was no PATH listed for the latter.

I copied all the base*.wim files from the four recovery DVDs' preload folders plus the base.wim file from the first DVD into a folder on my hard drive. But then after cd'ing into that folder and running the command:

I received an error message:

So, should I in fact have downloaded the AIK for Windows Vista SP1, even though I am running Windows 7?

Download details: Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008

I take it this is confirmation that I should in fact have downloaded the Vista SP1/Server 2008 AIK program, the supported operating systems for which are listed as:

• Windows Vista
• Windows Vista Service Pack 1
• Windows Server 2008
• Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 with KB926044
• Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2
• Windows XP Service Pack 2 with KB926044

even though I am running Windows 7? Very confusing. Is there a reason why the Windows 7 AIK program is not the one to use?

Hello again, I wasn't confirming or denying, I just looked up the link for you.



The only time I've used the Windows AIK was for this.

Windows 7 Universal Installation Disc - Create

OK, I have now replaced the Windows 7 AIK with the Vista SP1 AIK and installed the wimfltr.inf file.

But now when I run the command:

It gets as far as

Then it halts with

So what is the image #1 file it is looking for? Is there supposed to be a base1.wim file? On my first DVD I have a base.wim file and then it goes straight to base2.wim. Or is the image #1 referring to the "1" immediately before "exported.wim" in the initial command? I'm afraid I know nothing about imagex at all so I don't really understand the syntax of the command.

While waiting to see if anyone could enlighten me on the "Error exporting image #1" problem, I have been spending some time reading about the imagex commands and syntax but I am none the wiser. It is all far too complicated. I am still not entirely clear about the connection between the command

imagex /export /ref *.wim base.wim 1 exported.wim "exported"

and the syntax

imagex [flags] /export src_file src_number src_name dest_file dest_name

I am thinking that:

/ref is the [flag], being used because there are multiple files
*.wim and base.wim are the src_files, the asterisk indicating that all files ending in .wim are to be referenced
1 is the src_number
exported.wim is the dest_file
"exported" is the dest_name

So we seem to have a src_name missing?

From the lack of replies, I have assumed that no one else has come across "Error exporting image #1". As I have absolutely no idea how to resolve the problem using imagex I have instead downloaded 7-Zip to extract the base.wim file. It took over an hour to do this and at the end produced a list of diagnostic messages which reported data errors in 38 files and that the files were broken. Again, I have no idea what to do about that.

However, from the extracted wim.base file I now have five folders called "1", "2", "3", "4" and "Files", plus one file called "1" which is an XML document.

In folder "2", there is a "SwSetup" folder which contains a "CyberDVD" folder. The CyberDVD folder contains two folders, "Stage 1" and "Stage 2", and two files "CyberLink DVD Suite.cva" and "Setup". If I click on "Setup" the installation starts but, as I already have the Suite installed and I didn't know if running it again would mess it up, I pressed Cancel. So I have no idea whether it would complete the installation if I did it for real on a fresh installation of Windows 7.

I am just wondering whether my best course of action would be simply to back up the complete SwSetup folder from my current HP installed Windows system (ie from Windows Explorer) and hope I can reinstall any programs I want from that following my own fresh Windows installation.

That's what I would do.

Have no idea why you are running into such problems extracting the program from Recov Disks as others haven't reported any.