Windows 7: Removing Vista and its Recovery from Dual Boot with 7

Hi all,

I have a Dell Inspiron 15 System. It came with Windows Vista Home Basic when I purchased it 2 years back.



I installed Windows 7 as a dual boot with windows vista on it(with tut from here ) and it ran very smoothly. I am happy with my dual boot system. But off late, I am facing problem of low hard disk space(as seen in SS). This is because most of programs like MS office, few games, Acrobat, Winamp etc are installed twice, one in C: (Vista) and once in D: (Win 7)



Now I am very happy with 7 and want to remove Vista. Pls link me to a tutorial that can help me to remove it. I want to remove C: and E: (Vista's Recovery which came by default with system)

I want to retain my existing programs, settings in win 7 as it is. Untouched. I want to merge those C and E into one. Pls instruct me how to do it.

Hello Inspiron15.





I just started a tutorial today (8 Sept) specific to recovering the space from the first partition on the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) how to recover C: into D: but it won't be done until later today, I hope.

Have a look at this tutorial at the link below, in Option Two it shows how to recover that space though it's titled as recover the "System Reserved" partition but the steps are exactly same for what you need to accomplish.

The best way would be to do a partition specific wipe of the C: partition first, then recover the space into D: that is outlined in Option Three, it over-writes everything on the partition giving you the best possible space to recover into the Windows 7 D: partition.

Have a thorough look through the entire tutorial before you start to get an understanding.

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD



You will have to mark the D: partition as "Active" so that Windows 7 will boot independently, it is listed under Option Two of the tutorial above but this tutorial at the link below gives a better understanding of the process.

Do this first of all to get Windows 7 booting as "System, Active" first.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

I just finished the tutorial, see the Information box above!

Make your Vista Recovery disks first so you can return to factory condition if you want to sell the computer but keep Windows 7.

Something like Backup is writing to the Recov partition which can make it inoperable, so once you've made and tested (by booting to cue up options only) the Recovery Disks you can consider deleting it too. Or stop writing to it now.

Barefoot's new tutorial is pretty self-explanatory but if you have any questions please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map and listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu.

You can make a backup image of your Windows 7 partition only using free Macrium Reflect.

@All Thanks esp BareFootKid

I am yet to go through your tut, but here is my disk management s/s

Looking for some personalized advise..

Windows 7 is on a logical drive so that has to be converted first using Partition Wizard CD.

The first partition shows empty. May have been factory OEM partition but Dell utiltiies lose their links to Windows 7 clean install and won't be needed in Vista so you can wipe that partition also.

Boot Partition Wizard bootable CD, select 1 for screen res, rightclick each of the first 3 partitions to Delete, click OK after each.

Next rightclick Windows 7>Modify>Convert to Primary, OK, Apply all steps.

Allow to complete steps so far, then rightclick Windows 7>Modify>Set to Active, OK.

Again rightclick Windows 7>Resize, drag left grey border all the way to left side of disk, then if you want to leave room for new partitions drag right grey border to left to resize Windows 7 partition as desired, OK, Apply all steps.

Now boot the Windows 7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD, accept any offered repair, restart, continue to boot back into Repair>Recovery Tools list to Run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots. Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Hello again, you're welcome!





As Greg has said you can use the Partition Wizard boot disk to first, mark the Windows 7 partition as "Primary" and then "Active" then boot to the Windows DVD and do the 3 startup repairs, then boot into Windows 7 to let it accept the changes to the partition structure.

Then boot back to PW and do wipes to all the other partitions and then reclaim all that space back into Windows 7 as you want to, the new tutorial out-lines all these steps in detail.

Remember to post back with the outcome.