How to boot from old partition, win7 missing drivers

Hi, im here in hopes someone knows a way around the mess I have. Ok I have a dell n4010 running win 7 pro 64bit, about 2 weeks ago motherboard stopped working, bought a brand new exact same motherboard. I installed it, pushed the power button and it fired right up, but when came to the screen where windows is loading it would freeze and fan started going fast as if the laptop was overheating, I would turn it off, back on and the second time it would send me to repair windows, had no luck as it would say windows is unable to do a repair. After doing some research online on my other laptop I found out I needed the hard drive drivers so the motherboard can communicate with hard drive, I downloaded the driver but couldn't get it to load using command prompt (I was following instructions from another forum). By the way I didn't make image file discs so I had no way to restore win7. In my desperate need to restore my laptop I went ahead and download win 7 and popped it in, I didn't do a clean install but instead went to the partition install where you can select a partition to install win, I was showing on C: drive recovery but even though it showed 7gb used out of 14gb when I would try opening it, it was empty, then I had D; where my entire hd is 400gb, and 120 used with all my files and programs, so I went ahead and formatted the partition that said recovery and installed this new win7 there. Once everything was done I turned the laptop and it fired up fine, went to windows, but it did a clean install, now all my stuff is on the D; drive and I can see everything but I would like to be able to boot to that, so my question is if theres a way I can enable D; drive id like to use my laptop with all the programs on there and files. So I realized now after doing the install, that before I had win 7 pro, the new working install is win 7 ultimate. Thanks for any help.

If you changed the motherboard on a Dell Factory OEM install then unless you used the same model mobo it may not reactivate with the Product key on COA sticker, since OEM license dies with the mobo. You can appeal to Dell Support and MS phone activation for an exception but if neither will help you may need to buy another copy of Win7, which we see regularly on sale at Tiger Direct and New Egg for $89 for Home Premium.

You can Adjust Win7 to boot on new hardware with Paragon Adaptive Restore CD. Again, the mobo change will likely trigger the need for reactivation at Control Panel>System.

To reinstall then you should be working from the steps to get and keep a perfect Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

Back up your data from the rescue install you did so you can delete all partitions during the booted install, unless Dell Hardware Diagnostics from F12 Menu will run in which case you can keep the small Utility partition but delete all others to create a new partition there.

Not the answer I was looking for but I solved the problem by installing fresh win7 ultimate. So I have a new dilemma, win7 was installed on C: partition which has 29gb, D: partition has 300gb.... the C: is filling up quick since everything is going onto C: drive, is there any way I can have the OS on C partition and all my user folders and location for my downloads on D partition? both partitions are on the same hard drive. thanks

So I guess you didn't bother to look at Clean Reinstall Windows 7 to assure a perfect install, or you wouldn't have installed Win7 onto a 29gb partition next to a 300gb empty one. You should always delete all partitions to get it cleanest.

You can adjust partition sizes following How to extend partition easily with Partition Wizard - video help.

You can also move your User Folders - Change Default Location to D since many prefer to have C smaller for imaging purposes, so that if Win7 becomes irreparable they can reimage to C in 20 minutes and their files are waiting and current in D. Of course you needed to read the tutorial to get that.

No I did it on purpose, I was always thought to make 2 partitions, one for the OS and one for my files and programs. I was also told to make the OS partition not too big that way windows loads faster. What I was never told or thought was how to make the other partition the main location for files folders and programs like antivirus and such. Thanks a lot im going to take a look into that link on how to change default locations, that's what I need I hope!

29gb is still too small. I'd want it at least 50gb, although you can adjust the size using PW as shown in video tutorial.

Why don't you ask us if the partition size affects startup instead of just repeating nonsense?