Windows 7: Strange W7 installation

Here's a screenshot of my partitions. Why is everything functioning poorly? I've checked my ram and everything seems fine. But even my xp install was acting weird. I could boot into regular mode, but not safe mode (it would always hang at .mui sys file)...

The problem is that the Windows 7 partition was formatted as a logical partition, which cannot be marked Active or become a System partition. This is how it should appear:



Open Partition Wizard and make a bootable CD from the top toolbar. Boot into PW, rightclick on WIndows 7 partition and Modify: Set Partition as Primary.

Now boot into Windows 7 OS* and run Windows 7 DVD from desktop to Repair Install

(*Should the Windows 7 OS not start up then boot into the Windows 7 DVD Repair console and run Startup Repair repeatedly until Windows 7 starts).

Any performance problems caused by converting from logical to primary will be overcome with the repair install which keeps programs, files and settings in place but reinstalls the OS and reconfigures the boot correctly.

Since I'm having various problems, and I really just installed Windows 7, I'd rather to a full format clean install. I thought I did this yesterday, which is why I don't understand how Windows 7 ended up as a logical drive. When i installed Windows 7, I deleted and formatted the partition with XP Pro on it. I had also just deletedand formatted my old Windows 7 partition (which was originally on a logical drive). So, with no OS on the computer, why did it install to a logical drive?

If I want to clean install, how can I ensure that I'll get one, fully formatted partition that places Windows 7 as a primary drive? Thanks.

You can partition and format Primary HD in advance using Partition Wizard CD or Diskpart commands from the Windows 7 DVD.

Windows 7 will not install the 100mb System Reserved partition to a HD already partitioned.

You can also undo a 100mb partition as it is being applied during Custom installation: Use Custom>Advanced tools to Delete the partition given where Windows 7 is to be installed, then extend the 100mb partition to take up the entire HD using New tool, Format and install.

I'm no pro but I have had a similar situation, right down to windows saying it's not genuine and I paid nearly $200 for the OS. The only way I was able to fully resolve the problem was to go the HD manufacturers website and use their software to to reset the MBR of the HD. Then I did a fresh install and all has been well since.

If this helps, tip my scales.

P.S. It may help if you fill in the stats for your computer in your profile.

How do you get into the disk partition commands using the Windows 7 DVD? And what commands do you use to format and partition? Thanks.

Boot Windows 7 DVD>Repair console>Recovery tools, open Command Line, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (for Windows 7 disk)
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
assign letter=c:
active
format
exit

Great, thanks.