Two Copies of Win 7 in Separate Partitions - is it OK to Delete One ?

thenoo · Jul 29, 2012

When I decided to move from XP to WIN 7 some time ago I initially ran a Dual Boot with both of these systems . I intended to run the XP OS until I became familiar with WIN 7 . Eventually I removed this Dual Boot and now run WIN 7 only.

I forget the details now but I must have forgotten the second Win 7 folder was still present in this now non-bootable Partition ( Partition F ) - I suppose I had XP on the C: drive at that time and WIN 7 running on Partition F .

What I would like to do now is delete this Windows Folder from the F Partition . Would this cause any problems ? Win 7 is now installed and running OK on the C: drive.

Saltgrass · Jul 29, 2012

Any chance you could use the snipping tool to take a picture of your disk management and attach using the paperclip?

Expand it enough so we can see what the notation on the partition is.

whs · Jul 29, 2012

Sounds like your bootmgr is on F. A picture of Disk Management would clarify that.

gregrocker · Jul 29, 2012

Please post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Management drive map and listings:

1. Type Disk Management in Start Search box.
2. Open Disk Mgmt. window and maximize it.
3. Type Snipping Tool in Start Search box.
4. Open Snipping Tool, choose Rectangular Snip, draw a box around full map and all listings.
5, Save Snip, attach using paper clip in Reply Box.

Tell us what is on each partition.

thenoo · Jul 31, 2012

Two Windows 7 Installations

OK , I've attached the Fle Management snip here - correctly I hope as I don't use the SNIP procedure very often.

whs · Jul 31, 2012

Your bootmgr is on C. So you can delete F.

thenoo · Jul 31, 2012

Two Windows Installations

Thanks very much . I should have thought of that before posting . The help is even more appreciated.

thenoo · Aug 1, 2012

Two Windows Installations

I tried to delete the Windows Folder on the F Partition as advised here in this thread and was following the directions given in the URL

"http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-how-to-delete-files-protected-by-trustedinstaller"

Unfortunately all this did was delete the folder "Windows" but left the sub-Folder "winsxs" which refuses to delete because I require permission again .

Apart from formatting the F Partition , how do I get permission to delete "winsxs" ?

gregrocker · Aug 1, 2012

Why are you trying to delete the Windows folder? The correct way to delete an OS is to delete it's partition in Disk Management or a Partition manager.

Then create a new one there or resize G to the left to take up the space using Partition Wizard to Resize Partition - Video Help.

thenoo · Aug 1, 2012

Two Windows Installations

As stated in my OP in this thread , after removing a Dual Boot I had setup when I was changing from XP to Win 7 I was left with the Windows Folder on the F Partition . This is now some time ago and I forget all the details but I think on that Dual Boot setup , I had XP on the C:\ drive and Win 7 on the F Partition. Whatever happened , after removing the Dual Boot I ended up with WIN 7 on the bootable C and a non-bootable Windows Folder also on the F Partition . I eventually forgot about the existence of this , now superfluous Windows Folder , until recently but was still using the F Partition normally. I was trying to remove this Windows Folder while still preserving the data on F but I now am realising that the simplest way to get rid of it will be by formatting that drive . I realise now that attempting to remove an OS-containing Folder is not a simple process even if it is not bootable !

gregrocker · Aug 1, 2012

The correct and simplest method to remove both a multi-boot and the OS itself is to make sure the remaining OS partition has the System Active boot flags, then delete the old unwanted partition in Disk mgmt or using a Partition manager.

Saltgrass · Aug 1, 2012

You have to be really careful when you refer to partitions as C: or F: or whatever. The partition you boot into will normally be C: So if you had a dual boot, depending on whether you booted to Windows 7 or XP, that OS install partition would show as C:

It can simplify things by referring to the 1st or 2nd partition on a drive instead of a letter.

On addition to that, if you want to delete a folder owned by Trusted Installer (that isn't being used), you can take ownership yourself. Then give yourself full control.

whs · Aug 2, 2012

Reformat the partition in NTFS - that gets rid of everything.

thenoo · Aug 3, 2012

On addition to that, if you want to delete a folder owned by Trusted Installer (that isn't being used), you can take ownership yourself. Then give yourself full control.[/QUOTE]

I tried to do this as stated and what happened was I was left with sub folder "wsxs" which I cant' now delete.

thenoo · Aug 3, 2012

gregrocker said:
The correct and simplest method to remove both a multi-boot and the OS itself is to make sure the remaining OS partition has the System Active boot flags, then delete the old unwanted partition in Disk mgmt or using a Partition manager.

The problem is that , as shown in my snip of Disk Management in this thread , all the Partitions except one are Primary Partitons . These include the one I want to get rid of , Partition F . If you attempt to delete these , the "delete" command is greyed out.

Also , the other suggestion made here about reformatting to NTFS doesn't apply as the F Parttiton is already NTFS .

whs · Aug 3, 2012

Also , the other suggestion made here about reformatting to NTFS doesn't apply as the F Parttiton is already NTFS .

Understand, I made the suggestion to reformat in order to clean the partition - not because it was not NTFS. Nothing wrong with reformatting a NTFS partition to NTFS.

thenoo · Aug 3, 2012

[/QUOTE]Understand, I made the suggestion to reformat in order to clean the partition - not because it was not NTFS. Nothing wrong with reformatting a NTFS partition to NTFS.[/QUOTE]

Sorry I did misunderstand you there .

However I can't follow this advice as this Partition , being Primary, has the "format" command greyed out.

whs · Aug 3, 2012

Use Partition Wizard. Free Partition Magic alternative, partition manager freeware, partition magic server, partition magic Windows 7 and free Partition Manager software for Windows 7/8/VISTA/XP/2000 and Windows Server 2003/2008/2000.

gregrocker · Aug 3, 2012

Delete Partition - Partition Wizard Help Video
Partition Wizard Create Partition Video Help

thenoo · Aug 3, 2012

whs said:
Use Partition Wizard. Free Partition Magic alternative, partition manager freeware, partition magic server, partition magic Windows 7 and free Partition Manager software for Windows 7/8/VISTA/XP/2000 and Windows Server 2003/2008/2000.

This is also a reply to GregRocker.
I d/l and installed Partition Wizard. When I use it to attempt to delete Partition F it says "operation in progress" but does nothing else !

Two Copies of Win 7 in Separate Partitions - is it OK to Delete One ?

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