Windows 7: Partition or Volume - Delete

You're welcome Lec. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted.

This may be going back over older material so I'll apologise in advance.

Just to explain my problem.

I have recently installed windows 7 onto a PC with two hard drives, a 40GB and an 80GB. One drive now contains Windows 7 and the second Windows XP. I want to remove all of the info from the second drive as I no longer need to be able to boot up with both operating systems. The problem is that no matter what I try I cant seem to format the drive or remove the volume. I just get messages telling me I cant do it when I try. I've tried carrying out the steps in this thread, but they don't work either. Any suggestions would be very welcome.

Hello Diarmuid, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Which OS was installed first?

Hi, sorry for not getting back sooner - powercut knocked out my connection for a while. XP was installed first on the 80GB drive in the PC. The second 40GB drive came from another PC and that is now the one that has Windows 7.

Ah, that would be why then since it's the boot drive.

You might see if you can restore the MBR for Windows 7 on the Windows 7 drive first, then see if you can delete only the XP drive at boot using your Windows 7 installation disc in the Custom - Drive options (advanced) section, then just back out of the installation and restart to Windows 7.

Thanks - I'll give it a go and then get back to you.

I have a problem. I do not have the "Administrative tools" option. Does it exist in a specific windows 7?

Hello Kampinas, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Double check to make sure that you have the Control Panel (All Items view) (click on link) opened with icons showing in the Control Panel. However, you can also open Disk Management by typing diskmgmt.msc in the Start Menu search box and pressing enter.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi Brink, I replaced my OEM C: drive on a Sony Vaio F Series notebook. I installed the old HDD in a external enclosure & it works fine.

I tried to delete the hidden recovery partition (8GB) using Disk Management but when right clicking, all I get is "Help" while it works fine for the other partitions & lets me delete them. I then tried elevated command & diskpart following your tutorial, same problem! Diskpart deleted my other partitions but quits when I try to delete the recovery partition.

That Sony recovery partition is really protected.

This is nuts! Thanks for your help.

Hello Joe, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You may be able to during the next installation using the Drive Options (advanced) during setup to delete it. If not, you should be able to use the clean command to completely wipe out the hard drive using a command prompt at boot.

Hope this helps,
Shawn