Deleting Windows from HDD ?

I`ve been recommending the Partition Wizard Boot CD for Centuries

I think it`s the safest way possible to manage drives/partitions etc.

Mike99 said:

Just to clarify, I wondered if formatting needed to be done AFTER the partitions were deleted. IOW not instead of deleting the partitions.

You can`t format deleted/unallocated space. Partitions must be created 1st.

You cannot format a drive that is not initialized (it basically has nothing on it but hard sectoring now determined at manufacture). Windows will prompt you in this case and you are given the option of MBR or GPT initialization. This places information on the drive which describes basic things such as how partitions will be described etc.

You then end up with unallocated partitions. You format these individually to add a file system within a partition so that files can be managed.

For NTFS primary formatting (the normal choice) you can have up to 4 partitions to a single drive for MBR initialization. Your drive is then ready to go as an OS drive or a pure data drive or a mix. You can then add partition labels and specific partition letters if you wish.
So you could have for example: Label: Data Partition 1, Drive letter D; Label: Data Partition 2, Drive letter E. etc.

It may sound complex but it isn't really.

Hi,
Yes it should allow you to create or just mark the entire disk as active
Then you can install windows on the disk or newly created partition
I believe most of use prefer to make additional partitions after an install to avoid a 100mb system reserved partition being created during the install.

But I have not read back on how you're installing as MBR or GPT style disk either.

Mike99 said:

I was playing around & installed a Windows 7 image on a new HDD to see how fast a fresh install boots up. The HDD was intended for storage & now I want to use it for that.

You started with this comment.
When you disconnect the "new HDD" does your system still boot and work ok? If yes then you can use PW to
delete all partitions on the "new HDD" - apply
format as one ntfs primary - apply
use move/resize to create other partitions as desired. You will get unallocated space and you will need to apply the format operation.
Just don't go over 4 primary partitions and make sure you are operating on the "new HDD".

Mike99 said:

Presuming I use the Partition Wizard bootable version as mentioned, does that mean I should not delete all the partitions? That I should leave one intact?

Or if I delete all the partitions in order to make sure I got all of the Windows OS off the drive, will Partition Wizard allow me to create a new partition out of "nowhere"?

Sorry for all the questions, I just don't want to mess up a brand new HDD.

If you are going to use the drive for data, then yes, delete the entire disk to unallocated space, then make 1 primary partition or chop it up into 4 Primaries, I see no point in chopping it up, but that is your choice.

Partition Wizard will do everything for you. 1st delete, then create, then align, that`s it you`re done :)