Accidentally installed windows 7 on my Recovery Partition D:\

[Khraum]

Hi

Can someone please help me?

I have a Dell Studio laptop, and recently tried to reformat it by reinstalling Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. However, I made a mistake and reinstalled Windows 7 on the Recovery Partition. Because of this, when I started up my computer I got two Windows 7 boot options, one in C: and another in the Recovery Partition, which normally should not be visible but is now labelled D:.

I reformatted the hard drive again by reinstalling Windows 7 on C:, but still got the 2 boot options when I started up. I used msconfig to delete the boot option on the Recovery Partition after this. However, each time I start up my computer Windows 7 loads very slowly, and I even got 2 crashes. I think the Windows 7 installed on the Recovery Partition might still be causing problems. Is there a way that I can remove this installation completely, both from the Recovery Partition and from the boot configuration on my computer?

Thanks

 

[AddRAM]

Yes. If you manage to get it installed on C: you could format D: from disk management. Or better yet just delete it when you install windows.

 

[Khraum]

Yes. If you manage to get it installed on C: you could format D: from disk management. Or better yet just delete it when you install windows.

Thanks. I not sure about deleting D: yet, because Dell, my laptop's manufacturer has some files on restoring the computer to the original factory configuration on it. I only read somewhere that I can access this option by pressing F8 when I start my computer. Before I reformatted my computer I tried this, and it didn't work. After I reformatted my computer I tried this, and it didn't work either. But I wonder if installing windows 7 on D has corrupted this function, and I would still like to retain it.

As well, is there some other critical files that would be lost if I delete or reformat D:?

Can someone with a Dell computer help me on this?

 

[SIW2]

Dell partition may be the active one.

You would need to pick out carefully the bits you installed to it by mistake.

Easy to make an error there.

Perhaps post a screenie of the contenst of your "D" partition.

Screenie of disk mgmt window would help, too.

 

[Khraum]

Dell partition may be the active one.

You would need to pick out carefully the bits you installed to it by mistake.

Easy to make an error there.

Perhaps post a screenie of the contenst of your "D" partition.

Screenie of disk mgmt window would help, too.

Thanks, here are the images of my D partition contents and disk Mgmt

 

[SIW2]

Dell partition is system.

That is fine.

TO access Dell recovery options you need to add the dell bootable wim to boot menu.

It maybe called winpe.wim or similar.

It will be on D somewhere - look in the folder named Dell - and all it's sub folders and post screenie.

 

[Khraum]

Dell partition is system.

That is fine.

TO access Dell recovery options you need to add the dell bootable wim to boot menu.

It maybe called winpe.wim or similar.

It will be on D somewhere - look in the folder named Dell - and all it's sub folders and post screenie.

Just did this. The only 2 files in the Dell folder are:

catalog.ini (It is a configuration setting file)

and Factory.wim (Is this the file you are talking about, and how do you use it to access the recovery options?).

 

[SIW2]

If factory.wim is large - 3gb or so - then that is the installation wim.

You are looking for the preinstallation wim - it is probably under 200mb.

It is possible you may have overwritten it - look in the folder recovery\{longnumber} as well.

 

[whs]

Here are all the steps you need to perform. Read carefully: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/210983-dual-boot-delete-os.html

But your original recovery partition is probably gone. Call Dell for an installation disc. They send that for free - at least last time I checked.

 

[SIW2]

Hi whs,

Dell is system .

He wants to retain dell recovery options.

Your tut - excellent tho it is - not appropriate here.

 

[whs]

Hi whs,

Dell is system .

He wants to retain dell recovery options.

Your tut - excellent tho it is - not appropriate here.

Hmm, looks like I missed something. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

[Khraum]

If factory.wim is large - 3gb or so - then that is the installation wim.

You are looking for the preinstallation wim - it is probably under 200mb.

It is possible you may have overwritten it - look in the folder recovery\{longnumber} as well.

I can't find it, it must be gone. I guess if it is gone then I would be willing to get rid of D:. Would getting rid of it damage my system? Would I have to reformat the system again? As well would simply formatting or deleting D: get rid of all the residues of the windows 7 I installed on it, including from boot files?

 

[SIW2]

LOL.

Dell used to put the recovery.wim or windowsre.wim in the recovery folder.

You don't need it to restore - it just provides an easy gui.

You can apply the factory.wim to the partition with imagex or any number of similar apps.

We can have a quick look for it by running this - then post up the text file it produces:

unzip it - then rt click and run as admin on findwims.cmd

View attachment findwims-V2.zip

 

[Khraum]

LOL.

Dell used to put the recovery.wim or windowsre.wim in the recovery folder.

You don't need it to restore - it just provides an easy gui.

You can apply the factory.wim to the partition with imagex or any number of similar apps.

Can you be more specific about what steps I should take? As well, even if I completely restored the factory configuration, would traces of the Windows 7 on D: still be in the partition or my boot files?

 

[SIW2]

If you run the .cmd file I posted above -it will find any wims on C or D drive.

If you have the del bootable wim we can add it to the boot menu .

If you don't have it - then you can still apply the image from the factory.wim to back to your drive - but you will need to use a different app. to do the applying.

findwims-V2.zip

After we have organised your restore method - then we can delete anything you don't need from D partition

 

[Khraum]

LOL.

Dell used to put the recovery.wim or windowsre.wim in the recovery folder.

You don't need it to restore - it just provides an easy gui.

You can apply the factory.wim to the partition with imagex or any number of similar apps.

We can have a quick look for it by running this - then post up the text file it produces:

unzip it - then rt click and run as admin on findwims.cmd

View attachment 200477

Hi, don't quite understand what you mean. It doesn't show any wim files. Should I put the program in a certain folder?

 

[SIW2]

What doesn't show any wim files?

Rt click and run as admin on findwims.cmd.

That will produce a text file called foundwims.txt.

If you have a wim on drive C or drive D - it will be listed in the foudwims.txt file.

 

[Khraum]

What doesn't show any wim files?

Rt click and run as admin on findwims.cmd.

That will produce a text file called foundwims.txt.

If you have a wim on drive C or drive D - it will be listed in the foudwims.txt file.

Do you mean opening up the findwims zip file and highlighting and right clicking findwims.cmd? I tried to do this, but it never gave me the option to run as admin. The only options it gave me are open, cut, copy, delete, properties.

Maybe there are no files other than factory.wim?

 

[SIW2]

You will only find out by looking - that .cmd file will do the job.

Strange you don't get the option to run as admin .

You are the administrator on that machine ?

Actually - you shouldn't need to run it as admin - just dble click the .cmd file, or rt click it and select open - works fine for me.

 

[gregrocker]

It may be easier if you ever decide to restore to factory condition to simply order the Recovery Disks from Dell.

Since you used the Dell Win7 Reinstallation DVD to clean reinstall, it seems you want the cleaner installation without the preinstalled bloatware anyway. If this is the case, here's how to recover both the System boot files and the HD disk space from D into C

Boot free Partition Wizard bootable CD, right click C, select Modify>Set to Active, click OK.

Next click on the Disk # to highlight it, from Disk tab select Rebuild MBR, Apply both steps, reboot.

If Win7 doesn't start boot into the Win7 DVD Repair console to run Startup Repair up to 3 Separate Times with reboots to write the System boot files to the Active partition.

Once Win7 starts and holds the System Active Boot flags, boot PW CD, rightclick on D, select Delete, OK.

Next rightclick on C, select Resize, slide the left border to the left to take up the space deleted on D, OK, Apply both steps.

If you'd prefer to reinstall reclaiming both C and D, follow these steps to Clean Reinstall Windows 7 Factory OEM