help formatting drive c on windows 7

[RICHO20]

so guys, i had originally windows vista on drive C and then i installed windows 7 on drive E, then i wanted to try windows 8 so i deleted windows vista form drive C and installed windows 8 ... now i tried deleting/formating Drive C to put another OS on it but i couldnt delete the windows folder, im guessing its booting from Drive C into windows 7 on drive E.

i used Easy BCD to remove the windows 8 boot entry since im not using it.

so what should i do now? how can i format drive C and still make windows 7 boot correctly?

 

[Kaktussoft]

Post screenshot of disk management with all fields visible.
and explain which partition is win7 and which win8.

 

[RICHO20]

 

[Kaktussoft]

In disk management right click on C and give it another label. Give E another label as well, I prefer WIN7 as label.
Did you install win7 from within winxp/vista? Because normally it's volume is called C. Always install an OS while booting from DVD next time!

From http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

bcdedit/enum all>bcd.txt

And post bcd.txt as well. You may delete bcd.txt afterwards.
Do you want a seperate partition with boot manager and boot menu, are you fine if E will have the boot manager and boot menu?

 

[RICHO20]

yes i installed windows 7 form within vista! ill take that in consideration next time
so if i just give them another labels i can delete the windows 8 copy on drive c? and it will still boot normally into windows 7? because in Easy BCD it says that the Boot drive is C ...

 

[Kaktussoft]

yes i installed windows 7 form within vista! ill take that in consideration next time
so if i just give them another labels i can delete the windows 8 copy on drive c? and it will still boot normally into windows 7? because in Easy BCD it says that the Boot drive is C ...

First give them new labels, just for better description.

After that post bcd.txt as asked you. Then I know the current bootmenu. Afterwards I give you more instructions.

 

[Kaktussoft]

You already have a win7 system repair disc? http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html
Or a win7 install DVD? You need it in case of troubles.

 

[RICHO20]

yes i already have the install DVD, and i tried the bcdedit/enum all>bcd.txt in CMD (as Admin) but it didnt work... another way?

and yes it isnt a problem if E had the boot menu and boot manager

 

[Kaktussoft]

bcdedit/enum all
works? errors?

bcdedit/enum all>bcd.txt
what error message?

 

[Kaktussoft]

You know how to boot from DVD? That's working? Just test it before I give you more instructions.
Best thing to do is rebuild the bootmanager and boot menu from scratch. So I wanna delete the win8 boot manager (I don't know if you have win7 or win8 bootmanager). Rebuilding the boot menu ... so all remaing stuff from vista an win8 in menu will be lost. Just what you want.

so bcd output no longer needed!

 

[RICHO20]

i will try to fix the boot menu using the install dvd...
and here is when i used the cmd

 

[Kaktussoft]

you typed bcedit instead of bcdedit!!

Does system boot from win7 install DVD. just to check if it's booting

 

[RICHO20]

what is exactly preventing me from deleting the windows 8 folder in Drive C?

and yes i tested it many time it boot perfectly

 

[Kaktussoft]

what is exactly preventing me from deleting the windows 8 folder in Drive C?

and yes i tested it many time it boot perfectly

Please answer other questions first!!

Can't you delete C:\windows?? Maybe permissions on that folder, any error message?. But you want to delete whole C partition... isn't it? That's impossible now, because bootmanager and bootmenu is on it

 

[Kaktussoft]

First mark E active in disk management by right clicking on it and then "Mark Partition as Active".
A warning appears But press YES. System doesn't boot from harddisk then.
Then do a startup repair 3 times with reboots in between!

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html option TWO
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html run it 3 times with reboots in between!
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html
Read carefully.
System boots fine now from Harddisk and you can delete C partition.

 

[RICHO20]

i want to leave drive c but format it ... not delete the whole partition just format

and here is the bcdedit.txt

 

[Kaktussoft]

i want to leave drive c but format it ... not delete the whole partition just format

and here is the bcdedit.txt

Lots of vista or other windows stuff in bcd menu. Vven traces of winxp

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=C:
path \ntldr
description Earlier Version of Windows


But that's gone after the startup repair 3 times (rebuilds from scratch).

You can format C after all actions are complete

 

[RICHO20]

I booted and tried to repair but it failed abd when i start the computer now it gives me bootmgr is missing? What should i do now?

 

[Kaktussoft]

I booted and tried to repair but it failed abd when i start the computer now it gives me bootmgr is missing? What should i do now?

Did you mark E active?
What happens exactly when you do a "startup repair"?

 

[RICHO20]

Yes i marked it as activ