Solved getting rid of a partition

[littlepeaks]

I would like to get my system the way I want it before I attempt to upgrade to Windows 10.
I have Norton Security Suite installed on my PC. In Norton's infinite wisdom, it started doing backups. Since I didn't have an external drive attached to my PC, it created a disk partition on my hard drive on which to do backups (that's really helpful if my HD crashes). I found out how to turn backups off, and now would like to get rid of that partition. How do I do that? (BTW I am now using Acronis to back up to an external drive, if anything goes wrong). TIA

 

[Pauly]

Should be pretty straight forward but probably best to post a screenshot of your disk management before so we can see the exact setup

Click start and type diskmgmt.msc then post a snip of the maximised window so we can see all partitions and info

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[AddRAM]

Just right click on it in disk management and choose delete volume.

 

[littlepeaks]

Pauly --

Here's a screen shot (attached) from disk management -- I cropped it to save space.
While we're looking at it, I hope "RECOVERY" isn't something Acronis created on the HD (don't think it is).
Also, what is the 39MB OEM partition? (I have a Dell with Windows 7 preinstalled)
HTH

 

[bigmck]

If you crop the DM, we can't see if there are errors.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
You'll need to completely uninstall Norton Before attempting a upgrade to win-10

Also did you refer to the manufactures website to see if your machine is compatible they are the ones that make drivers for it not M$
Also to make sure your manufacture system recovery partitions are not zapped in the upgrade this is part of the manufactures compatibility testing they will know.

But as far as the F partition
It's marked as active that needs to be undone
Which might be taken care of by right clicking and click on Delete volume
That should turn it into Unallocated space virify if that also removes the active flag.

 

[littlepeaks]

Here's the uncropped screen, bigmck.

Thrashzone, I intend to disconnect F: (the external backup drive), and everything else, except for the keyboard, monitor, and mouse, before I try upgrading to Windows 10.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
You need to unmark as active first and restart your machine to make sure it's not dependent

Either way you still need to completely remove Norton not just disable.

 

[DavidE]

I have Norton Security Suite installed on my PC. In Norton's infinite wisdom, it started doing backups. Since I didn't have an external drive attached to my PC, it created a disk partition on my hard drive on which to do backups (that's really helpful if my HD crashes). I found out how to turn backups off, and now would like to get rid of that partition.

In your screen prints i don't see a partition i believe Norton would have created
What partition do you think Norton created ?

If you haven't done so already, i would create the Manufactures Recovery disc set, before making changes.

 

[dsperber]

I would like to get my system the way I want it before I attempt to upgrade to Windows 10.
I have Norton Security Suite installed on my PC. In Norton's infinite wisdom, it started doing backups. Since I didn't have an external drive attached to my PC, it created a disk partition on my hard drive on which to do backups (that's really helpful if my HD crashes).

I don't know what you're describing.

Your screenshot shows two disks... one is your internal hard drive and the second is an external 1TB "backup" drive (Seagate). Is this a "portable" USB backup drive you bought and plugged in? Are you describing an earlier previous situation where Norton somehow created a "backup partition" on your internal hard drive and didn't tell you, and then just started taking regular automatic backups to it? Seems a bit of a stretch to imagine that.

In any case I don't see this backup partition you're speaking of. I only see the internal hard drive (with no such backup partition on it) as well as the external 1TB Seagate drive... which is what you'd want for taking backups.

I wonder if that Seagate external drive came with its own backup software, which you actually installed but didn't realize it? I'm not a Norton user but I didn't know it provided backup software. In contrast I just bought a WD MyPassport 1TB external USB drive for a friend and it actually did come with WD backup software on it, available for installation. I didn't install the software because I use different backup software (Macrium Reflect for "system image" backups, and NovaBACKUP for "data" folder/file backups). I only bought the WD drive as the target for the backups, but had no intention of using the WD-provided backup software.

As far as the external drive showing "active", well that's not really harmful although it might confuse you. The "active" partition on your internal hard drive is where Boot Manager lives, and is the partition where the BIOS will go to start the boot process. Since your internal drive is no doubt shown first in BIOS boot sequence (in order to locate the "active" partition where it is assumed Boot Manager lives) the fact that your external drive also shows an "active" partition isn't going to do any harm. The BIOS will discover the "active" partition and Boot Manager on the first drive in the boot sequence list, and all will be just fine.

I found out how to turn backups off, and now would like to get rid of that partition. How do I do that?

I still don't know what partition you're talking about. The "recovery" partition on the internal drive is no doubt provided by your hardware vendor when you bought the machine, in order to use "recovery media" (e.g. bootable CD or USB) to restore the original Win7 OS to "factory" state if you should ever want to or need to.

Interestingly, that "recovery" partition (which is 12GB, much larger than the standard "system reserved" of 100MB which is normally the "active" partition) is marked "active", so Boot Manager must live there along with the rest of whatever the manufacturer provided to do a complete "factory reset". 12GB is insufficient for use as a real ongoing "backup" target partition. It is about standard size for the "factory reset" recovery... not for regular normal periodic backups. That's what your external 1TB drive is for.

So, just to really be sure we understand your objective... are you wanting to wipe everything out and just install Win10 from scratch and start all over? Do you want to install Win10 as a second bootable OS on your current Win7 system? Do you have real valuable irreplaceable DATA that you must preserve, and reinstall into your newly created Win10 environment?

I don't see this so-called Norton backup partition you complain about.

 

[littlepeaks]

OK. For some reason, I thought I had a backup partition -- I guess not. So let's mark this as solved, before we start spinning wildly off topic. I appreciate everyone's input. Will uninstall Norton, before trying upgrade to Windows 10. Probably will wait a few more months until we are closer to the Windows 10 cutoff date to do this.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
As soon as Dell says your machine has full compatibility = go for it