Solved Upgrade To Windows 7

[ignatzatsonic]

No.

That's not what I mean.

I mean Windows Disk Management.

Just like you did 3 days ago in post number 75 in this thread. Look at that post and do the same thing you did then.

In post 75, your Recovery partition had 9 GB free and unused. Now it has no free space.

You appear to have made a wrong choice and caused the Recovery partition to be filled up. Not a good move.

 

[hazel123]

Not quite sure where you're at with this now, but I've bought the odd full copy of Windows 7 Home Premium from private ebay sellers. It helps if it's still sealed and check the seller seems genuine with 100% feedback, plus you can ask them questions (ie if it has been used on a computer and removed was it formatted and deactivated and so on.

I did a clean install of Windows 7 on a Vista laptop that went smoothly with either a full copy or upgrade copy of Home Premium.

 

[Del 80]

O.k......It would seem that I have installed one version of Windows 7 onto the recovery drive, I think that is why the other ''legit'' version is not updating... because of lack of space...the question is.....how the hell do I remove this second version ? and recover the disk space........tried to take a screenshot of it but failed.......any ideas most welcome.....Del.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

O.k......It would seem that I have installed one version of Windows 7 onto the recovery drive, I think that is why the other ''legit'' version is not updating... because of lack of space...the question is.....how the hell do I remove this second version ? and recover the disk space........tried to take a screenshot of it but failed.......any ideas most welcome.....Del.

Regarding the screenshot. Follow the instructions in post 69. You did it before and were successful.

It's tough to advise without that picture.

I assume you did not make a Macrium image of Vista and want to move forward with Windows 7 only. Is that correct?

You apparently have accidentally installed Windows to your Recovery partition. I would therefore be skeptical about whether the Recovery partition will now work as advertised. You'll never know until and unless you try it and I'm not asking you to try it.

Assuming you have a valid Windows 7 installation disc and a valid Product Key, you can certainly start from scratch and reinstall Windows 7, deleting ALL partitions during that process--including that Recovery partition. If you did that, you'd never be able to go back to Vista unless you have a valid Vista installation disc. You may not even be able to go back to Vista now, without that disc, if the Recovery partition is now out of order.

I have no idea if that's what you might want to do. Do you have any personal data on this hard drive and is it backed up anywhere? If you delete all partitions and start over, anything on the disc is gone forever.

 

[Del 80]

O.k.....Still struggling with that screenshot.......but would this work?.....move recovery partition to usb drive, then wipe recovery partition completely......what would happen......I have nothing on there that I want to keep, but will there be anything of importance on there that will affect the running of the computer ? apart from back up, which will then be on usb............I thought that there may be an option in the boot menu to remove this second edition, but can't see anything there......Del.

 

[DavidE]

Without the Disk Management (DM) screen print ignatzatsonic asked for no one can be sure what might happen if you wipe the recovery partition.

What are your problems with posting the screenshot ?

Can you run MS Paint ?
Can you open Disk Management and maximize the window ?
Can you click the keyboard "Print Screen" button and paste into Paint ?
Can you save the Paint file and post it here ?

 

[Barman58]

OK Del,

Looking at your previous screen shot which I assume is still valid ...



I have marked up the partitions (there are three but they show in two places) ...

The Yellow partition is the system reserved partition for the original Dell start-up, it monitors for the press of whatever key combination invokes the recovery system
The Blue partition is the actual Dell recovery partition containing the image of the original Vista install with all the additional Dell components.
The red partition is your "working" Windows 7 install

If you have no further interest in re- using Vista (or if you originally created the recovery Media, DVDs, that Dell recommends), you can remove both the Yellow and Blue partitions.

I doubt it is possible to reset the partitions to what they were originally but they should still work if you create an image with macrium to a USB, (a copy would not work as you need the invisible partition information for the restore procedure), for future use if you think there is a possibility of you reverting to Vista.

You should retain the Red partition and if it does not boot after removing the Dell partitions you can recover by running a start-up repair a number of times.

Now saying all this ...What I would do is .... start from basics,

use the Legit Disk to wipe the drive of all partitions (may be done by using advanced options in Windows 7 Installer), and install a complete fresh copy of Windows 7, This would give you a clean base to proceed to an upgrade to Windows 10 and would allow all the disk to be accessed by your active OS, (and gain an additional 14GB+ of usable storage )

 

[Del 80]

Hope this works !!

 

[Barman58]

Yes, it works, looks like nothing has changed with regards to the actual partitions, from your original one so what I posted earlier is still valid

 

[Del 80]

O.k Nigel, So wipe everything yes, and start again...... there is nothing that I want to keep, and I will never return to Vista........is there anything on the disc that will affect the operation of the laptop.....drivers, or anything like that ?.......Del.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The necessary drivers for a new installation of Windows should be supplied by Windows from the Windows installation disk itself.

But it's generally a good practice to go to the Dell support web site for your particular machine and download any Windows 7 drivers available there. Put them on a USB flash drive or a CD. I would be sure to download the Ethernet driver (NIC driver) because you cannot get on the Internet without it. Downloading this stuff from Dell is just a precaution in case Windows doesn't supply the drivers from the Windows disk. That's unlikely, but it has happened.

If you are installing 64-bit Windows, you need to be sure you download 64-bit drivers, not 32-bit.

If you can't do that, say so.

Other than that, disconnect any external devices before you begin the install---such as printers or external drives. All you want connected is monitor, mouse, and keyboard.

You will come to a screen in the install where you are asked "where do you want to install Windows". At that point, you would delete ALL, I mean ALL, partitions. Click them with the mouse and look for the "delete" icon. It's been a while since I've done it, but I think that's what you'll see. The worst thing that can happen is that you'll have to start over again.

When the smoke clears after the install, you should have 2 partitions: C and System Reserved.

Do you have any sort of Dell-supplied CD that came with the machine?

Do you have any way to post to this forum without using this Dell---some other working machine?

 

[Del 80]

O.k......On the installtion disc there is no option to delete partitions, so now what.....I have second laptop so can get online no problem......can I use a programme like Disc Wiper or something to wipe the recovery partition ?.......I still have the discs that came with the machine....Del.

 

[Barman58]

The option to delete partitions is on the screen that asks where you want to install - I may be under a link to Advanced Options, yes, any program may be used to remove the Partitions created by Dell, the actual windows Partition is more difficult - you would need an application like the windows setup disk that runs from a DVD or USN stick

I'll have a look for a step by step install guide

 

[ignatzatsonic]

O.k......On the installtion disc there is no option to delete partitions, so now what.....I have second laptop so can get online no problem......can I use a programme like Disc Wiper or something to wipe the recovery partition ?.......I still have the discs that came with the machine....Del.

You are clearly doing something wrong.

There IS an option to delete partitions. Are you sure you are booting from the install disc?

The option to delete partitions is NOT "on the install disc". It's a choice shown to you on your monitor several steps into the installation IF, I say IF, you have booted from a valid installation disc.

Do you come to a screen that asks you to choose your desired language?

Do you come to a screen that asks you "where do you want to install Windows".

If push comes to shove, you can delete all partitions using the Diskpart application which you can access from the install disc, BUT that is NOT necessary.

You need to figure out what you are doing wrong. We cannot see your computer screen. We don't know what keystrokes you are making. All we have to go on is what you type into this thread, along with screen shots. We have NOTHING else to go on.

 

[Barman58]

Del, have a read through this Tutorial by Brink ...

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

The steps 7 onwards ( quite Appropriate it's step 7 lol), show details of how to remove the existing partitions using Drive Options (advanced)

 

[Del 80]

Del, have a read through this Tutorial by Brink ...

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

The steps 7 onwards ( quite Appropriate it's step 7 lol), show details of how to remove the existing partitions using Drive Options (advanced)

Nope, The, Drive Options (Advanced) is not there.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Del, have a read through this Tutorial by Brink ...

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

The steps 7 onwards ( quite Appropriate it's step 7 lol), show details of how to remove the existing partitions using Drive Options (advanced)

Nope, The, Drive Options (Advanced) is not there.

Post a screen shot of what IS there.

We are flying blind here since we can't see what you see and you aren't telling us what you see.

 

[Barman58]

OK that's a new one on me

Any way, have a look at this Bootable Partition Manager| MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition it should allow you to clean the disk of all partitions - needs to be burned to disk, or to a USB stick using Rufus or similar so will allow you to remove a live windows install

Then go though the install onto a blank HDD

 

[Del 80]

Del, have a read through this Tutorial by Brink ...

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

The steps 7 onwards ( quite Appropriate it's step 7 lol), show details of how to remove the existing partitions using Drive Options (advanced)

Nope, The, Drive Options (Advanced) is not there.

Post a screen shot of what IS there.

We are flying blind here since we can't see what you see and you aren't telling us what you see.

Exactly the same as No. 7 in Brinks post....but without the Drive Options (advanced)

 

[Barman58]

Did you choose the upgrade, not the custom install? That may cause that, but the Partition magic disk will do everything you need, and is a good tool to keep for future partition work on any PC, or OS