Confusion - Install W7 on 2nd logical drive

G'day guys and girls.

Since i'm not a computer expert (self taught), i have been reading up on how to install Windows 7 on my notebook.
It has Vista Home Edition an C: and i wish to put Windows 7 Pro X64 on D:, which is a second HDD.
Everything i have read is written brilliantly, but the more i stress, the less sinks in.

The notebook has 2 physical HDD's, each being 160GB in size.
D: has been formatted this morning, but it shows up as a "logical" drive.
Reading about partitions has me totally bamboozled, never having done it.
I read about making a 50GB partition, but nothing is sinking in. Tried different tutorials, but i am confusing myself even more. Needing it set up with Windows 7 by monday afternoon, i'm really putting the pressure on myself.

I use this notebook for both home and work. At home i can live with Vista even though it has issues, but at my work, everything is set up with Windows 7.
I have not updated my specs as that is set up for my desktop comp.

If anyone with a bit of patience can run me through the required steps, i will be eternally grateful.:)

Attached is a shot of the HDD's in Computer Management.

Regards

Jon




Edit - Just realised, my post reminds me of a joke i read in a PC magazine.

Short version: "Best thing for me to do is put the notebook back in the box, cause i'm too stupid to own a computer".

What did you use for a drive partitioning tool? You should be able to reuse that to delete the logical partition easy enough. Your best move however when going to install 7 depends on if you want to see the system reserved 100mb partition created by the 7 installer once the present partition is removed.

As for a dual boot with Vista you also have two options for that. The recommend first unplugging the Vista when going to install 7 as a stand alone OS in case you decide to remove Vista later or the first drive fails on you. The second drive 7 will go on will then have it's own boot information.

Now for simply cleaning the logical partition and not wanting to see the 100mb boot partition with BCD store placed there along with 7's boot files you can create the new primary and see it formatted to NTFS first. For that even you have two options for the gui method using a drive partitioning program or the use of command prompt running the DiskPart tool.

For using DiskPart to clean the drive go to the Start>Accessories command prompt icon and right click on that to "run as administrator". That will prevent any permissions problems from getting in the way.

Next you simply type the following commands at the dos looking command prompt. Note you can use upper or lower case and the commands will still work. After each one is typed in you press enter before the next.

diskpart

list disk

select disk 1 (Note that since the Vista drive being the first on the system will likely be seen a disk #0. To verify that you will be selecting the correct number you can label the volume "delete" so that is seen while at the command prompt. You shouldn't mistake which drive however especially if a different capacity.)

clean (generally works well. You may see the clean all command advised since there are only two drives and you are booted in one while seeing this done.)

create partition primary (creates new primary type partition)

select volume 1 (you now have selected the new primary)

active (marks new primary as active. required for next step of formatting)

format fs=ntfs

assign (Windows assigns drive letter)

exit

Once all that is seen to simply close the command prompt window and you are now ready to unplug the Vista drive to see a stand alone install of 7. Afterwards you can still see a boot entry in 7 for Vista and even see a boot entry for 7 in Vista since both versions use the same boot loader/BCD store.

That's the command prompt way while many work with a little 3rd party help using a program. If you are periodically setting up dual boots and repairing or reinstalling OSs for people GParted on a usb flash drive solves the partitioning for multiple OSs.

As for the 100mb system reserved MS intentionally geared 7 for this since it isolates the boot files and BCD store(boot configuration information) from bugs(malwares, viruses) and accidental deletion of files when someone decides to sweep the root of C. Recommended for the not so experienced users.

Hello Jon.


Just boot the Windows 7 DVD and do the wipe, then creating, formating and marking active a single Primary partition for the install, have a look at the information below, have a look at Step Two #1 after the clean all completes.


After you have copied out or made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media, use Step One of this tutorial at the link below to do a wipe (secure erase) to the entire Hard Disk Drive / Solid State Drive.

• Then if you do not want to create the new Windows 7 "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #2 to create, format and mark Active a single 100GB partition to do the installation to.
• If you do want to create the "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #3 to create, format and mark Active the System Reserved partition and then create and format the 100GB partition to do the installation to.

Either way, running the "clean all" then creating and formatting the partition(s) using diskpart will get you the best possible space to do a clean install of Windows 7 to; you can always extend the Windows partition to include the remaining unallocated space on the HDD / SSD or create additional Primary partitions or an Extended partition after the installation completes if you choose.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

DISKPART : At PC Startup

Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

Night Hawk,

Thank you very much for replying, especially with so much detail.
In regards to the D: i wish to use, i just formatted it, which took a while, then did a quick format, which flew through very quickly.
I then checked the drives via computer management and it stated D: is "Healthy (logical drive)".

Should not have any issues following your dos commands, as if my memory works back to the mid 80's, it should start coming back to me.

The C: drive may not be so easy to disconnect, this being a notebook.
I'll leave it connected and see how it goes. Should i have too many issues setting up D:, at least i still have a working machine, to take away.
Having a desktop as well, makes it easy to communicate, rather than having to rely on just the notebook.

Well, here goes nothing.

Thanks again.

Jon

Thank you for another informative reply, Ted.
I love it when there are more than just 1 option.

Looks like i'll be busy for a while now.
Just remembered. The Handbrake has a Toshiba notebook she has not used in over a year.
Same size, 17", as mine. Should there be issues, i'll steal it for work, lol.
I am not a negative person (cup is half full), but with computers i have seen too many problems, so am preparing myself for the worst case scenario.

On the other hand, with the advise given here, how can i go wrong.

Thanks

Jon

Running the clean all is best as formatting does nothing at all on its own.

The clean command does nothing more than a quick format.

   Note

Contrary to popular belief, doing a full format with Windows 7 does not remove any data at all, it just checks for sector errors and marks the space to be over-written as needed, all the data is still there including all the code from previous, failed installation attempts.

The clean command didn't reformat a 1tb drive here but saw that turned into a volume unallocated drive space as you can see in the two screens below. There's also the use of the "delete partition" and "delete volume" commands once you have entered the select disk 1 and select partition 1 commands to first select the drive and then the partition you intend to remove.

No one is disputing any of that, of course the clean command leaves a HDD as unallocated space but neither clean nor format, full or quick, or delete, over-writes data as a clean all does and that leaves room for errors to creep in and that does happen.

There have been many instances where the only way forward was a clean all, over-write all existing data, especially when Linux (not relevant in this case) has been installed to the HDD previously.

Had some cd/dvd driver issues, like, could not find one. Had this been a desktop comp, i could use the mobo disk, but notebooks with the pre-installed OS confuse the hell out of me.
The copied pic above is what i successfully accomplished.
Did a reboot Below is the boot order.
First is cd/dvd.
Second is HDD #2, which has the Windows 7 partition. (D:/).
Third is HDD #1, which is the vista one. (C:/).
(Vista still works, than goodness.)

Attached is a shot of the computer management. Guess, sofar, so good.
Trying to get around the driver issue, i must have done something wrong, as now i get a (unwanted) message: "Bootmgr is missing".....gggrrrrrr.

Where to from here please???

Have you got a USB thumbdrive you can use for the drivers? I'd guess it's the chipset driver you're actually going to need. :)