Fresh Win7 install now cannot access partition on C drive

Try cleaning the HD Drive & reinstalling.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Clean Install Windows 7

Was kinda hoping to avoid a complete reinstall.

Is it possible to install the boot files onto the C drive and then point window to boot from the C drive? I could then hopefully be able to delete the E partition (as it would no longer be required to boot) and extend C partition to the capacity of the drive.

I have read a few threads now that suggest that the System Recovery Options may be able to do this?

Hello danter
you need to boot from a repair disc or installation disc and get to a cmd prompt. Then check the drive letter of partitions as they sometimes are different when you boot from disc. Best to only have the one HDD connected. You can do this with notepad. Then run DiskPart.exe and select the partition that your windows are installed on and make that partition active.
Then select the other partition and type assign <enter> that will make a mounting point for that partition. Last step, exit diskpart then change to drive letter of partiton that windows is on and goto and run:
?:\windows\system32\bcdboot.exe ?:\windows
replace the ? mark with correct drive letter. This will install boot files to the active partition. It's easy.
TJG

When your installing windows is when you would delete all the partitions. When you come to the page that shows your partitions, delete everything down so it shows your entire hard drive and nothing else.

Why wouldn`t you want to do a complete clean install ? Only takes about 5 minutes. LOL !

But seriously that`s the way to go.

Please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Mgmt drive map with listings showing all columns. Use Snipping Tool in Start Menu. Explain what is on each partition or label them first in Computer/Properties.

The first hard drive contains C and General. C partition holds the operating system. General partition was for general use but now holds the boot files. Nothing on the General partition is required as it was all backed up prior to the Win7 install.
The Seagate drive is the only other internal hard drive for general use. The others (Elements and MyBook) are external drives and NABAFL the CD drive.

Looks like your C partition is a logical drive, boot files must be on a primary drive.
TJG

So I assume that this means I cannot simply follow the instructions of your previous post? Surely the boot files can reside on the same drive? What about PCs with just one unpartitioned hard drive?

The real issue is - my C partition is out of disk space causing all sorts of bother. The General partition is about 122 GB of which its only use is for the boot files. I need to use this unused capacity to increase the C partition.

Just a thought - there is a very small unallocated partition of 20gb on the same drive. Can I make this a primary drive and put the boot files there, then delete the General Partition. Then create another small partition and move the boot files to that so I end up with a large unallocated space right next to the C partition - I then simply expand the C partition into this space?

You can take look at this:
Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD
but made sure you backup your DATA.