claiming primary partition with window 7

sncheong · 25 Dec 2009

i am a newbie and would like to extend my season greetings during this festive period.

like many newbies, i have vista on drive c: and to test it, w7 beta on drive d:. now that i am happy with it, i installed an original copy of w7 ultimate in drive d:.

it is time to let vista go and merge drive c: with drive d: but i have no luck with it.

however, with easybcd, i deleted vista bootup entry but i couldn't format drive c: as "format" is disabled in Admin tools/disk management. so, i tried using w7u to reformat it. after that, i couldn't reboot to w7u as the bootmanager is missing. i repaired that with w7u but i noticed the bootmgr file and boot folder reside in drive c: instead of drive d:.

these files couldn't be deleted from drive c: which means i couldn't reformat drive c:

what must i do next to achieve my mission ie to merge drive c: and drive d:?

thanks.

gregrocker · 25 Dec 2009

Please post a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map using the Snipping Tool in Start Menu, attaching file using paper clip in reply box.

We have helped do over a hundred of these dual boot extractions here since release date with about a 95% success rate. You can even move the D: drive into deleted Vista space if you don't care to reinstall.

The tools you will want to use are free Partition Wizard bootable CD and your Win7 DVD.

Night Hawk · 25 Dec 2009

Hello sncheong Welcome to the Se7en Forums! and Happy Holidays!

With the C primary reformatted you can now see a clean install of 7 go there. Once you have all files backed up from the D primary the help of a 3rd party drive partitioning tool will be needed to delete the D primary 7 is presently on and expand C to fill in the drive space used by D.

One free drive tool found quite effective for operations like this and is used regularly here on multiple drives is called GParted. You can download a live cd image and burn that to a cd-r. Once booted live from that you won't run into the unmovable file problems when trying to expand C after removing D once your files are backed up from D.

Presently the latest stable version recommended is the 0.4.6-1 release available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/files/

You can even see the iso image written to a usb flash drive if you one onhand with the shareware version of UltraISO. Other then that no other programs need to be installed. The instructions for use are seen at GPARTED DOCUMENTATION - GENERALITIES

sncheong · 25 Dec 2009

hi gregrocker

thanks; here's the info you requested.

cheers

sncheong · 25 Dec 2009

btw, i have downloaded and installed partition wizard.

although i can deactive the vista partition, i couldn't make the w7u partition active as its "set active" is grey-out.

SIW2 · 25 Dec 2009

Can you rt click the 7 partition in Disk Management and Mark as Active?

If so - do it.

Then type cmd in start search. When it pops up, rt click the black box and Run As Administrator.

At the prompt ( this bit > )Type :

bcdboot c:\windows /s c:

then press enter.

Close command prompt.

Restart the pc.

gregrocker · 25 Dec 2009

sncheong said:

hi gregrocker

thanks; here's the info you requested.

cheers

Can you move the data on the E: drive temporarily to the G: drive? This gives you a clean slate.

Did you burn Partition Wizard to CD? If not, please do so using bootable CD download: Free Download Partition Wizard

Now boot into PW and it should allow you to rightclick>Modify:Set active the Win7 partition.

Now you can rightclick>Delete both the Vista and E: partitions,

then rightclick>Resize/Move the Win7 partition, use slider to move left border all the way over against the left side of the HD. Resize the right border to Create any new partition(s) in the right hand space as desired. Apply all steps.

Now boot into the Win7 DVD Repair console, click through to Recovery tools list and run Startup Repair 3 separate times to rewrite the MBR to Win7.

You may wish to save a Win7 backup image externally or to your G: drive first because Resizing operations can fail.

Night Hawk · 25 Dec 2009

You have two options available where you can still use the Windows Easy Transfer tool for 7. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...-transfer.aspx

The first is simply removing the first two partitions once you have backed up your important files to the second G drive you have available. From there you can use either drive partitioning program to move the 7 primary forward as suggested or second remove all 3 and start off fresh with a brand new single primary to see a fresh install of 7 go on that.

A third option although you already have a second drive available to add here is deletion of the first two with one having Vista on it and creating a new larger primary followed by reformatting the present 7 partition to use for backup or ? All you have to do besides that is decide how you want the drive scheme to look once you are done.

sncheong · 27 Dec 2009

a big "THANK YOU" to gregrocker and of course to the other gurus who so unselfishly share their expertise. yes, i did it!

as suggested by gregrocker, i backup my data in driveE to my driveG. i then merged driveC with driveE and increased the win7u partition.

i only have to run win7u repair twice to get back to normalcy. during the 2nd run, i selected "startup repair" before restarting my pc. i was lucky, i suppose.

once again, many thanks to all especially gregrocker who volunteer their help and time at this forum.

gregrocker · 27 Dec 2009

Very glad to hear it. :) Was wondering how it went.

Since you now have the Partition Wizard CD (a handy tool) and know how to use it, suggest when you get a chance boot PW CD, rightclick your drive to Check File System (fix errors) and Surface scan.

That gives a final clean bill of health on an advanced operation achieved using the automated method.

You'll never have to reinstall again if you save a Win7 backup image externally of your finished job, which can reimage the HD (or a replacement) flawlessly in 15 minutes.