I have Vista installed on my C drive and Windows 7 installed on K:. I want to get rid of Vista and create one partition with Windows 7 on it. I've been reading through some threads and I believe that I have to format the C drive, then extend it using partition wizard. Am I on the right track here?
You have 4 partitions on that drive.
When the smoke has cleared, how many partitions do you want on that drive?
Things are complicated because your Win 7 partition is on the far right. If it were on the far left, things would be easier.
If this is a brand new fresh install and you haven't installed a bunch of programs on Windows 7, the path of least resistance may be to start all over and do a clean install of 7, deleting all unwanted partitions. An install by itself takes only a half hour or so.
Well I have no clue what the far left partition is. Not exactly sure what the recovery partition is for, but I've always thought it was a backup of some kind and therefore important. Really, I only want the Windows 7 partition...unless the recovery is important.
How would I go about doing this? Do you suggest reinstalling windows 7 to the c drive?
Well, more folks will come along so I will just make some observations now.
Your boot files are on the C: partition, so deleting it will make your system unbootable.
You have Win 7 on a logical partition, which you cannot make active, so you cannot boot from it. And I do not think you can combine the partitions and keep your Win 7 install.
Last edited by Saltgrass; 06 Jan 2010 at 17:26. Reason: Remove comment
Suggest you make your Vista recovery disks as Recov partition will be disabled when Win7 installs.
The EISA partition holds special tools for your model computer which will also likely be disabled by Win7 install. Read about it and how to remove it here: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/02/29/delete-and-remove-to-unlock-eisa-hidden-recovery-or-diagnostic-partition-in-vista/
Burn to CD free Partition Wizard bootable manager .
Boot into PW, select 1 for screen resolution
then rightclick the vista partition> delete, ignore warning. OK
next rightclick Win7 partition>Resize, drag left border all the way over deleted Vista space up against Recov partition. OK (if you delete Recov and EISA you can recover the whole HD for Win7 partition)
Apply all steps, it will complete in boot mode and not be able to start up due to MBR being deleted with Vista.
Boot the Win7 DVD, select Repair my Computer on second screen, then click through to Recovery Tools list and select Startup Repair to run up to 3 separate times as it will attempt to repair and then rewrite the MBR to Win7.
When completed, save a Win7 Backup Image externally so you never have to reinstall again, just reimage using DVD.
That would be one option while another is the task of nuking the Vista C primary and then moving the K primary towards the front next to the D recovery partition. The small 94mb partition seen at the very front of the drive is the boot sector.
If you elect to install fresh so that you can have one large primary the method used for partitioning the drive will allow you to nuke the drive entirely to see one large 7 primary if you no longer want the recovery D partition being done with Vista entirely. Part of the documentation for the Linux drive tool GParted on resizing provides a good illustration of how to resize one partition after removing another. GPARTED DOCUMENTATION - RESIZING
The term "merging" applies to deletion of one to see another expand into the empty drive space created. The page there takes into account a small boot sector at the front of the drive.
Another option is wiping the Vista C as well as the present K 7 primary and seeing a clean install of 7 on C and leaving K as a backup partition. The fast and easy for a clean install is simply nuking the drive and then creating two new partitions for that with a fresh install of 7 on the first C primary.
so i won't lose any files from the windows 7 partition if i follow the above steps(gregrocker's post)?
You need to always back up your files externally - anything can go wrong.
What steps?
If you delete or format the C partition, you will lose whatever is on it. Ditto for any other partition. It's up to you to decide what you have to save and to make arrangements to do that.
also, i downloaded windows 7. don't have a cd. can i put windows 7 on a cd and boot from it?
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