Accidentally installed Windows 7 onto D: Recovery drive

[dober1]

Hello all! In comparison to everyone here, computer noob. So the new job I started at had the computer, which isn't associated with the company's IT department, running on Windows Vista up until now and they asked me to upgrade it. I bought the Windows 7 upgrade for Windows Vista after receiving confirmation from the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor that it would work on Windows Vista 64 bit.

I backed up my files onto an external hard drive and proceeded with the upgrade, but at the time, it told me that I could only do a clean install to install Windows 7 Home Premium. I proceeded with the system prompts and don't know/remember how I got this to happen, but the OS installed on the Recovery drive D: (15 gb) instead of the main drive C: (>100 gb). I've been keeping all the files on the C: drive and using it as much as possible, but the D: drive is basically completely full and causing the computer to be slow and crash occasionally. I have the Windows 7 install disc, recently bought, and all my important information is on the C: drive, which I will be backing up onto an external hard drive again before proceeding with anything.

Can anyone help me with installing Windows 7 onto the C: drive and having everything work normally, including with the recovery drive? I've read a lot of threads where people still have issues if their computer has a dual boot (installed on C: and D: drives); so far the best resource I've seen on clean install is here (if anyone can confirm would be great!): Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums

Note: veeeeeeery old PC so definitely past the warranty and things like old discs and program boxes aren't around! Thanks in advance for the help folks

 

[Ranger4]

Hi dober1, welcome to the Forum.

If you bought the Upgrade to go from Vista to Windows 7, you should install the Upgrade from within Vista. Doing it this way preserves all your files remaining intact & installed programs also continue to work. I did precisely this upgrade from Vista to 7 some years ago & it was an easy seamless operation.

From what you have stated it seems that when you did a fresh install from the Windows 7 upgrade disc it ended up on the wrong drive. Is this correct.

If you still have Vista on your C:/ drive you should be able to run the upgrade from within Vista. If you do another fresh install to the C:/drive, you must disconnect all other drives. This prevents parts of the installation ending up on the wrong drive & it will not boot or the installation fails.

 

[torchwood]

Hi Dober1,

Some comments for you

MS has NOT sold Upgrade keys for years!!
Where did you buy the disc/key, not the Net i hope
Google the last 3 blocks of the product key -- multiple hits means bad news
As you have filled up your D partition then this will cause the slowdown
The recovery Drive would have been for Vista OS.
Does it give you a choice of which OS to boot?

In your position, AFTER creating your image AND checking the product key
id plump for a clean install
run this tool, copy/paste the output and i will check it - NO personal info in it
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=52012
It will tell me what type of install key you have, hopefully Retail


The only way to "speed up" your comp is via a clean install.
This will mean loosing the Recovery partition, (No longer required, Vista OS)
(Our Vista forum could supply you with a Vista OS disc)

The link to the tutorial is fine, however depending on the results from the tool, we might need to go via another

Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums

Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version - Windows 7 Help Forums

Roy

 

[Megahertz07]

How many disks you have?
Is C: and D: in same disk (different partitions) or in different disks?

Please open disk manager, expand the columns so we can read them and take a snapshot with the sniping toll. Use the paper clip to browse to the file and then upload.

 

[mrjimphelps]

To make sure that Windows is installed to the drive that you want it to install to, disconnect all drives but that one -- including all flash drives and external drives.

Once you have completely installed Windows, then you can reconnect the drives you disconnected.