Cant format a Primary partition.

[Fliplip]

I really should know whats going on but i cant think straight.
I want to format my D: drive to clear some space. Thing is my D: used to be my C: drive under XP when i was dual booting so its showing as an active primary partition and W7 wont let me format it.
Ive tried deleting everything but some things are refusing to go (like the file boot which i assume is to do with dual booting)
Can someone please help.
Im not really as stupid as i seem
Thanks.

Dave.

 

[snifferpro]

couple of options

1. Go the the web site of manufacturer of your hard drive and get their
free disk utility. Usually they have a program on there to format
your hard drive.

2. Download Gparted boot cd and boot that and format your drive.

 

[Fliplip]

thanks for the options.
I THINK my problem is the boot manager for my PC is on this drive, even though im booting from my C: drive.
Im going to try and move the Bootmanager to my C: drive and then see if i can format in the usual way.

 

[eVox]

I've no experience of moving the BOOTMGR and had a problem with this earlier, but you can simply pop in your Win7 DVD/USB and after selecting a language, click on Repair instead of Install, and you should get the option to check your boot configuration; Win7 should do the rest for you in a matter of seconds.

 

[Fliplip]

Thanks. ive had to do that twice tonight, each time the repair puts bootmanager back on the D: drive.

Im going to give it a rest for now.

 

[eVox]

Unplug the D: drive whilst you rebuild the MBR (assuming it is a physical drive and not a partition)
And/or look in Disk Management and make sure the right drive/partition/s is/are set to active.

Also, I reccommend taking a look at the tutorials on this site (if you haven't already) -- can't hurt, can it?

 

[rive0108]

There is a free partitioning program that will allow you to boot into it, recreate the partition/delete/format it outside of Windows.

You might also want to run a disk check though. Sometimes when you move the Boot config it must be rebuilt (the second link shows you how to do it)

Partitioning software
Dual Boot using free partitioning software - Vista Forums

 

[Orbital Shark]

1 option is to boot from the Windows 7 DVD/Flash and continue up to the 'Drive Selection' part, then just delete the offending partition then create a new 1. You can then exit the installer with a fresh new D: partition.

Just a thought




Jeff

 

[Fliplip]

Thanks for the help guys.
My main worry now is the bootmanager. I can restore it but cant seem to move it so the suggestions above could be the answer.
Jeff, ill try your first as it a bit of a pain to get my PC open to disconnect the drive.
Are you saying that if i delete the partition the bootmanager will reflect this and W7 will create a new one on my C: drive?

 

[Orbital Shark]

You may need to 'Repair' install afterwards but as D: will be empty it should use C:

 

[rive0108]

Thanks for the help guys.
My main worry now is the bootmanager. I can restore it but cant seem to move it so the suggestions above could be the answer.
Jeff, ill try your first as it a bit of a pain to get my PC open to disconnect the drive.
Are you saying that if i delete the partition the bootmanager will reflect this and W7 will create a new one on my C: drive?

You dont even have to delete it, just mark the other partition as active, go into msconfig and delete the other O/S boot (this will remove the dual boot option), and then repair it through the RE (7 disk startup repair), then boot into the partioner, or delete it through the management utility. Merging to the left though, If you are setting the second volume as active will result in specific issues that are addressed on the dual boot tutorial.

 

[Fliplip]

All sorted.
Biggest thanks goes to Jeff but all relpys were very helpful.
Almost had a heart attack when i rebooted and i got the "no boot disc" message. Did a repair boot but that didnt help. Turns out i had forgotten about the boot manager in the bios. Onc ei had selected the Windows 7 HDD it booted up fine.
I forgot to add earlier that both partitions were already active.
Ive learnt a lot today, so now to go and undo it all by upgrading to 7137 (or 7140 if i can wait that long

 

[Orbital Shark]

Excellent news mate

 

[Fliplip]

Yeah, Thanks again all.
Off to bed now.

 

[Fliplip]

Right, new day new problem.
Although my PC is booting ok i have ot use the bootloader in the bios to choose the correct HDD. Its no3 on the MoBo. If i dont do with i get a "No boot disc" error.
Am i right in thinking i need to physically move the HDD to the first position on the MoBo. Its the only drive that is active so i would have thought the bios would boot from that.
I cant find any way of setting it as the boot drive in the bios.
Thanks for any help.

 

[eVox]

Surely there's a Boot Order page in your BIOS or something similar?
Normally you get a page with a list with all storage devices (usually USB devices, Optical Drives and Hard Disks) and either use enter to select whichever device you want and then use the up/down arrows to move it, or you just highlight the device and use Pg Up/Dn to move them.

 

[Orbital Shark]

You shouldn't need to move any hardware. The BIOS should retain the boot sequence, unless the CMOS battery is failing which is highly unlikely. The system should check each disk in order, but if you have data on each disk then the boot sequence may be getting confused, thinking that the drive should have a boot config.

If changing the hardware around is the only way to solve it then it's a viable option. Or maybe someone might have more info




Jeff

 

[Fliplip]

Surely there's a Boot Order page in your BIOS or something similar?
Normally you get a page with a list with all storage devices (usually USB devices, Optical Drives and Hard Disks) and either use enter to select whichever device you want and then use the up/down arrows to move it, or you just highlight the device and use Pg Up/Dn to move them.

No, as far as i can see the options are what type of boot device but not what drive (ie CD rom, USB, SATA) and in the boot manager there doesnt seem to be anyway of saveing my choice.

 

[Fliplip]

Jeff.
I think your right. The bios has got a bit confussed. At the moment the boot drive is on SATA 4. I know it shouldnt make a difference but it has.
Just put it on SATA 1 and all is fine now.

Thanks again all.

Dave.