Delete vista partition

[smitty831]

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?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

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.

 

[smitty831]

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?

 

[Saltgrass]

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.

 

[gregrocker]

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.

 

[Night Hawk]

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.

 

[smitty831]

so i won't lose any files from the windows 7 partition if i follow the above steps(gregrocker's post)?

 

[gregrocker]

You need to always back up your files externally - anything can go wrong.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

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.

 

[smitty831]

also, i downloaded windows 7. don't have a cd. can i put windows 7 on a cd and boot from it?

 

[gregrocker]

If you have downloaded files:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/32055-bootable-iso-create-installation-files.html

If an ISO, burn to DVD using ImgBurn at 4x speed with Verify - never fails.

If you will tell us exactly what you want to achieve, we'll give you the steps to do it.

 

[Night Hawk]

The iso image ordered from MS can be burned to a blank dvd or even written to a usb flash drive. MS has their own tool available for this. But you will want to read the guide on this. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html

And the MS tool mentioned, http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31541-windows-7-usb-dvd-download-tool.html

If you elect to move the present 7 K primary forward the files will still be present but could be lost in a mishap as pointed out already. A good backup and fresh start is the preferred option once the partitioning is all set the way you will want it.

 

[smitty831]

Well as of now there's nothing on the 7 partition, and i've been using vista primarily. the reason i initially made the partition was to make sure everything was moved to 7 before deleting vista. so that's where i am now. i'd be fine with backing everything up and starting fresh though if it's easier

 

[Night Hawk]

If all the files are on the Vista C primary you could use the format option in the drive tools right on the 7 disk or flash drive to wipe 7 off of K first and use that for storage when going to replace Vista with 7 on C. With all files backed up completely on removable or an external drive for example that would allow a complete reorganization of the drive where you could then have one or two large partitions rather then the present split up of the drive you see now.

The FreeAgent drive seen in the image you posted at the top of the rhread shows you have one available to backup files and settings to present! If you have the space available there simply use that before proceeding with any large changes.

 

[smitty831]

i just want 1 partition. so should i format the other 3 partitions?

once i do that, how do i move everything into the c drive?

 

[gregrocker]

Back up your files, boot from the Win7 DVD, select CUstom Install, then use Drive Options to delete all partitions, create new one(s) as you wish, format and install Win7 to first partition.

If you have an Upgrade version it will scan DVD to see and OS and allow key.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[Night Hawk]

Even to save the present 7 installation on K you would still need to back up all of your files from the present Vista C primary there before you could delete that and actually use the time consuming process of moving K forward to the front of the drive once the other 3 partitions were removed. Then you would need to rebuild the 7 boot loader and mbr entrie as well to top that off.

Solution? Back up all files you plan to keep and simply nuke the entire drive to see the one larger primary you want. To use the 7 drive tools as mentioned ealier you would still need to burn the iso to disk first or create a bootable flash drive type installation stick. You would need a good 4gb flash drive for 7 there.

If you have a small 512mb upto 2gb flash drive onhand you can download GParted and use the same method for creating an install stick for writing the live iso instead. With either you would simply boot up and follow gregrocker's adivise there.

 

[smitty831]

I just finished the clean install of windows 7 and deleted all the partitions. it was actually a lot easier than i thought, and everything went pretty smoothly. thanks for all your help guys.

i did notice though that there's a new 100 mb partition called system reserved though. what is this?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

It is used to help with system recovery in Windows 7 if you get in a major jam. You could have avoided it during installation, and instead used your Windows 7 DVD to provide the same capability. It is very small and does no harm--just ignore it as long as all is well.

 

[Night Hawk]

Since everybody started running the beta builds I keep hearing about the 100mb, the 100mb over and over but never saw it once here until just lately installing 7 on a vhd and then saw a 94mb section at the front of that drive. The installation was from the dvd too.