Disc parition issue, want System and Boot to be same disc

[Garrett7]

Hey guys, I am having somewhat of an issue with my disc partitions after backing-up data and reinstalling windows 7-64bit.

I have included a picture to help explain.

Here's the issue, my PC had a virus I was unable to resolve. I took it to an "expert" to see what he could do. He backed-up my data and re-installed windows 7. The problem is that I had a disc partition set up with my OS and program files on a C: partition, and a partition, D:, labeled DATA, for all of my data etc..

I'm not sure exactly what he did but it looks like he reinstalled windows to the DATA drive instead of the OS C: drive. Now making the DATA drive, effectively the C drive (and Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Logical Drive). It looks like after restoring the backed-up data the original install of windows was also restored to the Old C: drive (now named D), this partition is also the System and active Partition.
See picture:

So does this mean that windows is booting from the DATA (C) drive now but running the original install of windows 7-64bit from the OS(D) drive (old C)?

I have been reading over a lot of forum posts and I'm not really sure what to do here. I understand I can only extend a drive to unallocated space that is shown to the right in the disc manager. I have thought about backing everything up on DATA(C) and extending OS(D) into it, but I am concerned that I will not be able to boot since DATA(C) is now the boot disc. I do not have a windows recovery or boot disc. This would also be difficult as I do not have any external HDDs with enough space on them currently to do that.

I have looked into marking DATA(C) as System, Active, but you cannot do this if it is a logical drive.

*Ideally I'd like to just do away with the partition and have a single C: drive as the System, Active, Primary partition, as well as, Boot, etc....Whats the best way to go about it in this scenario??

Should I just leave it alone and not worry about it?? since I am not trying to set up a dual-boot scenario or anything.

Also any idea what that 20GB of unallocated space to the far left is? Should I be concerned about trying to reclaim that space as well?

Thanks for reading and thanks for any help, new to this partition and recovery stuff.

 

[windude99]

Hey guys, I am having somewhat of an issue with my disc partitions after backing-up data and reinstalling windows 7-64bit.

I have included a picture to help explain.

Here's the issue, my main PC had a virus I was unable to resolve. I took it to an "expert" to see what he could do. He backed-up my data and re-installed windows 7. The problem is that I had a disc partition set up with my OS and program files on a C: partition, and a partition, D:, labeled DATA, for all of my data etc..

I'm not sure exactly what he did but it looks like he reinstalled windows to the DATA drive instead of the OS C: drive. Now making the DATA drive, effectively the C drive (and Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Logical Drive). It looks like after restoring the backed-up data the original install of windows was also restored to the Old C: drive (now named D), this partition is also the System and active Partition.
See picture:

So does this mean that windows is booting from the DATA (C) drive now but running the original install of windows 7-64bit from the OS(D) drive (old C)?

I have been reading over a lot of forum posts and I'm not really sure what to do here. I understand I can only extend a drive to unallocated space that is shown to the right in the disc manager. I have thought about backing everything up on DATA(C) and extending OS(D) into it, but I am concerned that I will not be able to boot since DATA(C) is now the boot disc. I do not have a windows recovery or boot disc. This would also be difficult as I do not have any external HDDs with enough space on them currently to do that.

I have looked into marking DATA(C) as System, Active, but you cannot do this if it is a logical drive.

*Ideally I'd like to just do away with the partition and have a single C: drive as the System, Active, Primary partition, as well as, Boot, etc....Whats the best way to go about it in this scenario??

Should I just leave it alone and not worry about it?? since I am not trying to set up a dual-boot scenario or anything.

Also any idea what that 20GB of unallocated space to the far left is? Should I be concerned about trying to reclaim that space as well?

Thanks for reading and thanks for any help, new to this partition and recovery stuff.

I reccommend you backup your data just incase anything goes wrong. Also, make sure you have a system repair disc:http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2083-system-repair-disc-create.html
Then, just delete the old partitions and leave the Data partition alone since it has your data on it. You can now use all of the unallocated space to makie a new partition. Right click on the unallocated space and click on create new partition.
Now, you can move your data over to make your pc like you had it before. Do NOT set Data c: to active. That will render it unbootable and you will have to run startup repair which will be on the system repair disc that you are going to create.

 

[Garrett7]

Thank you for the quick response. The only issue I seem to be encountering now is that the option to delete the OS(D) volume is grayed out, even though I have full administrator privileges. Is this because there is still the original win7 install on this volume? I tried manually deleting that as well and it will not allow me to delete the old windows, program files ,etc..

 

[whs]

It is really easy. All that happened is that the bootmgr landed on D:\ . No big deal. Just move it to C:\ and you will be OK. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

The 'technician' apparently did not know what he was doing. He had to first mark the partition to which he installed the OS as 'active'. Else the installer grabs the first partition it finds and puts the bootmgr into it - and that happened to be D:\.

And you may want to rename those partitions.

 

[Garrett7]

mispost

 

[Garrett7]

Thanks WHS. I will try that.

 

[Garrett7]

Right about the names, the names stayed the same after the reinstall but the drive letters swapped.

 

[whs]

Garret, you can delete your own post. Go to Edit > Advanced and you will see.

Edit: Rats, that does not work here. Only on the Win7 forum. Sorry.

 

[windude99]

If you have a Windwos 7 install cd you can boot off of that, then click next, then click install now. After that, click custom. You can now select a partition and delete it. Just don't click next or it will install Windows 7!