Help Needed with Dual Boot Options

[drew1000]

I set up my PC to dual boot to W7 or W8. All working fine until the PC refused to boot up saying there was an error due to removing a large storage device. I had pulled a 32GB USB stick from the machine earlier that day with using safely remove options.
I thought I could repair the boot loader but could not manage this. I had the retail W7 DVD so used that to hopefully repair Windows but managed somehow to install another version of W7.
Result is that after managing to repair my original W7 I now have two versions of W7 intalled on the same partition. (W8 is on a separate partition). I have used EasyBCD to rename the new W7 installation which I now wish to remove from the PC.
I can easily delete using EasyBCD but want to delete the actual installation as well not just the boot option. When I delete using EasyBCD does this delete the second (unwanted W7 installation) or just the option at startup. If only the startup title how do I delete the other unwanted installation. Will a system restore from my wanted W7 installation be sufficient.

 

[theog]

If you reinstall Windows 7 on that partition, your old install is in the Windows,old folder.

Therefore you will need to delete the old non-booting windows 7 in the startup menu.

Also you will need to reinstall all software app's.

Can you post a screen shot of Disk management, FIRST?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[gregrocker]

All you needed to do was System Restore to before the problem, not reinstall the OS. It's not even possible to reinstall the OS accidentally since you have to select Install Now and choose the partition where to install.

If you chose the Win7 partition it overwrote the old Win7. Your old Win7 is either lost or may have been stuffed in a windows.old folder in the C drive root. Check now.

Once we see the Disk Mgmt screenshot we can see better what has been done. Do you still want to keep the Dual Boot intact? You may need to set up Win7 again after rescuiing your files from windows.old.

There is a way to restore a Windows 7-based computer to a previous Windows installation by using the Windows.old folder however it is very complicated and not always successful.

 

[drew1000]

I could not do a system restore as I could not get the PC to boot up. Not sure how I managed it but I now have three options at boot up. W7 X 2 and W8
I now have my old W7 back up and running with all my associated software installed. If I select the other W7 I get a clean install with no other software installed. All I want to do now is delete the second W7 installation that I don't need. PS How do I get to Disk management to take a screen shot

 

[gregrocker]

Why don't you ask first instead of telling us what can't be done? System Recovery Options

Are you also not aware that the blue links are tutorials which you click on to get illustrated steps how to do an operation? Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

 

[drew1000]

Did not realise the blue links were tutorials. I do now
Thanks

 

[drew1000]

Disk management Screenshot

 

[gregrocker]

Mark H Inactive. Only the OS holding the System Boot files (which is C) should be marked Active: Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums

Where are Windows 8 and the second Win7 installed? If necessary post Disk Mgmt screenshots from both of those OS's to be absolutely certain. We need to know this before we can advise you precisely.

Please don't reply again that the second Win7 is also on C as this is not possible and it would have overwritten the old Win7 if so. Since you can boot into a second Win7 OS, easiest is to post back a screenshot from it and Win8 so we don't miss anything.