Solved How do I remove win 7 from a slave drive without reformatting?

[clixter]

I got a 250Gb ssd for christmas and installed my win7 on to it, and am now using my old hdd as the new slave drive. I am hoping there is a way to get rid of win 7 on the slave drive as I do not have the space, even on my external drive, to back it up fully.

 

[Wandering one]

I would unplug/disconnect all drives except SSD, and make sure computer boots properly. If so, shut down and reconnect old W7 drive and remove original OS by deleting files. If you cannot boot with only the SSD you might try a start-up repair. Three times seems to work. If that does not work I'm sure someone else here will have the answer.
Art.

 

[HammerHead]

Slave?

Maybe I don't understand. If Win 7 is on the slave and you don't want it there (want the space instead). Back the disk up and format it. Then restore only the files that you want. We are talking slave here and your OS is on another disk.

 

[Ztruker]

He said he does not have enough room to backup the HDD.

Should be able to delete the OS files and folders on the HDD from Windows Explorer/Computer. Just make sure all files are being shown.

Open Control Panel then Folder Options and click on the View tab.
Select "Show hidden files and folders"
Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types"
Uncheck "Hide protected operating system files (recommended)" (click Yes when prompted)
Click Apply and OK

Or ... backup just the stuff on the HDD you want to keep, then format and restore?

 

[gregrocker]

Please post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image
so we can tell you with certainty how to do what you want.

If you kept the old drive plugged in during the SSD install then the boot files for Win7 will be on it as signified by the System Active flags. To move them you should Mark the New Win7 Partition Active
then unplug the HD, run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts with the System flag on it.

You can then plug back in the HD, make sure you have everything off of it then wipe it with Diskpart Clean Command, repartition as a data drive in Disk Mgmt. Make sure the Win7 HD remains first to boot at all times.

 

[whs]

I would unplug/disconnect all drives except SSD, and make sure computer boots properly. If so, shut down and reconnect old W7 drive and remove original OS by deleting files. If you cannot boot with only the SSD you might try a start-up repair. Three times seems to work. If that does not work I'm sure someone else here will have the answer.
Art.

That is indeed a critical test because depending on how the OS was transferred to the SSD, the bootmgr may still be on the HDD.

 

[clixter]

F: is the ssd
C: is the slave with the old win 7 on it

I am trying not to reformat to save myself the backing up of ~680Gb of data.
Also, I don't really need to uninstall win 7 fully from the old one, I would just like the computer to stop recognizing that I have two separate win 7 to choose from when booting up.
So if simply removing some of the windows folders on the slave drive would work, then that is what I shall do.

Edit: WHen I installed win 7 on the ssd I did have the slave plugged in, but I installed from the original win 7 disk. I will unplug the slave tomorrow morning to see what happens.

 

[whs]

I we suspected, your bootmgr is still sitting on Disk 1. You have 2 options:

1. inactivate the 100MB system partition on the HDD and activate F on the SSD. Then run startup repair 3 times.

2. Use the shortcut and move the bootmgr to F.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

 

[AddRAM]

You have nearly 700 GBs free on drive E, I would start moving files.

 

[gregrocker]

Win7 will not boot when it's HD is plugged in by itself without the System flag on its partition.

Since you have confusion about what can be done here, please follow these steps carefully:

After marking C partition Active in Disk Mgmt, power down to unplug the other hD's before running Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots from the Win7 installation disk, until Win7 starts and holds the System flag on its own partition.

Then plug back in the old HD and boot it when needed using the one-time BIOS boot Menu key given on first screen. If you have a Dual Boot menu remaining when you boot either HD, enter that installation's msconfig>Boot tab and delete the other OS.

Let us know how this works, but do not panic and do something else until you hear the reply. Just complete the steps above. Wait until you are rested.

 

[clixter]

Thank you guys so much. Everything is fixed and working perfectly. I hope you are all getting paid for this.