what partition is the vista on?

[sablegsd]

Hi, I have been fighting with my computer for days and it's wearing me down. I have clawed my back from everything being gone, even the o/s. I don't know what caused it. Anyway I ended up with a vista on here too that I don't want. It's weird too, all big and fuzzy. Anyhow, I think it's in the o/s partition but I can't really tell. The 7 is on top of the boot menu. So if it's in the o/s part, am I stuck with it?

 

[eldinv]

Can you post a image of your disk management window?

I'm assuming you did an upgrade from Vista to Windows 7?

What OS are you in where you took those screen shots?

 

[Night Hawk]

The "OS C" drive shows the Windows.old folder from Vista being replaced with the 7 custom install option used if you didn't perfrom an inplace upgrade but simply elected not to reformat the drive first before 7 went on. That preserves all the user files from the former Vista installation there and should be seen as Disk 0 in the DM.

 

[sablegsd]

That's how it started out.

 

[eldinv]

What a mess, what do you want to do, which OS do you want to keep.

May I suggest you backup everything important to an external hard drive, and perform a new "Clean Install".

Prepare a Drive for- Clean Install
Clean Install Windows 7

I assume your recovery partition is no longer good, since it will be to recovery back to Vista?

 

[sablegsd]

I just want the 7. The recovery partition thing is greek to me. It used to have something like pqservices but that seems to be gone with the wind.

Every thing I do makes it worse.

So if it start the 7 upgrade thing all over again, will it ask me which partition I want it and should I do the O/S one?

 

[eldinv]

I just want the 7. The recovery partition thing is greek to me. It used to have something like pqservices but that seems to be gone with the wind.

Every thing I do makes it worse.

So if it start the 7 upgrade thing all over again, will it ask me which partition I want it and should I do the O/S one?

If thats what you decide follow the tutorials..

If will completely erase all partitions, don't do an upgrade do a clean install. Follow the first link to prepare the drives and then the clean install.

You should have something like one partition for the OS and one DATA partition.

Data Partition
User Folders - Change Default Location

 

[sablegsd]

What about the driver thing? Where and how do I save them? Hey, I can hear you guys snickering!

 

[kodi]

You won't hear anyone snickering here.
We ALL have been there done that and learned from our mistakes and moved on to help other from doing the same thing.
Don't worry about drivers as Windows 7 should supply all of them.

 

[Night Hawk]

For one the last of the four partitions is an extended not primary partition there. The first thing to consider would be nuking that off of the drive and expanding the now 3rd primary used for storage into that space. Note that any partition changes could result in a mishap where you would lose everything if not first backed up elsewhere as suggested to another drive or removable media!

With the D or E volume expanded if all went well you would simply nuke the small recovery and present C to see a brand new C primary larger in size for a nice clean install of 7 there. Since you are working with upgrade media you would need to follow the guide for this. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello sablegsd, welcome to Seven Forums!


If there's nothing at all left on the PC Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or after you have made backups of anything you may want to save, have a look at the info below, this would be your best bet to get back to 1 partition with Windows 7 on it.
Be sure to post back with any questions you may have and to keep us informed.

   Information

After you have made backups of everything you care to save and you want to do a real wipe "secure erase" to the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) have a look at this tutorial at the link below, it over-writes everything, all the old Windows code including the old Windows drivers, everything all data, giving you the best possible space to install Windows 7 to; it goes hand-in-hand with a clean install.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7

Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

​

 

[sablegsd]

So if I wipe the whole hard drive, I can use just the upgrade disks to start over? There does't need to be an underlying system? I want to say thanks for all the help and encouragement. Obviously I don't know what I am
doing.

I saw a reference somewhere to the mini tool partition wizard and looked at it, would that work to wipe everything and then put the 7 back in? I'm old and not computer savvy and I read all these ways to do stuff and promptly forget half and remember the other half wrong.

 

[gregrocker]

If C is Windows 7 then you can delete the other partitions in Disk Management and try to make Win7 work for you if you want. Make sure you have all of your files - they are backed up in the windows.old folder if not.

How is the performance with just C: Win7?

 

[sablegsd]

I don't know. That was my first question I think, the 7 is on top of the vista when it starts up and
asks you which you want. The vista is all freaky looking and wont hook up to the internet. But I don't know
where they are.

 

[gregrocker]

I believe Win7 is F: if it was installed after Vista.


Browse in F:User folder to Desktop to check for sure that what you are seeing on your desktop now is there.

I will then give you the steps to remove the other partitions if you want to keep Win7 you have now. Do you want to keep only Win7? Is it working ok?

 

[Night Hawk]

If the C volume had 7 there you would only have to move it forward some 9.7gb and later expand it out towards the back once you decided whether or not to keep a second storage partition available with the reformat of F and removal of the last extended volume and successful expansion of F into that space.

Even that is risky and could end up resulting in problems with the Master File Table(MFT) making it unusable. With everything backed up from the drive you want to keep the best move would be a total wipe and see one fresh primary for 7 or two new one for storage with the first for 7. On a single drive system many opt to split the main drive up to see a second storage/backup partition available often larger then the C OS primary.

 

[sablegsd]

7 is working fine, so far.

Here is where I stand today.

 

[gregrocker]

F is almost def your Win7 installation, however did you browse for files on your Win7 desktop in the Users folder as I suggested, to make sure you are using the same OS/desktop? Just do that to confirm F is Win7.

Are you getting a Dual Boot Menu for Vista or Win7 when you start your Computer?

Do you want to delete Vista and recover its HD space into the Win7 installation? Answer these questions back and I will give you the steps.

 

[Night Hawk]

One way to know for sure which primary is 7's is to simply label the volume. You can do that by simply right clicking on the C drive icon while booted in 7 since both Vista and 7 are seeing their own Windows.old folder.

Backing any files up from that and removing will also distinguish the two. You may want to back up anything left from the Vista primary you want before tossing that or opt to stay with a working dual boot with 7 set as the default OS. Less risk of losing anything through any repartitioning mishap.

It seems you already were able to remove the small recovery at front and extended volume at the back of the drive. For removing the Vista primary, moving the 7 primary forward and expanding that there is risk of some partition table corruption resulting in the loss of that. This is why the recommendation for backing everything to another drive or removable media is emphasized before proceeding.

 

[sablegsd]

F is almost def your Win7 installation, however did you browse for files on your Win7 desktop in the Users folder as I suggested, to make sure you are using the same OS/desktop? Just do that to confirm F is Win7.

Are you getting a Dual Boot Menu for Vista or Win7 when you start your Computer?

Do you want to delete Vista and recover its HD space into the Win7 installation? Answer these questions back and I will give you the steps.

Yes, there is a dual boot, the 7 on top, but the vista looks really strange and won't connect to the internet.

Yes, I want to delete vista.

here are the user things. I had a cd with some of my favorites, pictures, etc that I loaded on when I got on. they look alike to me except for that upgrade thing on the bottom. so if I delete the o/s partition, the computer will still run on the 7? or vice versa as well?