Won't let me delete my old partition.

[Aveyax]

I'm not sure if this thread belongs here or not, but I'm having an issue that is driving me nuts.

I have 2 hard drives, a 200 gig 7200rpm and a 35 gig 10000rpm. The 200 gig is split into two partitions. 150 gig and 50 gig. Originally, I had the Vista Upgrade installed over XP on the 50 gig and all my media and junk on the 150 gig partition. A few choice programs were installed on the 10K.

I decided I wanted the Windows 7 Upgrade to be installed on the 10K from now on so that things move a bit faster, boot times and whatnot. So I did and now I have the 150 gig partition free and wiped, but the 50 gig partition with my old Vista won't wipe, format or delete whatsoever, and it won't let me boot from any of the discs so I can just delete and wipe everything and start over.

It feels like a jumbled mess and I just want to get it all right. How on earth can I delete, format or completely wipe my 50 gig partition so I can delete that partition and make it whole with the other 150 gigs and just have all of Windows installed on my 10K?

I tried changing my boot order in the bios and it just tells me to insert the system disc. It won't recognize it and let me delete the partitions manually. I am really aggravated about this and could really use the help.

Thank you.

-Avey

 

[Dave76]

Check in Disk Management, is the 50GB partition marked "Active'?

If it is, that's the partition with the Boot Manager. If you delete that partition you won't be able to boot anything.

Do you have the dual boot menu when you start the computer?

Is Win7 set as default OS?

If yes to the above two questions, follow this tutorial to remove Vista from the Boot Menu.

How to Delete a Listed Operating System at Boot in Windows 7

You should now be able to format or delete the 50GB partition.

 

[Aveyax]

I do have the dual boot menu at start up, but how do I tell if Windows 7 is the default OS?

 

[torrentg]

Post a screenshot of disk management. A few commands will probably sort this out for ya. We have to see that first, though.

Use Easybcd to edit the default OS.

 

[Aveyax]

Post a screenshot of disk management. A few commands will probably sort this out for ya. We have to see that first, though.

Use Easybcd to edit the default OS.

 

[torrentg]

Ok so I'm guessing you want to format D:?

 

[Aveyax]

D: is my 10K that Windows 7 is already on. It's been formatted. It's C: that won't format or delete. I want to free all of that up and make it apart of the other 150GBs.

 

[Aveyax]

Yeah, I figured all that since C: is where I had Windows XP and Vista installed previously. The plan now is to have the entire 200GB drive free and clean completely and have everything Windows related on D:, the 10K. Was wondering what I need to do to make that happen.

 

[torrentg]

First make sure you can see hidden and protected files.

Copy bootmgr file from C: to D:
Copy boot folder from C: to D: ignoring the warning that it can't copy bcd or bcd.log. Tell it to skip them.

Then run this command from an elevated command prompt (you may copy from here and paste):

bcdedit /export D:\boot\bcd

If that went well (you can look at the folder in windows explorer to see bcd in there now), reboot into bios and make D: the default boot device.

Boot to Windows now and check that D shows as the system drive in disk management. If so, done. You may format C: or do whatever you like to it.

 

[Aveyax]

Where is the bootmgr file? Windows search brought up a lot of hits. Pull it from where in C: and put it where in D:?

 

[torrentg]

Bootmgr and boot folder are both at root and should be copied to root of other drive as I've outlined.

See this first:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/394-hidden-files-folders-show-hide.html

 

[Aveyax]

It just tells me "Destination Folder Access Denied" and that I need permission to perform this action when I try to paste the C: drive's bootmgr file to the D: drive's. If I'm doing it right, then cool. If not, then I'm not entirely clear on what it is you're saying. =\

And UAC is turned off completely.

 

[torrentg]

It's right. Don't know why you're getting the error for a simple copy and paste.

Try taking ownership on the file first and/or D: (without folders inside D) first.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1911-take-ownership-shortcut.html

 

[Aveyax]

Ok, I took ownership of D:/windows/boot. Then I copied the file "bootmgr" from C:/windows/boot/PCAT and coiped to the same location on D:. The only thing it ever asked was if I wanted to Copy and Replace the file, which I did.

Things aren't happening as you've explained, so I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. =\

 

[Aveyax]

Alright, I think I got most everything fixed. I figured it out. When you told me that those files were in the root directories, I was confused because even with "Show Hidden Files and Folders" checked, I still couldn't see them. I had to dig around and find out that I needed to also check "Hide Protected Operating System Files". That did the trick. =) I got everything copied over, rebooted and changed the primary boot disk and upon restart it all worked beautifully.

From there, I deleted the 50GB partition and extended the 150GB back into the 50GB, essentially making them whole again, I think.

So, I think I've finally got it all taken care of. Thank you both so much for your time and help. I really appreciate it. Take care. =)

 

[torrentg]

You're welcome.

 

[Dave76]

Your welcome.

Glad that you got it setup how you wanted it.

Great job torrentg, again as usual.

 

[Aveyax]

Ahh, but it just keeps getting better, unfortunately. When I finally rebooted for the last time, it tells me Boot Disk Failure or something to that effect. I try manually boot from the D: drive that everything is supposed to be on, and it tells me that it is missing the /boot/bcd file and can not boot. It asks me to put in my Windows 7 disc, boot from that and go through the repair options. Problem is, I don't have a Windows 7 disc. Mine was legally downloaded and I did not make a back up disc before all of this mess.

I have downloaded a Windows 7 Repair .iso and even burned it into a bootable disc, and it still doesn't recognize it. I seriously have no clue to what to do now. I can access my BIOS and my bootable drive options, that's it.

Any ideas about this one? ;_;

 

[Aveyax]

/bump

 

[gregrocker]

You need to boot into that repair disk and run Startup Repair repeatedly. Check that your optical drive is set to boot first.

If not get to another computer and re download your ISO and burn it to disk so you can reinstall. If you have your key, you can reinstall using any Win7 installer borrowed from a friend, or the RTM if you can get ahold of that.