Windows 7 deleting partitions

phantom16 · Sep 25, 2013

So, for the longest time I have had windows 7 and linux on my laptop. I decided i will just stick with windows, so i can single boot and so i have more HDD space (something all my games is about to take up on my current C: drive). When I installed linux (PCLOS if your curious) it added some other partitions, and i just want to be sure it's ok to delete them.

Reasons I have pause is because i don't want to delete something from windows, and when i installed linux it installed a GRUB loader, which determines which OS I boot, and so i think if i delete that in one of the partitions then it will just go back to my normal booting up, but i could be wrong.

So i have attached a picture of my disk management
Link Removed

I'm pretty sure i can delete the right 3 partitions and then add them to my current partition, but i just want to be sure.
in order they are:
15GB recover partition (NTFS)
100mb system reserved (NTFS)
293GB C: (NTFS)
12GB (not NTFS)
3.9GB (not NFS)
326GB (not NTFS)

note: i'm sure just reformatting my entire drive would be best, but i really can't be bothered to back up all my data and then reinstall everything, so i'm just doing this until later when i do reformat it

Saltgrass · Sep 25, 2013

As TanyaC mentions, your first task is to get the Windows 7 boot back. It might be a different process depending on how you added Grub to your system. But if it initially boots into Grub, using the Bootsect.exe /nt60 SYS /mbr in an Administrative Command Prompt should bring it back to Windows. Some options such as SYS, ALL or /mbr might be needed, depending on where GRUB is installed. Use Bootsect /help in the Administrative command prompt. If you were to use the Startup Repair option to recover the Windows 7 boot, it may take as many as 4 runs to get it back. If something does not work correctly, you may need recovery media to get into the Recovery Environment. If you do not have a Windows 7...

TanyaC · Sep 25, 2013

The two partitions you need to keep for Windows are the SYSTEM RESERVED and C:\ partitions. It looks as though you've no data on the others, so safe to delete them.

However, You may need to make sure your Windows boot loader is intact. Does the PC normally use Grub to boot?

On your C: drive you have about 190gb of data. Maybe a couple of hours to back up on to an external drive. When moving, resizing and deleting partitions safety is generally a good option.

Saltgrass · Sep 25, 2013

As TanyaC mentions, your first task is to get the Windows 7 boot back. It might be a different process depending on how you added Grub to your system. But if it initially boots into Grub, using the Bootsect.exe /nt60 SYS /mbr in an Administrative Command Prompt should bring it back to Windows. Some options such as SYS, ALL or /mbr might be needed, depending on where GRUB is installed. Use Bootsect /help in the Administrative command prompt. If you were to use the Startup Repair option to recover the Windows 7 boot, it may take as many as 4 runs to get it back. If something does not work correctly, you may need recovery media to get into the Recovery Environment. If you do not have a Windows 7 Install DVD, you can download and burn one which includes SP1.

You will normally need the Install media to run Bootsect.exe, since it is not usually installed on your system. But you can put the Windows 7 DVD (or flash drive) in the drive and use the path to the .exe to run it. In your case, since the DVD appears to be D: you would use
D:\boot\bootsect .........

I would keep the Recovery partition in addition to the must keep partitions of System and C: since it probably contains the image you need to reset your system back to a factory condition.

Windows 7 deleting partitions

phantom16

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Saltgrass

TanyaC

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Saltgrass

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