Windows 7 Factory reset - help with removing disk partition and windows 10

[dleckie]

I installed Windows 10 on my laptop a few weeks ago, only to discover that the laptop in question is not compatible with Windows 10 which unfortunately Microsoft forgot to mention when I was offered the free upgrade. I have now done a factory reset to return the computer to Windows 7, but I now have two new issues.

First, when I switch it on I get a screen asking if I'd rather boot up using Windows 7 or Windows 10. Can anyone advise as to how I can get rid of all traces of Windows 10 from the computer? I just want it to automatically load Windows 7, as it did before I did the upgrade.

Second, when I go into windows 7 I am getting lots of "low memory" error messages due to the recovery disk partition which has been imposed on the hardrive. When I look in "My Computer" I see "C: Recovery" with no memory left, and "D: OS" with loads of unused memory. This partition was not present before I did the factory reset, and I'd like to get rid of it and go back to how the computer was set up before.

Can anyone advise me on how to solve these two problems? Thanks very much.

 

[kemical]

If you pop into the storage manager via the computer management section (found under admin tools) you should be able to see your partitions, drives and installed operating systems. If you see a partition with win 10 installed simply delete it. I would be careful however of removing everything partition wise. If there is something your unsure of take a screenshot and post it in.

 

[dleckie]

If you pop into the storage manager via the computer management section (found under admin tools) you should be able to see your partitions, drives and installed operating systems. If you see a partition with win 10 installed simply delete it. I would be careful however of removing everything partition wise. If there is something your unsure of take a screenshot and post it in.

Hi, thanks very much for this. Is the storage manager accessed via the Control Panel? I'm not familiar with the admin tools feature of Windows 7.

 

[kemical]

Is the storage manager accessed via the Control Panel?

Yes. See my screenshot below:

 

[dleckie]

Yes. See my screenshot below:
View attachment 30982

Hi, thanks for your further help with this. Unfortunately I don't get that same Control Panel screen. The one I get is in the screenshot linked here: http://cdn.redmondpie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/windows7build7022controlpanel.png.

Are there any other ways I could try going about removing this recovery partition?

By the way, I'm also not sure how to attach a screenshot to one of these posts. Could you let me know how to do it? I've tried PrntScr and then Control+v to paste but this doesn't work, hence the link above.

 

[kemical]

Hi,
click this first:

To upload a screenshot click 'upload file'

 

[dleckie]

Hi,
click this first:
View attachment 30989

To upload a screenshot click 'upload file'

Hi again, thanks very much again for you help with this. I've managed to remove the screen with the option for booting up with Windows 10, so that is progress.

On the C: recovery partition, however, I've had a look at the advice you've given and would appreciate any further thoughts you might have. I'm afraid I don't really understand how the recovery partition interacts with the rest of the hard drive, and the problem seems to be that it is the default destination for all the files on the computer, effectively limiting a 100GB hard drive to 20GB. I don't really want to delete it, as I'm quite happy for it to sit there in case I need to recovery the computer again in the future, but I'd like to move it into the background, and restore the computer to its previous condition whereby I had full, automatic and default access to the vast majority of the hard drive. At the moment, for example, when I try to upgrade Internet Explorer to version 11 I get an error message saying I don't have enough memory, and I can't install Firefox either for similar reasons.

Any more ideas would be most welcome.

Thanks,

Douglas

 

[kemical]

Can you take a screenshot of the storage manager? Simply press 'Print screen' on your keyboard. Open up the Paint app and press ctrl+V. Save as Jpeg and post to the forum.

 

[bochane]

The not enough memory error may be solved by increasing the swapfile:
rightclick on My computer, select Properties, Goto Advanced Sytem Settings, click on tab Advanced, from there you see a block with 'Virtual Memory', select it.
There you can increase it.

Hope it helps a bit, and it is easy to try,
Henk

 

[dleckie]

Can you take a screenshot of the storage manager? Simply press 'Print screen' on your keyboard. Open up the Paint app and press ctrl+V. Save as Jpeg and post to the forum.

Hi, screenshot attached here.

 

[ussnorway]

Neat trick... I know of no way to fix this from within Windows but any good backup image maker (like Acronis) can swap the drive letters around for you.

 

[kemical]

You need to swap those drive letters around. You can right click on the partition and change the drive letter although it won't allow you to have say two C drives. Change the C (currently recovery) to something like F and then change your D partition (currently OS) to C. I would then go back and change recovery to D. This will help out with the resource issue.
If you encounter issues then try USSNorways suggestion above.

 

[dleckie]

Hi thanks for these suggestions. Unfortunately I'm still not any further forward. I've tried changing the names of the drives, but it makes no difference - I now have D (C and C: (D listed, so the computer has kept the C: drive in place by default. When I try to delete it I get an error message saying you can't delete the drive which contains the operating system.

I've tried downloading Acronis, but while it seemed to download ok it then vanished without a trace. There doesn't seem any way to launch the programme. I searched the whole computer for the install file but nothing came up.

I don't suppose there is any other way I could approach this? All I want is to get the computer back to the condition I it arrived from the factory in, which is what I thought the factory reset disks were supposed to enable?!

Thanks,

Douglas

 

[dleckie]

Would it help if I tried the factory reset disks again and started from scratch? Is there maybe something I did wrong when reinstalling Windows 7?

 

[kemical]

Sorry Douglas I missed your last post for some reason..

Have you checked your add and remove programs section to see if Acronis is there?

Also did you try installing Acronis as administrator? Simply right click the start up exe, choose properties and run as admin.

 

[ussnorway]

At this point you may be better taking this system to a computer shop... but up too you mate.