How can I delete a "local disk"?

[Clanofwolves]

How can I delete a "local disk" on my hard disk drive that I never use or need? I plan on replacing my SATA drive with an SSD and want it a single disk prior to the transfer.

 

[ussnorway]

A local disk can be deleted from within Windows using the disk management tool... In w7 this tool lives inside the control panel under the administrative tools section

 

[Clanofwolves]

Thanks. I attempted to delete the partition, but it is denoted as "active" and it cannot delete it. It was once one side of the dual boot system. I thinking there has to be a way to make it not-active? ....but I haven't found that yet.

 

[ussnorway]

It was once one side of the dual boot system.

So it's a system disk... please post a screenshot of your disk manager showing this disk and the C drive.

 

[Clanofwolves]

So it's a system disk... please post a screenshot of your disk manager showing this disk and the C drive.

 

[ussnorway]

You can format the first recovery disk using the "diskpart" tool however the C and D will not allow wiping because C is your boot drive and D is the system... today you would expect to see an efi system partition at the front to avoid this type of lock but I assume D (XP) was the first drive sometime in the past?

3 work-arounds;
1. Use a solid image tool like Acronis to make a bootable backup of the C drive then insert a new blank hdd and get Acronis to transfer just the C drive onto it... this will make the new C drive also be your system disk. OR
2. Format/ wipe the hdd and start again with a new fresh copy of Windows or
3. Insert a new blank hdd, temp remove the old one so only this new blank one is in the system and install a fresh Windows onto it... this is the best/ safest option if you want to go over to wx... in that senario, it's what I recommend you do.

P.s I see you have the WX tool installed on that system... I expect the upgrade will fail because of this non-standard set up will block the default backup and recovery part of the auto-install and advise you to make whatever backups before trying it.

 

[Clanofwolves]

Thanks! .....I'm going to read this a few times and think; which can be difficult.

 

[Clanofwolves]

You can format the first recovery disk using the "diskpart" tool however the C and D will not allow wiping because C is your boot drive and D is the system... today you would expect to see an efi system partition at the front to avoid this type of lock but I assume D (XP) was the first drive sometime in the past?

3 work-arounds;
1. Use a solid image tool like Acronis to make a bootable backup of the C drive then insert a new blank hdd and get Acronis to transfer just the C drive onto it... this will make the new C drive also be your system disk. OR
2. Format/ wipe the hdd and start again with a new fresh copy of Windows or
3. Insert a new blank hdd, temp remove the old one so only this new blank one is in the system and install a fresh Windows onto it... this is the best/ safest option if you want to go over to wx... in that senario, it's what I recommend you do.

P.s I see you have the WX tool installed on that system... I expect the upgrade will fail because of this non-standard set up will block the default backup and recovery part of the auto-install and advise you to make whatever backups before trying it.

What if I leave the XP D: drive, but just reduce its size to a minimum? How can I perform that task? That way, I will not have to worry about loosing drivers or other abilities that the Sony computer originally had.

 

[ussnorway]

What if I leave the XP D: drive, but just reduce its size to a minimum?

Won't effect the liklyhood of wx upgrade working but sure go ahead.

How can I perform that task?

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg309169.aspx
Easily Shrink a Volume on a Windows 7 Disk

That way, I will not have to worry about loosing drivers or other abilities that the Sony computer originally had.

So at some stage you want to go back to using xp on this machine?... The problem is that system file but yes, you could put XP back on if thats what you want to do.

 

[Clanofwolves]

Won't effect the liklyhood of wx upgrade working but sure go ahead.


Easily Shrink a Volume on a Windows 7 Disk


So at some stage you want to go back to using xp on this machine?... The problem is that system file but yes, you could put XP back on if thats what you want to do.

Thanks for your expertise and patience in dealing with someone less than computer savvy. I don't foresee installing XP again on this computer; however, I was wondering why the partition is so large. It only has about 1.5g worth of information, buy will only shrink to 29g.....is this normal?

 

[ussnorway]

It only has about 1.5g worth of information

The image above shows about 10g of your xp drive is used... did you delete some of that?

will only shrink to 29g.....is this normal?

Page files, torrent download file bits and some recovery options don't show up in normal explorer but yes, if disk managment says you have something using the extra space then there is something there... it's prob a part WX download from the wxtool you have.

I don't foresee installing XP again

What is the plan for this system... long term and short term?