Windows 7 removing VISTA (c:\) with win7 (J:\) - how???

liquidmonkey

New Member
hello,
i have recently installed win7 (which is AWESOME!!!) on J:\ and have my earlier VISTA (which is crap ;) installed on C:\ as shown below.

HDD1 - 1TB
C:\ - 200gig has VISTA
D:\ - 800gig has just files

HDD2 - 1TB
J:\ - 200gig has win7
H:\ - 800gig has just files

note that each installation is on a separate PHYSICAL hdd!!!

my machine is DUAL BOOT (meaning i can choose which OS to boot at startup)
and i DO NOT have a cd-drive.

so now i am running win7 and am trying to rid myself of the VISTA install but when i tried to format C:\ (in computer management), the 'format' option was not available or rather windows (7) would not let me format. i was also UNABLE to format c:\ drive in 'my computer' :(

my guess is that there are some files that are being shared between the 2 OS's but i'm not 100% sure.
i also read that the boot.ini or bootsqm.dat might have specific boot information that if formatted, would render my PC non-bootable. is that true? and if so, how can one avoid this problem?

and, if i do somehow manage to format C:\ drive (VISTA), will my windows drive (which is drive J:\) have an impact on my PC since its J: and not C:???

i can't be the only one in this situation since sooooo many have tried win7 the last few months.


1 - how can i best go about removing that partition and/or formating that partition????

2 - is there anything i need to do before removing the older VISTA installation? are there any shared files that maybe the new win7 install would use? i'm referring to documents and settings folders and such.


hope that wasn't too confusing, thanks for reading it all and thanks for any input!!!
 
Qn. 1. How did u manage to install both Vista and Win 7 witout a CD Drive?

Qn. 2. If no CD Drive, formatting or Removing Vista is not possible.

If you are able to get a CD/DVD drive, then insert the Win 7 or Vista DVD, format the Vista partition and quit the install. Then using Win 7 DVD, fix the MBR.
 
I am only contributing to this so that will be informed when the reply comes to how did you install two OSs without a CD drive
 
Both OSes can be installed from USB, as can they both be removed by USB!

You need something like Hirens Boot CD, which can be booted from a USB stick. This will contain all the tools you need to format C and be rid of Vista altogether, and any other boot tools which you may need. Of course you should move anything that you need from the Vista drive over to J first!

See Link Removed - Invalid URL and Link Removed - Invalid URL.

Good luck!
 
Is Hirens Boot CD Legal? Looks like pirated stuff to me

I was under the impression that it used freeware/shareware only and was legal but apparently not, well it depends where you live I guess.

Any live Linux CD will do the job just as well or some partition managers will allow you to schedule a format upon boot or allow you to make a bootable USB instance which will do the job too.
 
Why not disconnect the Vista HDD and see if the Windows 7 HDD will boot on its own? If that works, plug the Vista HDD back in, remove the Windows 7 HDD. Then use KillDisk to boot up and format the Vista HDD. Then boot back into Windows 7 and format the drive NTFS.

KillDisk - make bootable CD or DVD --- or USB, in this case ----> Active@ Kill Disk. Hard Drives Eraser. Free Download.

My absolute preference here -- Wipe both drives 100% and re-install Windows 7.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

.
 
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