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(Solved) - Two Win7 O/S on the same drive

(12 posts)
  • Started 3 months ago by secretmechanism
  • Latest reply from secretmechanism
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secretmechanism
Posts: 49

Hi all my son has a Dell Inspiron laptop 1545 with Windows 7 premium,it became bogged down with programs over 90 in all and ran very slowly so decided to re-install the o/s using the cd that came with the laptop,he expected the old o/s to be deleted and the new one installed but what has happened is the o/s has loaded on the same hard drive as a partition so now when he boots up the laptop a black screen appears with two windows 7 choices to sign into, his hard drive is now made up of three partitions dvd RW Drive E, Recovery (C:) and OS (D:)
Recovery (C:) is in red as its almost full, the OS (D:) is the o/s he was trying to restore but it still remains with everything still loaded, so hes tryed to re-install windows O/S but instead hes created another windows 7 O/S, my question is can i delete this partition or re claim the space its using. My second question is the best way to do what he set out to do in the first place which is to whip the old O/S and all the crap thats loaded on it and re-install a fresh and clean O/S using the cd. i have the laptop with me so if you need more info just ask, Thanks all

Posted 3 months ago #
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Xhi
Xhi
Posts: 6298

It looks like he choose to load the new Windows on the D: drive and thus the C: drive was untouched. If there is nothing to be saved best to refformat the drives and load the OS from scratch.

Posted 3 months ago #
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secretmechanism
Posts: 49

Hi Xhi Thanks for the reply,i think your right he must have missed an option or something? i would appreciate a dummys guide to reformat if you have one, or could you recommend a tutorial,

Posted 3 months ago #
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secretmechanism
Posts: 49

Iv just tryed to format the partition and i get a warning, windows cannot format the system partition on this disk

Posted 3 months ago #
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Xhi
Xhi
Posts: 6298

That's true, you can't format a partition you are using. I think it is in one of the advanced options when you boot from the install disk. Hopefully someone who knows the procedure better than I will drop by to comment. Then I won't have to look it up. :)

Posted 3 months ago #
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raphoenix
raphoenix
Posts: 14920

If you have Full Edition of Windows 7 DVD, then do this.

http://www.howtogeek.com/forum.....?replies=1

Start from this Picture in the tutorial above.

You will have to download and manually install the Machine Device Drivers from here.
http://www.dell.com/support/dr.....piron-1545

Posted 3 months ago #
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secretmechanism
Posts: 49

Lol, thanks Xhi, i was going to boot from the cd to see what options i get but iv learned my lesson to be patient rather than gun-ho,so ill take your advise and wait,cheers ;)

Posted 3 months ago #
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secretmechanism
Posts: 49

Hi raphoenix thanks for the above, doing it now,ill post result when complete.

Posted 3 months ago #
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whs
whs
Posts: 17584

You will probably end up with the same amount of startup programs. Go into msconfig and disable them all (except the AV program). Those startups are just a nuisance.

Posted 3 months ago #
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secretmechanism
Posts: 49

SHIFT + F10 is doing nothing,but i did change language should i have just left it and hit Shift + F10, regards the device drivers i have a Drivers and Utilities dvd should i use that or the link you gave,

Posted 3 months ago #
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secretmechanism
Posts: 49

Ok just incase iv restarted the process,im at the windows 7 screen and its different from the one shown it has a single window in the middle,were as the other has three,language,time,keyboard,anyway i havent touched it and Shift + F10 still does nothing

Posted 3 months ago #
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secretmechanism
Posts: 49

Hi all just to update that iv fixed (i use that word lightly) the issue i had,i inserted the re-instillation DvD and restarted to boot from it, follow the instructions until the option to custom install appears, click it, then click drive options (advanced) you can then delete the partition, highlight the partition and right click,this deletes all info on that partition but not the partition itself that remains but its empty free space,i then clicked on the drive that contained the OS i wanted to re-install (C:) after installing i visited the Dell site (credit to raphoenix post above for that) and installed and updated all drivers that were required,for some reason shift + f10 wouldnt bring up the command prompt, so i couldnt try the method posted by rapoenix,my sons laptop is back the way it was with a fresh OS,which incidentally came with no add-wear just 100% OS, not sure how to mark this page solved or not but a big thank you to all that contributed

Accepted Answer · Posted 3 months ago #
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