BleepingComputer.com: W7 can't format my Vista partition?

I had Vista Home Premium on my laptop, created a new partition, and installed W7 on the new partition.

I have installed all the programs I need to on W7 and now want to delete the Vista partition (C:) but neither Windows Disk Management nor EASEUS Partition Master will allow me to. The "format" option is just greyed out. I am currently in the W7 partition (A:) and want to format the C: to merge it with my Data Drive.

Any ideas as to what the problem may be?

P.S. I currently have the W7 partition at 20 GB. How big should the partition be, considering I put any data files in the Data Drive and only install programs in the W7 drive? I would like to merge any extra space I could end up with into the data drive as well because there's really no use to me to have an extra 5-7 GB sitting in the W7 drive. I have 64-bit W7

This post has been edited by simpsonman3000: 14 February 2010 - 03:10 PM

I had this same problem a while back. Check this out for how I did it.

that was a whooooooooole lot of crap to read

it seems that at the end all you did was just go to disk management and click the vista partition, change path, and remove?

did this get you back all the 188 GB that was in the vista partition, i assume in unallocated space? i want the drive to basically be gone becuase i currently have 4 partitions on the drive (vista, W7, Data, and a recovery partition)

i already have an image of the vista install i did with acronis boot image as well that's sitting on my external HD

This post has been edited by simpsonman3000: 14 February 2010 - 03:10 PM

No, I backed up everything using the Backup and Restore feature built into Windows 7, made an Acronis backup of only the Windows 7 partition, booted off my Windows 7 install disk, deleted all the partitions, then restored the Windows 7 backup (made using Acronis). A couple startup repairs later, and I was back in business with no Vista!!

The drive letter removal at the end was simply to get rid of the "System Reserved" partition that showed up after the delete/restore/repair operation. I just didn't want it to show up in My Computer as another drive (since it's not usable).

Any other questions/clarification?

well why can't i just straight-up delete the partition with windows vista on it? i don't have an install disk because i got the W7 ISO from the microsoft website and mounted it in the vista partition and installed it that way

so if i understand, you make the backup, installed off the W7 cd, deleted all the partitions, installed W7 on, say, the C: drive, then installed acronis on the newly-formatted C: and restored the image to the C: drive?

This post has been edited by simpsonman3000: 14 February 2010 - 03:40 PM

No, it's like this:

Make backup of Windows 7 using Acronis (external hard drive)
Boot off Windows 7 install disk
Click install now
Click Custom installation
Delete all partitions (leaving an empty drive)
Cancel installation
Boot off Acronis Rescue Disk
Restore Windows 7 backup made earlier
Boot off Windows 7 install disk again to repair the "recovered" Windows 7 (must be done twice)
Boot Windows 7 like normal

Just burn your ISO to a DVD using Active ISO Burner. Make sure it's bootable before you do anything drastic, though.

Repeat back to me what you understand about what I just told you, in your own words (so I know you understand what you're getting into).

This post has been edited by keyboardNinja: 14 February 2010 - 04:16 PM

i know about installing OS's, but why is this so complicated? why can't they just allow me to delete the windows vista partition while i'm using the W7 partition? why can't i just do "custom install" from the W7 ISO and only delete the windows vista partition?

This post has been edited by simpsonman3000: 14 February 2010 - 04:22 PM

You could, but that would leave you with a large portion of unallocated space at the top of the hard drive. You would also still have to do the Windows 7 startup repair to recover it. You could then potentially use Easeus to expand the Windows 7 partition back to the top of the hard drive, but I have never done this, so I can not vouch for its feasibility.

I know that it works to do it my way. If you want to be adventurous, then go ahead and try it your way. If things go wrong, your backups can save you.

keyboardNinja, on Feb 14 2010, 01:36 PM, said:

basically i have used EASEUS like 4 times in the past few days to expand partitions and resize them, so i know how it works.

i was planning on just deleting the partition and then merging the 47GB of unallocated space that would result into the DATA drive, but i just didn't understand how that wasn't possible by using windows disk management. i think i'm going to try it like that, because it won't even affect my windows 7 install.

could you answer my other question about how big a partition i would need for my 64-bit W7 that i have installed right now? i currently have it at 20 GB as per the windows recommendation, but i have W7 and my main programs installed on it and only 12 GB are currently being used. i plan on putting all my data (music movies etc) i ever get on my computer again into the DATA drive.

before i delete the vista partition and resize into the data partition, i would like to be able to add in any uncessary space from my W7 partition as well

Well, could you do one thing for me?

Maximize your "Disk Management" window (not Easeus) and take a screenshot using the "Prnt Scrn" button on the keyboard. Paste this into Paint, save it, upload it to the internet, and post it here.

This will make it easier for me to visualize what your drive looks like and be able to give better advice.

disk management window

-C: drive is the vista partition. there's a problem here because it only has 4.2 GB of free space and it needs at least 6 GB to even attempt to install W7, so i might just delete the 3GB program files folder from it
-D: is the recovery drive factory installed
-Z: is my data drive
-A: is windows 7 drive that will become my main drive

So, please tell me again what your objective is, now that I know the configuration of your partitions. You want to move the Windows 7 to where the Vista is?

i'm trying to delete the C: and merge the extra 46.6 GB of free space that results with the Z:, but for some reason i can't format the C: with neither windows disk management nor EASEUS, even when i'm using W7

additionally i would like to take any extra space i have on the A: (if i have made the partition too big) and add that to my Z: as well

SO OVERALL it will result in 3 partitions: the A: with W7, the Z: for data, and the D: recovery drive

This post has been edited by simpsonman3000: 14 February 2010 - 06:12 PM

Okay, now I'm understanding exactly what you are trying to do.

Probably the main reason that you can't format the C: partition is because your page file is on that partition. If you moved the page file to the A:, it might let you format C. But I can guarantee that it will not boot afterwards. A startup repair might fix it, but since Windows 7 is on a logical drive, I'm not sure. I think your main OS has to be on a primary partition (not sure).

I still say that the easiest way would be to do it like I told you before. It would probably take about 2 hours, but it's better than not knowing if your method will work and possibly spending days trying to get Windows 7 to boot after deleting Vista.

so now i'm going to have to create 2 DVDs, one with W7 and one with acronis?

not to mention i'm going to have to wait however long to create a boot image?

and THEN sit here and wait however long it takes to go through like 3 installs of vista?