Win7 Clean Install = A Whopping 84.6GB

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 17 Nov 2009 7:11 am

Chip;
You need to assign a drive letter to that unused 144 Gig partition. Right click on it in disk management and choose the drive letter assignment. Pick a letter from the available letters list and apply it. If the letter you want to assign to this partition is already in use, right click on the drive that has it and change that drive's letter first, then assign the new partition its old letter.

Say you want to make the new partition Drive E. The DVD drive is assigned Drive D, and programs have been installed via that letter, so leave it alone. Use disk management to move Drive E up to Drive I and apply it. This frees up the letter E. Now, right click on the unassigned formatted space and assign it to Drive E and apply it. Now you can begin using it.

Of course, you can just assign the next available letter to this space, making it Drive I, rather than changing anything that exists already.

Storm Rosson · Post by **Storm Rosson** » 17 Nov 2009 7:23 am

Chip go into control panel/folder options/view and check the box that says "show all hidden files and drives"

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 17 Nov 2009 8:59 am

Thanks Wiz and Storm.

Storm, I already have 'checked' "show hidden files..."

I'll probably go the easy route and just assign that partn some unused letter.

All my drives are getting re-lettered all the time it seems, so what's another new letter.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 17 Nov 2009 9:42 am

Here are now all of the drives on the clean installed PC.

Can I simply delete all files/folders on Local Disk (E)? Or should I re-format it? (E) has been totally copied over to MyBk (J), so it's now kind of wasted and redundant space; especially as I'm slowly getting all saved stuff back over to (C).

Storm Rosson · Post by **Storm Rosson** » 17 Nov 2009 1:01 pm

just do a quick format

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 17 Nov 2009 1:26 pm

Chip:

When you post pictures of your partitions, only use DISK MANAGEMENT. That other source is just confusing.

You say you didn't see a screen to delete all your partitions. You still ended up with 10/140/140.

I think that means you did NOT choose "drive options/advanced" when you had the chance. It shows up when you see the screen that shows your drives.

If that choice was NOT presented to you, it likely means that you did NOT boot from the DVD drive, probably because your PC was NOT configured to boot from that drive first, in spite of what you thought.

If you really did boot from the DVD drive, then "drive options/advanced" should have been presented. YOU HAVE TO LOOK FOR IT, IT IS AT A LOWER AREA ON THE SCREEN.

You didn't really accomplish anything by deleting that EISA partition. You now have 10 gigs of unallocated space, BUT it is at the far left in your partitions display, That means you can't easily use it. It is not part of any partition and you can't use the space. If you had deleted all partitions, that 10 gigs would have become part of C or D. As it is now, you have 10 gigs that you cannot use because you can extend partitions ONLY from left to right. That 10 gigs is on the far left and you CANNOT now make it part of any other partitions without the use of third party tools like Partition Magic.

I'd start over. You have made some progress because you didn't press any keys during the reboot process and you deleted the EISA partition.

But you still have an inefficient set of partitions--140 for C, when it should be much smaller (or much larger if you want just C) and the 10 gigs is stranded in no mans land without special tools.

You want to end up with your C partition displayed on the far left in Disk Management.

If you do it over, don't bother installing apps beyond antivirus and spyware until you post back here with Disk Management pictures.

What makes you think you actually booted from the install CD?

Did you end up with "Windows.old" folders this time?

Look here for VERY detailed instructions:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/16 ... s-7-a.html

Here is a pic of the drive options advanced choice. If you DON"T see it, you have gone off the track. Stop then and there and post back here before proceeding.

Here is a pic of what you should see AFTER you choose drive options/advanced. THIS IS WHERE YOU DELETE ALL PARTITIONS. NOTE THE CHOICES.

THIS SCREEN IS ALSO WHERE YOU CREATE YOUR NEW PARTITIONS. Make C of 60 and D of 230 or just C of 290 right here by choosing "New", after you have deleted the others. After you create a partition, you may see a choice to make it "active". Make the new C partition active, whether it is 60 or 290, whatever you have chosen.

If you cannot configure your BIOS to boot from the DVD drive, then I would go into disk management within Windows 7 and delete the partition that is 144.30 gigs and has no drive letter. You will probably have to assign a drive letter to it before you can then delete it.

That should leave you with ONLY a C partition on that drive. EVERYTHING else should be "unallocated space".

C should then be on the far left in Disk Management.

If it is, you could then SHRINK C to 60 or EXTEND it to 290, your choice.

In your situation, it may just be better to start over as mentioned earlier in this post.

BUT, there is no point to starting over if you can't boot from the DVD. If that is the case, then don't start over and try to delete the 144.30 gig partition and get C on the far left.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 17 Nov 2009 2:21 pm

Whoa Mitch,

I most certainly booted from the DVD, just as you instructed. My BIOS first boot is set to the DVD drive. The 2nd is set to the HDD.

I clicked on Drive Options, advanced. There were 3 partitons shown. The small EISA and the other 144GBs.

When I clicked on DO, advanced, all options got greyed out except for FORMAT. So that's what I clicked.

It showed no options to resize anything.

I'm not making this up.

I thought an unallocated partition was empty and usable.

Here's Disk Mngmnt:

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 17 Nov 2009 2:24 pm

That 'detailed link' you listed is the exact one I read over 3 or 4 times before I dove in.

Of course I didn't end up with Windows.old - if I did, then C wouldn't have been around 13GBs, but more like 48GBs. Right?

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 17 Nov 2009 2:34 pm

Ok; making some headway.

Let's do one thing at a time.

Confirm that you are set to boot from DVD first.

Start Windows 7.

Put the Windows 7 disc in your DVD drive.

Restart.

Where do you end up?

Your Windows 7 desktop or elsewhere.

If elswhere, what do you see.

Cancel out, post back and we'll go from there.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 17 Nov 2009 2:43 pm

OK.

Sounds like a plan.

(If you can find time and me too and we can get together on the phone (my dime of course), then you could run me through that sticky section. I'm certainly willing to compensate you for your time - just a thought)

I'll do the W7 DVD insert now.

Mitch Drumm · Post by **Mitch Drumm** » 17 Nov 2009 2:50 pm

Chip:

Check your private mail.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 17 Nov 2009 3:00 pm

I did Mitch.

OK - the W7 DVD 1st showed the ACER intro screen. Then the B/W screen saying: click any key to start from CD or DVD. I did. Then another black screen with a white/grey timer bar that said: Windows is loading files.

That's when I shut her down.

John Cipriano · Post by **John Cipriano** » 17 Nov 2009 6:34 pm

Chip, is it possible that the other options were grayed out because you didn't specifically select a partition from the list? It's worth double-checking anyway since I'd imagine (though I can't test it as I have no Win7 disc) that those options would be grayed out until you clicked on one.

Unfortunately I can't give specific steps although it sounds like Mitch has you covered there. But the general goal should be to delete all existing partitions on the first drive, then create a partition that's maybe 70 GB or so (this is totally variable and up to you...it depends on how much software you plan on installing) and install Windows 7 on it. Then when that's done you use the Disk Management snap-in, which you must be very familiar with now

, to partition, format, and assign a drive letter to the remaining empty space.

The reason Mitch is asking about your BIOS boot options is that the advanced options don't appear if you run the Windows 7 installer from inside your current OS rather than booting straight to the DVD. However, in that case you wouldn't have the "drive options (advanced)" menu at all so I think you should verify whether those options do in fact stay grayed out after you click around on the various partitions which should be in the list.

Chip Fossa · Post by **Chip Fossa** » 19 Nov 2009 4:48 am

Thursday 7:30AM (est).

Good morning all. My PC is finally, properly formatted and configured, thanks in no small part to Mitch Drumm.
I take my hat off to Mitch.

We spent almost 31/2 hours via regular phone on Tuesday starting around 6:30PM.

When Mitch walks you through something, he goes over it at least 2-3 times making it so he's sure that you know exactly what he means. This attention to meticulousness just takes time.

I learned more about little hidden things all over the PC, and how to get rid of other just pesky and annoying things with Windows, then I ever thought was possible or even existed or even knew about.

Mitch, when you see this, know that a full/complete chkdsk was completed earlier this AM, and it appears all is well.

I didn't even get to the PC yesterday, as I had a faraway job to do, left early-got home late, and was just too pooped to start PCing.

I can't thank you enough for your time and expertise in helping me to put this PC right.