i have three hard drives C D F my original drive was c and this had windows 7 installed. i then purchased a new larger drive F and installed windows 7 onto this. All works well but i would like to re-format my original C drive . the computer will not allow me to do this because the drive still has the original OS system still installed on it. how can i remove the original OS system from my C drive ?? Any help appreciated David stokes
That's a mean computer, not allowing you to do something.....I'm assuming it's a newer PC with SATA HDDs? 1. Make sure you have all your old data copied over to new HDD first before you format the old drive ("C").
2. So I'm assuming you want to use the original HDD (old "C") as a backup hard drive? If yes, you would have to make your bigger HDD ("F") your main HDD that your PC boots to. Then make the old HDD ("C") a secondary drive. You would do this in your BIOS.
3. Then in Windows Disk manager, locate the OLD smaller HDD drive and do a format on it.\
If you do not want to use the old HDD as a backup, you just put in another PC and boot with the OS DVD/CD and reformat it in the Windows installation process.
MOOOOooove! OH and you're welcome!
I think this is a case of the boot files being on drive C. The best way is too reinstall Win 7 on the big drive after removing the small drive. This would mean backing up the data on drive F.
Thanks guys for your input but my problem remains. you seem to think that i am booting from the original os on my C drive but this is not the case. i am booting from my new F drive. I have no problems with any of my computer settings or activities i simply wish to remove the old unused OS from my C drive so i can re-format it. With the old OS in place i cannot do a format. The computer runs fine booting from my F drive . Hope this clarifies my situation. Again any advice appreciated David Stokes
If it is booting from F you should be able to remove C and still boot. Microsoft still uses C to install some system files even when installing somewhere else,
David, You don't really need to "remove" the OS from the old drive...in that when you format it, it will be gone anyway. I guess I'm not understanding the issue of how you're trying to do this.
Worst comes to worst, remove ALL HDDs in your PC, put your old "C" HDD back in, D/L Darik's Boot & NUKE, make a bootable CD or floppy, then boot to that CD or floppy & nuke the drive.
MOOOOooove! OH and you're welcome!
