Just installed winodows 7 professional how do you...

[k1ngkev1n1]

So i just built a computer and installed windows 7 professional. I have 3 hard drives and one has a old os on it. I want to erase that hard drive completely. How do i do that? ive tried reformating and didnt seem to work. I just want the one hard drive with my win 7 and the other two to be clean to use for storage.

 

[mhelm1]

Right click on my computer and select manage.
Select disk management.
Right click on disk you want to format. and then click on format.
If that doesn't work try deleting the partition and reinstalling partition then format.

 

[bfunk_nme]

You could also use diskpart from the command line and see if that helps.

 

[Jonmor68]

So i just built a computer and installed windows 7 professional. I have 3 hard drives and one has a old os on it. I want to erase that hard drive completely. How do i do that? ive tried reformating and didnt seem to work. I just want the one hard drive with my win 7 and the other two to be clean to use for storage.

The reason you can't format it is because it contains Windows startup files.
While there are workarounds to fix this, (Google is your friend) I believe the easiest and quickest way to go is to reinstall from scratch.
Save your files and settings to one of the other drives before starting by using the W7 Easy Transfer Wizard.
Disconnect both the other drives, boot the W7 disk and select custom install, quick format the drive and continue the instalation.
Once you have finished reinstalling you can then reconnect the other drives and format the one you want.
Don't forget to run the W7 Easy Transfer Wizard to restore your files and settings.

 

[hardwaretechy]

The reason you can't format it is because it contains Windows startup files.
While there are workarounds to fix this, (Google is your friend) I believe the easiest and quickest way to go is to reinstall from scratch.
Save your files and settings to one of the other drives before starting by using the W7 Easy Transfer Wizard.
Disconnect both the other drives, boot the W7 disk and select custom install, quick format the drive and continue the instalation.
Once you have finished reinstalling you can then reconnect the other drives and format the one you want.
Don't forget to run the W7 Easy Transfer Wizard to restore your files and settings.

No, this isn't what he's trying to do. No reason to reinstall your OS.

Do what mhelm1 suggested.

 

[k1ngkev1n1]

Right click on my computer and select manage.
Select disk management.
Right click on disk you want to format. and then click on format.
If that doesn't work try deleting the partition and reinstalling partition then format.

How do you delete the partition?

 

[Jonmor68]

To confirm what I said in my previous post is fact, shut down and unplug the drive which you are trying to format. If Windows fails to boot and gives an error, then you will know for sure what I said is fact.
It's your choice what you do from there.

 

[k1ngkev1n1]

this is what i did, I loaded windows on old hard drive. i had two other hard drives installed. Then i put windows 7 cd in and installed on the brand new hard drive as a clean install. So I have this old hard drive with windows vista and a new hard drive with windows 7 on it. I just want to completely delete the old one. thats the situation.

 

[Jonmor68]

When you installed Windows with a previous OS on another drive, even though you did a clean install to a new drive, some system files would have been installed on the old drive with Vista on it.
Doing a clean install while another os is present on a seperate drive, will not stop Windows loading some system files on there.
Have you tried what I suggested in my previous post to confirm that system files are on the other drive, so that you can be sure in your own mind.
It only takes a few minutes, you just unplug that drive and restart without it .

 

[k1ngkev1n1]

man this sux... i was trying to avoid having to use that hard drive... I am not at home i will try this first thing tonight though. Also is there anyway to get it to automatically boot windows 7 instead of asking upon starting up.. if indeed i need to keep this extra hard drive?

 

[Jonmor68]

If you are getting a dual boot menu at startup, like Windows 7 and Windows Old to pick from. click on start orb, in the search bar at the bottom, type msconfig, you will see the msconfig file displayed in the pop window, click on it, select the boot tab, highlight the Windows 7 line and select set as default, if it's not already, now you can either change the time out from the 30 second default to something less or highlight the other line containing the other OS and choose to delete it.

 

[bfunk_nme]

man this sux... i was trying to avoid having to use that hard drive... I am not at home i will try this first thing tonight though. Also is there anyway to get it to automatically boot windows 7 instead of asking upon starting up.. if indeed i need to keep this extra hard drive?

Sure, just change the boot order in your boot.ini,

go to
start
run
type msconfig
and got to the boot.ini tab, set whatever os you want to boot first.

 

[bfunk_nme]

12 seconds late! ugh

 

[Jonmor68]

If you realy want to get rid of the other OS and reuse the drive, you will need to dive in at the deep end and read the instructions at Microsoft. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392 It may be wise to print this information on paper.
You need to create a system repair disk first, open the Control panel>System and Security>Backup and Restore, select Create a system repair disk.
Shut down and disconnect both the other drives, insert the repair boot disk and follow instructions.

 

[k1ngkev1n1]

yea so i unplugged the extra hard drive and whindows didnt load. i will just keep the hard drive and use it with the other. just annyoing that every time i start up i have to pick windows 7

 

[ipenguins]

So i just built a computer and installed windows 7 professional. I have 3 hard drives and one has a old os on it. I want to erase that hard drive completely. How do i do that? ive tried reformating and didnt seem to work. I just want the one hard drive with my win 7 and the other two to be clean to use for storage.

This is what I do ,
1.Put in the Windows 7 Disc
2.Restart the computer WITH THE DISC IN
3.Once it starts booting up spam F12 or I think F8 and select boot up with Disc
4.It should say press and key to boot from Disc, press a key
5.now it should say loading window files and stuff
6.Once its done do all the info and stuff and when it gets to the part where it says, "Where do you want Windows 7 Install" , Click on each of the hard drives and press options and press reformat.
7. After that pick the hard drive you want windows on , and then BAM ! It's all done

 

[Jonmor68]

I appreciate that you are trying to help, but installing W7 is not his problem, it's done and it's running fine. The problem is with the removal of the old drive with Vista on it, that was present at time of instalation, which requires additional work as posted.

 

[ipenguins]

I appreciate that you are trying to help, but installing W7 is not his problem, it's done and it's running fine. The problem is with the removal of the old drive with Vista on it, that was present at time of instalation, which requires additional work as posted.

oh sorry then

 

[k1ngkev1n1]

Best answer selected by k1ngkev1n1.