Problem uninstalling Vista?

[ashtiany]

Hey guys, basically I've just upgraded to Windows 7, and its taken over my original Vista OS.

But the problem is, I previously also had another OS called 'Windows Vista (recovered)'. This Vista only partially works and is also corrupt, and I cant do much on it.

At start up, I'm eligible to choose between Windows 7 and this recovered Vista OS. I've already worked around it to automatically boot up Windows 7 cos it annoys me :(

I'd like to know how to uninstall the OS? and btw they're both on one hard drive (C:) I could do with the free space..

I'd really appreciate any help, thanks!

[MANEMAN]

Hi there,

Backup any personal data that you may have on the C: drive, (Photos, Documents, Music, etc;) and then format the drive and do a clean install of Windows 7.

It's gonna save you a lot of space, and you will have a nice clean install with no (Boot or other) conflicts.

Whilst you are doing this it is a good idea to partition the disk, and keep the operating system and data seperate. (I.E One disk two or more partitions)

Plenty of free software for formatting and partitioning on the internet at the moment. Just Google for it.

John.

[ashtiany]

Hi there,

Backup any personal data that you may have on the C: drive, (Photos, Documents, Music, etc;) and then format the drive and do a clean install of Windows 7.

It's gonna save you a lot of space, and you will have a nice clean install with no (Boot or other) conflicts.

Whilst you are doing this it is a good idea to partition the disk, and keep the operating system and data seperate. (I.E One disk two or more partitions)

Plenty of free software for formatting and partitioning on the internet at the moment. Just Google for it.

John.

Thanks for the reply John, a few other things that make the matter not quite as simple..

..my laptop doesn't have a disk drive, so I've had to download Windows 7 myself.

I was thinking, could I boot the ISO Windows 7 file from a USB?

[MANEMAN]

Yes you can. Use this:

/>http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool

John.

(Portable applications will take care of the rest of your needs)

[ashtiany]

Yes you can. Use this:

/>http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool

John.

(Portable applications will take care of the rest of your needs)

Ah thank you, I'll see if it helps :)

But is there any way I can remove the OS without wiping off Windows 7? cos of i've already spent loads of hours installing quite a lot of updates and applications :/

[MANEMAN]

Personally I think you are going to end up with boot problems if you try to remove Vista (But hey I could be wrong. )

The way to go would be to make a disk image of your Windows 7 installation, format the drive, and restore the saved image onto the newly formatted drive.

You can achieve this with either Acronis: http://www.acronis.co.uk/homecomputing/products/trueimage/?source=uk_google&ad=ati&c=5322264774&k=acronis%20true%20image%20home%202010&gclid=CPqZxLTYvKICFc6X2AodaCdB4g

Or Macrium Free Version : http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

John.

Edit: If you are at all unsure about any of this, and you just need more disk space you could leave the whole thing alone, add another Hard Disk if it is a desktop computer, or an external drive if it is a laptop or netbook.

Which is another way of saying, "If it's not really broke, dont try to fix it" :0 :)

[MANEMAN]

A late Thought:

Disk Imaging is not going to be a lot of use to you in this case as you are stating that both workable operating systems are on the same partitition.

So it is either leave well alone, or format the disk and start afresh.

Hard disk space is pretty cheap these days (Internal and external)

John.

[ashtiany]

Thanks John for all your help!

I think i'll go with the external hard drive cos you're right, they're pretty cheap these days! :)