Delete Windows on HDD

[Konglow]

Replacing Crive and using old drive as E: How do I remove Win program from what is now the new E:?It tells me I can't? I have had problems with this issue in the past.

 

[flyboytim]

Is the windows you are running actually the E:\Windows installation. If that's the case, no wonder it is difficult to remove.

From the command prompt, type %windir% <enter>, and if the response is

'E:\WINDOWS' is not recognized as an... etc., then you are running from the E:\ drive.

 

[Konglow]

Changing the C drive and making it E drive. Have new drive for C. Want to delete Windows on C which is now E. This is for Vista and I've tried deleting but it refuses to let me.

 

[BadBigBen]

Confucius say: talk with strange words and people will not understand...

in other words, it is unclear where the VISTA install is residing at present!!!

so question, if you unhook the E drive, will the machine boot with no problems?

if so, then you will have to take OWNERSHIP of the E drive to delete data on it...

if it does not BOOT up, then leave the drive alone...


How to Take Ownership and Grant Permissions in Windows Vista

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...rship-and-grant-permissions-in-windows-vista/

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[rclarke250]

What they are trying to say is you can't delete windows from itself if you booted from it, or from a hard drive that windows doesn't see as your user profile having permission to.

So take out e: to make sure you can boot from windows on C: if you can't, fix that first. If you can, than reconnect e: and make sure that the hdd in windows shows you have permission by taking ownership of the drive and its contents.

 

[Konglow]

I apologize for making this such a mess. I'll try once more then move on. There is only a C drive. I pull it and replace with a new larger drive in which to install OS. Now I want to use previous drive for E. Problem is that there is an OS on it. I have found this to cause problems down the road. So my question is: "How do I remove the Windows OS from that old C drive without effecting any other files so that I can use it for my E drive?"

 

[flyboytim]

In the first post Konglow says:

How do I remove Win program from what is now the new E:?It tells me I can't?

"It tells me I can't." WHY?

A possibility is that the Windows on the E: drive is actually what is running on the machine, hence my request to find out!

Vista is hot on permissions, so BigBadBen suggested that Konglow may need to take Ownership in order to perform the required actions.

I would just copy what is wanted from E: to C: then reformat the E: drive, having disconnected the C: drive. I might even use a bootable OS installation CD to do so, starting a new installation but cancelling out after the disk had been repartitioned, then finishing the job off with the disk manager in Vista, once everything had been reassembled and satisfactorily booted.

 

[Konglow]

Not installing E until I know how to erase Windows OS. New C boots just fine.

 

[mscallisto]

why can't you install the old drive (as slave), copy the files you wish to save to the new C then reformat the old drive?

 

[tlcscousin]

If all else fails pull the new drive and put in the old one boot with the xp cd and run setup proceed until you get the option to remove existing partition remove the partition and format it if you want. Shut down computer and plug in new drive in primary and old drive in secondary startup.
If you want to save any files on the old drive then you could use something like a bartpe cd boot use their file manager and delete the windows folder.