Laptop: Running two windows versions, No memory, can't delete partition 1

[2ManyHats]

Ok so where do I begin...

Friend had attempted to wipe windows 7 off of their laptop and start again. The only cd that they had was "Windows Vista",
So from what I was told they Boot from CD rom drive and installed windows vista.

When I go to computer management to the disk management I can see that there is no C drive.( Only D drive)

When I click open on the box under Disc 0 I can see all of the stuff that was originally on the laptop under windows 7.
When I click on the one beside it it shows me the stuff on windows vista.

I want to get rid of windows vista and at least try to go back to the windows 7. I have tried to boot from Hard drive but it still loads windows vista. And I have tried to delete the windows vista portion but that setting is not available.

There is little to no memory left on the laptop as both windows 7 and windows vista are taking up all of the memory.

So my main goal is to get rid of the windows vista. How do I do this...

 

[goombawaho]

Looks like they installed Vista without wiping out the Windows 7 installation. Does Windows offer a dual boot option at startup? You can't delete the partition that is booting from within that operating system, so that explains that.

Probably no need to answer questions about what has been done since your goal is to have only Windows 7. Not sure why someone would start with a Vista DVD if they wanted Windows 7!!!

You need to download Windows 7 image file and burn to DVD, boot from it and install Windows 7, choosing to wipe out all partitions during the install. Assuming you have a valid Windows 7 key code.
Link

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[2ManyHats]

Yes windows does offer to boot at startup. But the whole computer system is out of wack. They tried to "fix it" on their own using online forums apparently. But they obviously didn't realize they were reverting to windows vista. They wanted me to wipe the whole thing but still have all of their stuff from their windows.old file. I can see that they have documents and apps in it but there was no way for me to save it on a usb as a backup as it was over 30GB.


I will definitely do this. Thanks for your help.

 

[goombawaho]

There are 64GB flash drives!! Or you can use an external hard drive to move data onto OR buy a new hard drive and load Windows 7 on that, saving the old hard drive for retrieving the data. Probably buying a new drive is the best option so you can get a fresh drive, a bigger drive and maybe a faster drive for the money.

What about an SSD for boot drive then put the old HDD into the machine and use it for data storage?

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[2ManyHats]

ok well I made the cd and booted from it. So it works now everything is gone and it is as if it brand new.

thnx

 

[goombawaho]

Good. Well "works like new", except that the HDD is still old and may fail any day.

"Living tomorrow is everyone's sorrow.
Modern man's daydreams have turned into nightmares.

 

[2ManyHats]

Yeah you are right lol well it's not my computer so... but thanks for the help !

 

[edfair]

So there is a question about new, is it 7 or is it 7SP1? And even at SP1 there are 4 hours worth of patches to be installed to take it to 2016 and somewhat more tome to make it current.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[2ManyHats]

It's 7SP1.