I didn’t go the ordinary route for installing Windows 7. I had a Windows Vista partition and a Windows 7 RC partition. Win7RC was installed on a newer hard drive, so I wanted to install Windows 7 RTM over that. So I copied my files over to the Vista partition with the intention of copying the files back and then formatting over it to leave that space free.
But, when I came to formatting the partition, Windows 7 wouldn’t let me! It said it was the System Partition, where it boots from and has all the boot entries. Dang, how to get around this one?
Well….
- Find your Windows 7 DVD and set up your BIOS to boot from it on start up.
- Shut down your computer.
- Open it up! Now, you’ll have to remove that Hard Drive (just unplug it from the SATA/IDE cable).
- Turn on your computer, making sure to boot from the DVD.
- Wait for Windows 7 setup to start, when it asks you for your language and locales, set the values.
- At the bottom of the next dialog, click on Repair your computer.
- Windows Recovery will tell you there are missing boot entries, and if you would like to add them and restart. Don’t, as that isn’t the only problem we have.
- Select Windows 7 from the list, and click Next.
- Click Startup Repair, and let Windows Recovery fix it all.
It should now reinstall the boot loader, and repair missing boot entries. Click the Restart button after it has completed to test it.
If it is all working, now you can add your hard drive back in, and safely format it!
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