Windows 7 in a bit of a mess

kazca

Hi

I have a Dell laptop with windows 7, 64 bit loaded. Unfortunately I hadn't got around to buying a new USB stick with 8GB+ to store the recovery backup and no OS disc supplied with laptop. The OS went pear shaped after an upgrade and I could not do anything with the laptop.
Ended up using a 32 bit windows 7 upgrade CD from another system, booting into it to get the system back up.
Now have rather an odd situation - a dual boot with the 32 bit and 64 bit systems listed simply as windows 7 on bootup. It all works fine on the original 64 bit bootup but the 32 bit legacy has a different view of the harddrive. Does anyone know how I can delete this 32 bit system and clear the option off the dual boot.

Thanks

robmar0se

To answer yr question, I would like to see how the hdd is organised, what partitions you have, and where the win 7/32 & Win7/64 is located.

Here's how to get into the disk management function which will show the hdd organisation/structure;

1. Click on the Start button and then choose Control Panel.
2. Click on the System and Security link.
   Note: If you're viewing the Large icons or Small icons view of Control Panel, you won't see this link so just click on the Administrative Tools icon and skip to Step 4.
3. In the System and Security window, click on the Administrative Tools heading located near the bottom of the window.
4. In the Administrative Tools window, double-click on the Computer Management icon.
5. When Computer Management opens, click on Disk Management on the left side of the window, located under Storage.

Lifeforms

Just in case anyone comes along through a search with similar problem. Dell will sell you the OS/recovery CD/DVD's after you've got the laptop. But they do want to charge a fair amount.

I'd recommend if people buy Dell laptops, to buy them upon the order, as they're way way cheaper. (if they think they're not likely to set up them when they get the laptop/desktop/)

kazca

Thanks for the replies.

Rob - here is the disk view info and thanks for the menu assistance.....................

Windows 32 bit side of dual boot
recovery(C:) 14.65 GB NTFS
healthy(system,boot,active,crash,dump,primary partition)
OS(D:) 283.4 GB NTFS
healthy(page file,primary partition)

Windows 64 bit side of dual boot
recovery 14.65 GB NTFS
healthy(system,active,primary partition)
OS(C:) 283.4 GB NTFS
healthy(boot,page file,crash,dump,primary partition)


I hope that this is the correct information needed

Thanks

harleq1962

the dell laptop i have on windows 7 64bit has a recovery partition, when i got it i had to make recovery dvds, i put one of the dvds in the drive recently and it let me recover from the partition on the hard drive rather than installing the dvds,

Jammyb

You can download the windows 7 32/64 bit versions for free and legally

Bung on USB stick and bosch!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/604187-legal-download-digitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html

boxst

Jammyb wrote: »

You can download the windows 7 32/64 bit versions for free and legally

Bung on USB stick and bosch!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/windows-os-software/604187-legal-download-digitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html

And before you do that, use something like Magic JellyBean to get your current Windows Key so that you can re-install with your version.

Steve

kazca

If I had not moved house shortly after buying the laptop and then forgotten to do the system recovery media thing, there would have been no problem. When I first bought the machine my biggest pen drive was 2gb - now I have all sorts of hard drive caddies, etc to easily facilitate this backup but the requirement had dropped from my mind, rather like a lot of stuff nowadays:-)

The 32 bit upgrade disc allowed me to get my system back up and all is OK. I just have this unneeded dual boot with the 32 bit system legacy that I would like to get rid of, if possible.

robmar0se

kazca wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

Rob - here is the disk view info and thanks for the menu assistance.....................

Windows 32 bit side of dual boot
recovery(C:) 14.65 GB NTFS
healthy(system,boot,active,crash,dump,primary partition)
OS(D:) 283.4 GB NTFS
healthy(page file,primary partition)

Windows 64 bit side of dual boot
recovery 14.65 GB NTFS
healthy(system,active,primary partition)
OS(C:) 283.4 GB NTFS
healthy(boot,page file,crash,dump,primary partition)

Something here looks odd, and have to say heven't seen it like this... The above says for win 7/32 the drive letters are recovery "C", and OS "D", whereas win 7/64 recovery has no drive letter, and OS is "C". Great care is needed as the last thing you want to do is loose the recovery partition. Usually on dual boot systems they each have their own partition.

I would like to hear from others what they view as the best way of resolving this - I suggest the following, and see what the comments are from others. (i) Backup all your personal data, (ii) read up the procedure for using yr recovery partition (probably a Function key on booting), (iii) use the recovery partiton to reinstall win 7/64, deleting the old OS partition(s). No doubt you have the relevant win 7 COA. If that doesn't work we can point you to where you can download a legal copy of win 7/64.

Keep us posted as we can all learn from this.

boxst

I would personally back up my data, re-install windows from CD/USB whilst formatting / deleting all the partitions.