How to delete a partition?

Hello all,

I was given a PC today by my inlaws, not a bad rig either. They have been having issue's with it and didnt want to bother anymore, so now I have it.

I notice it has two partitions on it. It looks like when they had their hard drive replaced earlier, whoever did the work created a new partion instead of deleting the old. Well, I want that gone and think thats part of my issue, as both partitions seem to want to boot the PC. It actually asks me each time which I want.

How can I delete tha proper partition without touching the other? I should also mention it does not have a restore disk, so wiping (for now) is not an option.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Try booting into Windows Setup with your Windows XP cd. I think you can delete the partition you want gone from there.

Later on when you boot into Windows XP proper you can add that extra space back to the single boot partition with the Disk Management tool in the Computer Management console (right click 'My Computer', select 'Manage').

I'll explain more about this later, first we gotta see whether booting into Windows Setup can remove the extra partition.

You need to know that it is not another partition. It is a second instance of an operating system. Just another folder full of files on the C drive. The below articles tell you how to configure your boot file so that Windows is no longer aware there is a second instance of an operating system installed.

The article How to remove a second installation of a Windows operating system from a partition shows you how to take care of this. You may want to familiarize yourself with this article.

Or you could just save yourself the trouble, and choose the default OS from the startup and recovery dialog box. It will give you the same affect. Go to my computer properties click on the advanced tab. Under start up and recovery click settings. Under default operating system in the drop down list you should see two things highlight one of them and uncheck time to display list of operating systems: click ok


After you finish modifing the boot.ini file as described, the second instance of the operating system (Winnt2 folder) is just taking up file space on the hard drive, and may be removed like you would delete any other folder/files.

More Reference
Etcetra

Sorry if I rambled a bit. This isn't my prettiest post, but forgive me, its late.

Best of Luck







[edit on 4/8/06 by makeitso]

Thanks guys for the info.


I forgot to mention that this PC only had XP Pro loaded on it, no disks. I do own a copy of XP Pro and Home though.

I ended up wiping the durned thing and reformatted the HD. I used my copy of Home for the wipe and install, but ill need to buy another copy to keep it running. Why not? $90 bucks on Newegg for a decent rig. Not that bad when I think of it that way.

Pentium 4, 2.53
512 DDR
150 gig HD

Dedicated video, but thats easily fixed.

Thanks again

Nevermind, I had typed out a post, only to find out you have the problem under controll. Good luck.

Troy





[edit on 9-4-2006 by cybertroy]

[edit on 9-4-2006 by cybertroy]

[edit on 9-4-2006 by cybertroy]

Well well well, my issues with this PC weren’t over.

Apparently there is a hardware issue compounding things. Ironically it’s this issue which was the original problem I think, and the conflicting partitions was just a side issue.

I have come to the conclusion it needs a new power supply.

Im quite surprised about this too, but it makes sense when I break it down. It’s a Compaq Presario (blah, but its free) and it came with a 250 watt PS. 250 Watt PS to support a Pentium 4 2.53? I bet the PS was just barely enough to handle that PC.

Well, at the start of the problems, the original owner was told they had a HD problem and had a new one installed, a bigger and faster HD. I bet that new HD uses just enough more juice to make that 250 PS not quite enough making the system unstable. It freezes up randomly. The onboard Intel Extreme graphics went at the same time the HD was replaced. I can only boot it with default graphics settings now. So now when I try to fix that Extreme Graphics driver, its freezes 100% of the time after the reboot, if it boots at all. And that’s why I am convinced it’s the PS. There simply isn’t enough juice to power that chip and keep everything else running.

Let me know if you agree. I ordered a new 350 watt from Newegg and will try that in a day or so when it shows up.

It sounds to me like you nailed it!

The only other thing would be overheating. But I am sure that you have blown that old CPU fan out. Right?

Originally posted by makeitso
It sounds to me like you nailed it!

The only other thing would be overheating. But I am sure that you have blown that old CPU fan out. Right?

You know, I thought about overheating, but the CPU fan is working just fine and seems plenty big enough. Not like im asking the PC to do anything crazy you know, just stay turned on! But, if I still have an issue after installing that PS tonight, I will go right to checking out over heating.

I have a buddy who is donating an old AGP ATI 9200 to the cause as well, so I may not even end up worrying about that proprietary graphics chip. Looks like my 2 year old son is going to have a decent rig, almost as nice as my older home built gaming machine!


Thanks again for the help guys!

I have read many articles about del ps failing-so that does not surprise me.

As far as the partion, just for your future information, this is how you would delete a second partion:

Control panel>administrative tool>Computer Management>DiskManagement>
Rightclick on the partion you want to delete and choose either "format" to reformat that partion or "delete" to remove it altogather.

If stuck like this in the future, just u2u me the issue with as much detail as possible and i will help to the best of my abilities.