reformatted but confused about partion part

[Guest]

hey
i reformatted windows premuim yesturday but im still confused about the
whole partion thing. I think that i may have just reinstalled windows as
opposed to completely refomatting it but how do you get to that part? I mean
i get to the partion and then i just clicked the partion that was already
there and highlighted. Was i meant to go to other drivers(advanced) and do
something in there? I'm so confused...

 

[Don]

hey
i reformatted windows premuim yesturday but im still confused about the
whole partion thing. I think that i may have just reinstalled windows as
opposed to completely refomatting it but how do you get to that part? I mean
i get to the partion and then i just clicked the partion that was already
there and highlighted. Was i meant to go to other drivers(advanced) and do
something in there? I'm so confused...

Yes, I can tell by reading your post that you need to learn some basics.
The folks here will be happy to help you learn, but we need a very clear
explanation of your problem before we can help you.

Imagine your task as a journey, and describe to us where you are
starting from and where you want to go. I promise you that there
is a logical path you can follow in order to get where you want to
go -- but first we need a better description of your proposed journey.

 

[Guest]

hehehe ok ill go through everything i did and the place i got stuck..i did
manage to get it installed but i dont think that i reformatted because i got
a windows.old folder

So basically i loaded the windows vista premium cd that i got and i
restarted my computer and booted from the cd and it said windows loading
files. after that i got to the pick a language and currency and keyboard
language and i filled all that in without a problem. then the next screen was
install now so i clicked it and it proceeded to install. The i got the screen
that asked me to put in my key so i did that and clicked next. Then after
that i clicked accept licence terms and clicked next and got to upgrade and
custom install page (i didnt have the option of upgrading as i dont have an
upgrade cd) so i clicked custom and then it came up with the where do you
want to install windows? and there was a partion already there i can't
remember the name of it but there was only one there that was highlighted so
i clicked it and clicked next. (on that page though there were a few options
refresh, load driver or drive options (advanced). This is the part where i
feel like i came unstuck because i clicked the partion that was highlighted
and clicked next and it said installing windows and continued to go through
the installation. On that partion screen was i supposed to do something
different? was i supposed to go into drive options and do something there? or
did i do the right thing?

 

[Don]

hehehe ok ill go through everything i did and the place i got stuck..i did
manage to get it installed but i dont think that i reformatted because i got
a windows.old folder

[snipped description of journey]

Okay, I have a slightly better idea of your problem. BUT -- I still
have no idea of where you are starting from, or where you want to go!
You've described what you did, but you omitted the bigger picture:
what was your starting point and what is your goal?

I'm truly not picking on you just to be mean. If you can't explain to
us what you want to accomplish then we can only guess -- and wonder
if YOU actually know what you want to accomplish.

Please begin again and describe your starting situation, and then
explain where you want to end up. Are you trying to upgrade from
XP to Vista -- or what? You still haven't told us the basic facts.

 

[Charlie Tame]

hehehe ok ill go through everything i did and the place i got stuck..i did
manage to get it installed but i dont think that i reformatted because i got
a windows.old folder

So basically i loaded the windows vista premium cd that i got and i
restarted my computer and booted from the cd and it said windows loading
files. after that i got to the pick a language and currency and keyboard
language and i filled all that in without a problem. then the next screen was
install now so i clicked it and it proceeded to install. The i got the screen
that asked me to put in my key so i did that and clicked next. Then after
that i clicked accept licence terms and clicked next and got to upgrade and
custom install page (i didnt have the option of upgrading as i dont have an
upgrade cd) so i clicked custom and then it came up with the where do you
want to install windows? and there was a partion already there i can't
remember the name of it but there was only one there that was highlighted so
i clicked it and clicked next. (on that page though there were a few options
refresh, load driver or drive options (advanced). This is the part where i
feel like i came unstuck because i clicked the partion that was highlighted
and clicked next and it said installing windows and continued to go through
the installation. On that partion screen was i supposed to do something
different? was i supposed to go into drive options and do something there? or
did i do the right thing?

Seems like you installed a brand new "Clean" copy in the single
partition, which I would expect top have wiped out your old system
leaving you with a fresh start.

You could have created one or more new partitions but then things get
increasingly complex and it sounds like you will be better staying with
the single partition that you already had.

There are "Options" but it seems like you picked one and it worked...

 

[Guest]

no i simply wanted to reformat windows vista. I had a program on my computer
which was refusing to uninstall and i had tried everything to uninstall. I
did eventually remove the program from my computer but i was still having a
few issues with things that worked around that program (the program was
photoshop beta triial) so i thought my best option was just to reformat my
system and start again from scratch. Hence why i chose to reformat it. Where
i want to go? Well i wanted to clean my system and start from scratch and
completely remove the program that was causing issue. I just wanted to know
whether or not i was right by simply clicking the partion that was selected i
actually reformated vista or whether i simply reinstalled vista. And if i
merely reinstalled vista how do i reformat it? Or what would i have done
differently in that partion section to ensure that i actually reformated
vista and not just reinstalled it.

hehehe ok ill go through everything i did and the place i got stuck..i did
manage to get it installed but i dont think that i reformatted because i got
a windows.old folder

[snipped description of journey]

Okay, I have a slightly better idea of your problem. BUT -- I still
have no idea of where you are starting from, or where you want to go!
You've described what you did, but you omitted the bigger picture:
what was your starting point and what is your goal?

I'm truly not picking on you just to be mean. If you can't explain to
us what you want to accomplish then we can only guess -- and wonder
if YOU actually know what you want to accomplish.

Please begin again and describe your starting situation, and then
explain where you want to end up. Are you trying to upgrade from
XP to Vista -- or what? You still haven't told us the basic facts.

 

[Guest]

it cleaned my computer completely and installed a new version of vista i just
wasnt sure because it created a windows.old folder which i deleted. Also when
you reformat it isn't it meant to clear all your memory as well? I still seem
to have memory that is being used by something but im unsure by what and
unsure how to find out what is taking up some of my memory

 

[Adam Albright]

hehehe ok ill go through everything i did and the place i got stuck..i did
manage to get it installed but i dont think that i reformatted because i got
a windows.old folder

Nope, you didn't reformat. What it sounds like you did was simply
installed Windows in the same partition the old version was in. No big
deal, but since you're now wasting about 8 GB at some point you'll
probably want to delete the old windows folder. DO NOT do so yet! See
if your system is stable, nothing messed up, then first try renaming
the old Windows folder (just put a X in front of the name) then
reboot, then if everything still works ok, then you probably can
delete the old folder. No hurry if you have plenty of room on your
root drive.

 

[Guest]

Thanks so much for your reply I'm pretty sure my system is stable because i
deleted the old windows folder without anything happening to my computer..if
that's what you mean. Otherwise i'm unsure how to check if it's stable? Also
how do you delete the partion instead of just putting it ontop of the old
one? is there an option to delte it and if so where is that option? Thanks
again

 

[Menno Hershberger]

hey
i reformatted windows premuim yesturday but im still confused
about the
whole partion thing. I think that i may have just reinstalled windows
as opposed to completely refomatting it but how do you get to that
part? I mean i get to the partion and then i just clicked the partion
that was already there and highlighted. Was i meant to go to other
drivers(advanced) and do something in there? I'm so confused...

As you've been told already, you're probably OK and can just delete the
windows.old folder.
You should have picked the advanced drive options. From there you could
have deleted the partiton entirely. Then your whole drive would have been
"unpartitioned space" and clicking "next" at that point would have
formatted that space and installed Vista fresh.
I'm telling you this from memory, but I'm pretty close.

 

[Rock]

it cleaned my computer completely and installed a new version of vista i
just
wasnt sure because it created a windows.old folder which i deleted. Also
when
you reformat it isn't it meant to clear all your memory as well? I still
seem
to have memory that is being used by something but im unsure by what and
unsure how to find out what is taking up some of my memory

That's what happens with a clean install of Vista where another OS is
present. The previous OS is wrapped up in the windows.old folder in case
you want to retrieve any data from it. Sounds like it ended up the way you
wanted.

 

[Richard Urban]

Boot from the Vista DVD. When you get to the screen where you choose your
partition, highlight the partition you want to install Vista on and then
select options. There you will be given a choice to delete the old
partition, create a new partition in the space you freed up by deleting the
old partition and lastly, you will be able to format the partition you just
created.

If you do this you will have a "true" clean install of Vista with absolutely
nothing remaining from the previous install.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Adam Albright]

Thanks so much for your reply I'm pretty sure my system is stable because i
deleted the old windows folder without anything happening to my computer..if
that's what you mean. Otherwise i'm unsure how to check if it's stable? Also
how do you delete the partion instead of just putting it ontop of the old
one? is there an option to delte it and if so where is that option? Thanks
again

You'll know if it gets unstable if Vista starts to do weird things.

In Windows there can only be ONE active partition which the operating
system needs to boot from. Think of a partition as a roped off area of
your hard drive. There are no actual physical boundaries, just virtual
ones that separate one partition from another, something like rooms in
a house, but no physical walls. Each partition gets assigned a drive
letter like C, D, and so on. One partition may take up all the space
on a physical hard drive or can be divided into multiple partitions.

If you've already deleted the old windows folder then you probably
just have one version of Windows in one partition on your C drive.
That should be fine.

Go to Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management,
then click on Disk Management. What you'll see is your current
configuration as Windows "sees" it which under some circumstances may
conflict with what is actually there.

In the computer world the numbering system starts at 0, not 1. What
can confuse some people is the difference between actual separate
physically different hard drives which always get labeled 0, 1, 2 and
so on and drive letters which start at C. A physical hard drive can be
divided into multiple partitions which always get assigned different
drive letters, not numbers.

In the left pane you see details about volumes, just another word for
drive letters. In the right pane you'll see your partitions and which
one is currently active (should be C) along with what file system is
installed, (should be NTFS) and the drive should be show as "healthy".

If you have external drives they only show if on and mounted.

You probably do NOT want to delete any partition. If you delete C,
then you effectively remove that partition and Windows along with it
so in effect you end up with no operating system and would have to
start over from scratch. Unless there is something very seriously
wrong with your current install of Windows you probably don't want to
do that.

So now that you have a better idea how Windows treats drives and
creates partitions, what exactly are you trying to accomplish my
adding or wanting to delete a partition?