Two Partitions, Two Vista Installs...

[Carnage]

Ok, I have a question that I hope can be answered but I best give some
background.

I had a Vista Install with A "System" partition and a "Data"
partition. Installing a VPN Package by Sonicwall completely destroyed
networking. Under the properties of any network card the only
Service, Client, or Protocol was "Client For Microsoft Networks" and
clicking "Install" to get IPV4 and the like put on gave an error.
DHCP was also broken. Time to start over.

Unfortunately, I am going to need a new laptop soon because my laptop
turns itself off when in the BIOS Screen, When trying to boot from CD,
or any time before Windows starts to load. It is stable once it gets
up and running. Because of this, I could not boot from a CD to
install Vista...I had to boot to my damaged installation and install
it to my old Data Drive (After backing everything up).

Now, it boots to a clean install of Vista. This install is on the "F"
drive. The old install resides on the "C" drive. By default, it boots
to the proper installation (without me having modified any boot
information.)

I would like to recover the space taken up by the old "C Drive"
installation but I am not sure if the bootloader actually resides on
that partition yet. I would be rather unhappy if I blew away that
partition and ended up unable to boot.

So....am I safe to blow away the C partition? Is there any way I can
check to make sure that the installation on the F drive is handling
the boot loading?

Thanks

 

[semoi]

If you are unable to boot from the optical drive in your laptop you have big
problems with regard to repartitioning as the safest and most effective
partitioning software has to boot from a CD in a clean environment, whether
DOS or Linux based.
Some commercial packages, like Partition Commander, allow some changes to be
made from within Vista but not the major changes you envision. In fact,
depending on the way your hard drive is partitioned, those changes may not
be possible.
The biggest favor you can do yourself is to backup your data immediately to
CD/DVD or external hard drive any way you can.
Either take your laptop to a repair shop or pony up for a new one but I
would not mess with repartitioning at this point.

 

[andy]

So....am I safe to blow away the C partition? Is there any way I can
check to make sure that the installation on the F drive is handling
the boot loading?

Run Disk Management and check the status of the C: partition. As long
as it's not System, Boot, or Paging, you can remove it.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Ok, I have a question that I hope can be answered but I best give some
background.

I had a Vista Install with A "System" partition and a "Data"
partition. Installing a VPN Package by Sonicwall completely destroyed
networking. Under the properties of any network card the only
Service, Client, or Protocol was "Client For Microsoft Networks" and
clicking "Install" to get IPV4 and the like put on gave an error.
DHCP was also broken. Time to start over.

Unfortunately, I am going to need a new laptop soon because my laptop
turns itself off when in the BIOS Screen, When trying to boot from CD,
or any time before Windows starts to load. It is stable once it gets
up and running. Because of this, I could not boot from a CD to
install Vista...I had to boot to my damaged installation and install
it to my old Data Drive (After backing everything up).

Now, it boots to a clean install of Vista. This install is on the "F"
drive. The old install resides on the "C" drive. By default, it boots
to the proper installation (without me having modified any boot
information.)

I would like to recover the space taken up by the old "C Drive"
installation but I am not sure if the bootloader actually resides on
that partition yet. I would be rather unhappy if I blew away that
partition and ended up unable to boot.

So....am I safe to blow away the C partition? Is there any way I can
check to make sure that the installation on the F drive is handling
the boot loading?

Thanks

You need to check in Disk Management, but the C partition is quite possibly
still the boot or a system partition, and if you can't boot from the optical
drive, deleting it will render the system completely unbootable.

In that case, you could safely detete non-boot files to get the space, but
deleting or formatting the partition wouldn't be a good idea.

I'd agree that you need to get a new laptop.

HTH
-pk

 

[Carnage]

Thanks for the advice guys. I know i'll be needing a new laptop at
some point but I've been tearing through them like candy at the rate
of about once per year. I try to make them last as long as possible.

I already backed up everything I needed to a USB drive and a NAS box I
have so I am not afraid of losing anything but time.

Unfortunately my C partition is currently the "System" Partition. F
is the boot and paging.