Solved Partitioning and Drives

Hi guys,

I am considering buying the download of Windows 7 Pro (32-bit) and installing it on a separate partition to Vista, checking I get a decent performance boost and then moving over completely.

Now, when I try to shrink my C:\ drive in order to create more space I can only shrink it by a measly 16gb when there is 46gb available and I need at least 18gb for the install to work. Is there some way I can overcome this without having to delete system restore points as most tutorials suggest

Secondly, in disk management I appear to have 3 drives. One being C:\ one being S:\ (the recovery partition) but then another 9gb volume which is allocated to something but appears to have no drive letter assigned to it and is 100% free. Can anyone tell me what this is, and whether it will be safe to unallocate the space so I can make a big enough partition for windows 7 to reside on



thanks, and sorry for all the questions
macca

After installing Easeus Partition Manager Home it seems that the 9gb drive is also a recovery one and there appears as yet to be no limit on how much i can shrink vista here... is there a recommended way to do this...

also once i have another partition and I have windows 7 installed will there automatically be recognition of a dual-boot system and it will ask me which OS i want on startup or will I have to do further work to get this to happen

Hi
Dual booting seven and any other os is not that hard as long as u install in right partition since it just update initial mbr with it's own. This should contain list of os installed with seven as default when booting up.

Thankyou for this information, I have manage to partition my drives and that post gives me confidence in installing the OS

The MBR Will sort itself out so do not worry about the Dual boot Option windows

Secondly instead of Downloading Windows 7 I would seriously Recommend Buying a Windows 7 Install Disk

Also Try the Upgrade Advisor to test to see if it will run on your computer

Download details: Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Josh

@shadowjk
would you suggest I install from the burnt iso at boot or from within vista?

Before u install seven in any of your partition make sure you rename your hard-drive, eg. using "vista_partition" to represent vista and "seven_partition" to rep seven. This will ensure u install in right partition after booting from a burnt iso image.

maccaquacker said:

@shadowjk
would you suggest I install from the burnt iso at boot or from within vista?

Click to expand...

You will need to boot into the Burnt Image for this to work

If you have trouble finding the Different Drives and partitions to erase and install then Remove your Vista Drive or if it is a Partition then Take note of the Size of the Vista partition so you know Not to install on that partition

Hope This Helps,
Josh