[JavaMental]

Please bear with me -- I know some about computers, but I've never done an install before, so I'm a bit ignorant about that.

So, I have a Dell XPS 420, less than a year old -- it came with Vista Home Premium. This morning, I got my install disk for Windows 7. Instead of upgrading, I decided to do a clean install. I did the install, nice, quick and easy, went with no problems whatsoever ... except I installed Windows 7 onto the wrong disk drive. D'oh! Dell comes with a partitioned hard drive (I hope I'm saying this right ...) -- the RECOVERY drive that holds the factory image for reformatting? Right. So, guess which drive I installed 7 into? Yeah, I'm an idgit.

I found the problem when I noticed the computer prompting me to pick which operating system to boot up -- Windows 7 or Vista, and then discovered what I'd done when I got 7 booted up, and realized I had no spare drive space left. So, I called Microsoft tech support, who advised me to do another clean install onto the right drive. Which I did, and that went well, also, and now I'm on my computer with Windows 7. Except, 7 is still installed on the Recovery drive, and when I start my computer, it's still asking me which operating system I want to boot into -- Windows 7 on the main drive, or 7 on the Recovery drive. (It's not asking about Vista anymore. I assume that was consigned to the grave when I installed into the right drive.)

So, any ideas how to fix this problem? I assume the factory image Dell had in that drive is completely pooched, and the double install doesn't seem to be causing any problems, at least, at the moment. It is annoying to have to specify what to do during start-up, though, and I'd like to get rid of that, if possible.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Mumbodog]

I assume the factory image Dell had in that drive is completely pooched

Correct.

What I would do is boot from the W7 dvd again, this time delete both partitions, then install W7 on the new larger partition you just created.

[LauraMJ]

You can then get something like Acronis and make a back up to an external HDD (you can pick up a 250 or 500 gb drive pretty cheap) of the clean install in case you ever want to go back to that, and then just make periodic backups of your system as you change it over time so that if something happens, you can just restore the latest back up.

Acronis also allows you to create a boot disk to get to the back ups in case of a catastrophic crash where you can't even boot up; something having a partition as a back up can't do.

[TheOutcaste]

Boot into the one you want to keep
Click Start, type msconfig, press Enter
Click the Boot tab
You'll see two entries. One will be marked Current OS. This is the one you are currently booted into.
If it is not already shown as Default OS, select it and click Set as default
Select the other one and click Delete

You should now be able to delete the Recovery Partition and merge it into the main, or use it for whatever.

If you somehow ended up with the Boot files on that partition, it won't let you delete it. You can boot with the DVD and delete it, or use your favorite bootable partitioning tool.
You'll then need to boot with the DVD and do a Startup Repair after deleting it.

HTH

Jerry

[JavaMental]

Thanks for the help, everyone! I was able to boot from the DVD and get things sorted out from there.

[Mumbodog]

Thats good news.

Welcome to TSG forums.

You are welcome from all of us.