Hello,

When I installed windows 7 professional edition my C drive did not have enough free space on it, so I chose to install iton my D drive. Now my D drive is the main hard drive, that's not the problem (at least I don't think so),

So I went about deleting all the old programs, documents, etc on the C drive since I had made a backup and a copy onto my external hard drive, so that I could then reformat my C drive and get rid of everything, but it won't let me, I've tried shrinking it as it suggested, but still nada,

Now after going about and reinstalling some programs back onto my D drive its starting to look a little full and sooner or later I'm going to need the space, so if there's anything you can think of to help it would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks

If not a problem with c:, when installing programs, install them to c: drive and if your system ever crashes and you you need to use a backup, you will only need to be worried about d: and everything on c: will still be there and after a successful restore from a backup, all your porgrams will still be working that were installed on c:

If not a problem with c:, when installing programs, install them to c: drive and if your system ever crashes and you you need to use a backup, you will only need to be worried about d: and everything on c: will still be there and after a succesful restore from a backup, all your porgrams will still be working that were installed on c:

Right, OK, but my C drive is half full with useless items from my previous version of windows, i.e vista anmongst other things that I cannot delete, and hence I've lost that 30 something gb and I want to format my C drive so that I can get rid of all that

Did you do a fresh install of win 7 or did you upgrade?

If you did a clean install, just format c:

If I remember correctly it wouldn't allow me to upgrade from vista to windows 7 professional, so I had to do the fresh install, but it still says it was unable to complete format

So win 7 is installed now to d:?

How are you trying to format the c: drive?

What exact type of message(s) are you getting when trying to format c:?

Yea windows 7 prof is installed to D

I'm right clicking on it then clicking 'format'

'windows was unable to complete the format'

Right click on the c: drive and go to properties
-what is the file system listed as (NTFS or FAT32)

Now take notice of that and when you right click on the c: drive to format it, make sure choosing the same file system to format as

See if this helps at all

The file system is NTFS and the only option when formatting is NTFS (default)

And still getting the same error message :(

Run chkdsk with the drive error tool that is in win7

Here are the steps to use - follow the images and just go step by step
How to use CHKDSK (Check Disk) - Windows 7 (http://www.w7forums.com/use-chkdsk-check-disk-t448.html)

Once error checking is all done and hopefully the if issues exists they will be fixed and you will be able to format the drive when that is don

Hope this helps out, post back when give it a try

Instead of scheduling a test, it suggested a forced dismount, but that's because the drive is in use, which I don't get because as far as I know there's nothing on it that's running?

Try the forced simount

Or try
Go down to the bottom to the bottom of the page and try to run from the command promt

Still comes up with the error message

try this

start, run, cmd
now type
CHKDSK c: /X /F /R

'Access denied as you do not have sufficient privileges.
You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode'

1. Click on Windows 7 Start Button

2. Go to All Programs-> Accessories

3. Now right on Command Prompt and select “Run as Administrator” from context menu


Now you should be able to run

OK, its checking now

Good to hear

Its 42% at the moment stage 4 of 5 and doesn't seem to be showing signs of finishing any time soon

So after this has finished should I be able to 'in theory' format my C drive

The reason I ask is because its rather late here and I need to get some sleep to get up early

Reet, its just finished

Tried to format again, but still got the same error message

What brand of hard drive is it?

Hitachi HTS541616J9S SCSI Disk Device

My laptop is an ACER Aspire 9300

Well here is a thought, even though you may have installed the OS to d:, the installation still may have put some files on C: drive and that could be reason why being locked out of the format process.

Also if your drive is partitioned to C and D and it is an Acer, Acer more than likely has files on C: (whether hidden or not) the Acer needs to have and therefore will not let you format it.



With all these things to consider, I would maybe suggest to delete all old files and folders that you can (it let's you) and you should be left with pretty much an empty drive.

Start right clicking and delete folders until nothing left as that is the goal other than just doing the format.

Try that and see what files/folders are left over that the system will not let you delete, this may narrow down what might not be giving you access to format the drive.

I tried that and it left me with 30 gb of stuff on my C drive that I could not delete which is basically half the gb on the C drive

They all say I need permssion from 'TrustedInstalled' to make any changes

Are there specific folder you can not delete?

Are they old windows folders from the old system?

I could recommend DBAN which will totally wipe out the drive but with that said, you may not be able to boot back to win7 and just have to reinstall but that would be an option if you are choosing only to run win7

And after using dban, you would have to use the format option during install as your drives will be wiped clean.

Or the other option with out having to reinstall is to use a disk parititoning software

Partition Wizard Home Edition free download. Partition Wizard Home Edition is a free partition manager designed by MT Solution Ltd. It supports 32/64 bit Windows Operating System including Window... (http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/Disk_Maintenance_and_Repair_Utilities/Partition_Wizard_Home_Edition.html)


With this, install and run (Be Very to only make changes to drive you want, a mistake could be Bad)

Now with this installed, you will be able to manage partition c: as far as in your case,

Remove partition c:
Recreate partition c:
Format partition c:


But Very Important, Acer may need that drive to be able to boot and if you wipe it and recreate it, the laptop may not boot and you would have to do a system recovery from Acer Recovery software

You may want to email Acer and ask them through email support, Can I and how do I format C: or is C: needed.


***Now with all that information to consider, I would also suggest to do the Acer recovery process to get laptop back to factory settings as when you first bought it, and then, run the win7 installation as an Upgrade.

Yes there are specific folders I cannot delete
i.e windows sidebar, windows journal windows movie maker, all say I need permission from trustedinstalled, I can't even delete notepad :(

Yes there are system files that I cannot delete as well from the old windows but mostly applications

Ill email Acer as you suggested to see if they can help/suggest anything I actually need to use some programs on my laptop for work at the moment and hence am hesitant about wiping the entire laptop clean and starting from scratch, so if that turns out to be the case I won't be able to give that a go until after the new year.

Well, as mentioned

You can use the partition software to wipe c:, recreate it and format it - and your done.

This will not effect your installation of win 7 on d:, would co nsider starting from scratch and putting your OS on c:

These are all just concerns as most OS's are on C: but of course not all - My xp PC is installed on d:

To be honest, I do not know how much time you have insvested in this win 7 installation, you may want to consider starting from scratch (IF that is your choice to say with win 7)

OK, the way I read it it sounded like I had to wipe the drives clean and then partition, so I may give that a try,

I haven't got that much invested with this instalation, basically just the essentials: iTunes, visual studio, XNA, Steam etc

So like I said if I were to totally wipe everything and start from scratch id have to wait untilafter the new year as I need to get my work done and hence am quite hesitant.

If I do end up starting from scratch id probably be looking for help as I'm not entirely sure how it should play out and what I should look out for, but that would be after new year.

Do what you can do now and see if anything comes up but I would suggest as mentioned above is to recover the laptop back to acer recovery to get back to factory setup and then run the upgrade if that is what you want to do - I would suggest this route other than wiping the drive and then installing, just do the updgrade from a fresh system recovery

OK, thanks for the help, I will have a poke around see if anything changes, and if not try the acer recovery and get back to you after new year and tell you how it went.

Just wondering if you found a solution?

The only way to get back your partioned space from the Cdive and end up with an installation that utilises your total drive capacity in a single partition is to start again!
Boot from the windows 7 CD and when you reach the point of specifying installation partition choose to delete both and then create a new single partition using the full drive and complete the installation to this drive.

You mention you have ITunes etc already installed, these are easy to back up to an external drive before you start and then restore when ready to.

Hope this helps.

I haven't gotten round to re installing 7 yet as I have some work that I need to do and I don't want to mess around with anything before I've handed it in

But

I've talked to a few other people and they suggest what seahawk suggested,

That it: to re-install 7 on my C drive and as you say select to wipe both drives when it reaches the partition bit (I don't remember coming across this when I first installed it but oh well)

So I'm going to do that next week