Unable to delete Windows 7 partition

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:38:27 Z

Recently My PC had a major issue with Boot Mgr (Namely that it couldn't find it) Once i had fixed this problem, i was unable to use the Windows 7 partition, therefore i wish to delete it. However, windows Vista will not let me saying that the partition is in use.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Unable to delete Windows 7 partition

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:06:38 Z

Hello MHarrop,

Thank you for posting. You are not able to delete the Windows 7 partition because some process running in Vista is pointed to the partition where Windows 7 resides. Do you have anything mapped to a folder in the Windows 7 partition? An example would be Media Player looking at a folder in the other partition for music files. Another example would be having your Vista restore points saving on the other partition. Once you locate what you have running in Vista that is pointing to the other partition and you stop/change/or move it you will be able to delete that partition. If you are absolutely, positively sure that you do not have ANYTHING in Vista pointing to the other partition you can boot with your Vista DVD, drop to a command prompt and delete the partition. BUT if you delete the partition this way and there is still anything in Vista that is pointing to that partition it could make Vista inoperable so be certain before you do it.

Let us know if you are able to get the other partition deleted.

Thanks,

Jack

Jack
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
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Unable to delete Windows 7 partition

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:58:47 Z

Jack,

Thanks very much for your first reply. I followed your instructions and removed everything that could have been connected to the Win 7 partition, however a new issue has arrisen
Now, when i attempt to delete it It displays a new error message which reads:
"The attempted operation cannot be completed. The operation is not valid on volumes containing system partitions, boot partitions or Pagefiles."
I'm sorry this is such an irritating case, trust me I'd rather it hadn't gone wrong in the first place.

Many thanks

Unable to delete Windows 7 partition

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:38:44 Z

Hello MHarrop,

Thank you for your reply back!

I would suggest going to the link below which will take you to Windows 7 tech support forums. You can copy your post here and paste into other forum. Good Luck!

Windows Client TechCenter/ Windows 7:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/category/w7itpro,windowsvistaitpro,windowsxpitpro/

James Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.