Hard Drive Format Issue

morphy201180

Posts: 79   +0
Hi ,

Can someone please advise on the best way to format a hard drive to change operating system without wiping an additional hard drive? I'll explain..

I recently purchased an old desk top which I have using. I want to change the operating system from XP to windows 7. There are 2 hard drives (I think). E: drive which has a total size of 9.75gb - 159mb free (of which the operating system and program files are) and C:Drive which has a total size of 1.80TB - 900gb free.

Can I format the E: drive and change the operating system without wiping the data on drive C:?

Any guidance will be greatly appreciated.
 
I do believe you can do such. Unless someone else says different, right click on the drive you want to format & in the drop down menu one of your choices should be to format said drive. Left click it & follow directions (if any). Good luck & post back :)
 
You will not be able to reformat drive E: whilst that holds the working operating system, as I believe you are saying, though 9.75 Gb is a bit tight even for XP.

I would say Win 7 cannot be installed on what is currently your E: drive - it is too small. To install Win 7 you will need a bootable DVD, a legal copy of Win 7 on it, and a working DVD drive to boot from, plus appropriate Win 7 drivers for all the hardware in the old PC. Please ensure you have all that. If not, come back with more information on what is there.

If you have it all, you will be able to install Win 7 on the existing C: drive, but be very very careful to choose the option which allows installation on an existing drive without reformat. To be honest I dont know what you hope to use the drive E: for anyway. It is too small for any sensible installation, and also small to just use as additional storage.
 
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