[SOLVED] How do I get rid of old OS on old partition?

[Boogyman]

I had a corrupted windows OS on my main hard drive so I had to reinstall it but what I did is I divided the hard drive into two partitions and installed a new OS on the new partition.
I already transfered all my personal files from the old partition to the new and now I want to delete the old partition so I can merge them again into one.
EaseUS wont let me delete the old partition because it had system files on it so I did it using the usb bootable windows installer and formated the old partition with the old OS so i can merge the unallocated space to the NEW partition but what this did is it wont let me boot and saying that it has no OS installed on the new partition. How do I do this?

this is what im talking about.
the Drive D: is the old partition and the C: is the new. EaseUS wont let me delete drive D: so I can make drive C: bigger. what can I do?
Thanks!

 

[Colif]

It wouldn't work anyway, when you install win 10 onto 2nd partition it used the 1st one as the boot partition, so if you delete the 1st partition, windows won't boot.
D is marked System - this is the drive that includes the boot files
C is marked boot - this is where windows is.
Yes, it is confusing.

Also, you can't merge space that is before the partition you want to merge it to. D is before C

disk o = 1tb hdd
disk 1 = 500gb hdd

I think your most logical move is to copy anything you want to save off disk 0 and copy it onto disc 1 and clean install

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

How to get data off C now it doesn't boot -
boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
type notepad and press enter
in notepad, select file>open
Use file explorer to copy any files you need to save to USB or hdd

once you copied everything you want to save, unplug PC
remove data cable from 500gb hdd
turn PC back on and clean install win 10

follow this guide: https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/how-to-do-a-clean-installation-of-windows-10.3170366/

Once windows 10 boots off hdd a few times, unplug it again
attach data cable back to hdd and copy all data across again

 

[Boogyman]

It wouldn't work anyway, when you install win 10 onto 2nd partition it used the 1st one as the boot partition, so if you delete the 1st partition, windows won't boot.
Also, you can't merge space that is before the partition you want tto merge it to. D is before C

disk o = 1tb hdd
disk 1 = 500gb hdd

I think your most logical move is to copy anything you want to save off disk 0 and copy it onto disc 1 and clean install

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

How to get data off C now it doesn't boot -
boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
type notepad and press enter
in notepad, select file>open
Use file explorer to copy any files you need to save to USB or hdd

once you copied everything you want to save, unplug PC
remove data cable from 500gb hdd
turn PC back on and clean install win 10

follow this guide: https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/how-to-do-a-clean-installation-of-windows-10.3170366/

Once windows 10 boots off hdd a few times, unplug it again
attach data cable back to hdd and copy all data across again

oh I see. I used to do it my way back then and it worked. I guess it isnt now. Thanks anyway! Ill try your method.

or. Can i just reinstall new OS on Drive C: get my files on drive D: then format that drive and delete windows.old? or this will create complications?

 

[Colif]

or. Can i just reinstall new OS on Drive C: get my files on drive D: then format that drive and delete windows.old? or this will create complications?

the problem is D is physically in front of C on the drive, so you cannot merge it into C at all

Why reinstall on C again?
what drive were you formatting?

 

[Boogyman]

I meant reinstall on Drive D: which has the old OS and get my files on Drive C: i can still access both drive.

 

[Colif]

Yes, that would work.
install on d
copy files off old C to D once installed
you can mark the windows folder on current C as windows.old and disk cleanup can remove them. no need for a format unless you want to.

 

[Boogyman]

Yes, that would work.
install on d
copy files off old C to D once installed
you can mark the windows folder on current C as windows.old and disk cleanup can remove them. no need for a format unless you want to.

ok thanks man!

 

[Colif]

• Press Windows + E, click This PC.
• Right-click the drive with Windows installation and click Properties.
• Click Disk Cleanup and select Clean up the system.
• Select the Previous Windows Installation(s) option to delete Windows.old folder.
• You can also choose to delete other installation files including Windows upgrade log files and Temporary Windows installation files etc.
• Click OK and select Delete Files on the pop-up dialog to confirm the deletion.
• Click Yes.

https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/cannot-remove-windows.old-folder.html