[SOLVED] How to delete hidden OS install

[Jovo]

I’ve got a part of my SSD space that is hidden, when I look in disk management half the space is gone.

But I know there’s an old Windows 7 install on the drive hidden after I installed Windows 10.

Is there a way to get a complete look at what is on the SSD and delete the old OS?

 

[USAFRet]

So that we're all on the same page, please show us a screencap of your current Disk Management window.

 

[Jovo]

Disk management

 

[USAFRet]

Disk management

Disk 1, the current Win 10 C drive:
What make/model/size is that physical drive?

 

[Jovo]

Crucial
M4-CT128 M4SSD2
128GB

 

[USAFRet]

Crucial
M4-CT128 M4SSD2
128GB

So that 128GB drive is only showing as 55.24GB.

How did this Win 10 get on this drive? Cloning, via what tool?

 

[AllanGH]

A suggestion for a competent partitioning tool:

GParted Live on USB

 

[Jovo]

So that 128GB drive is only showing as 55.24GB.

How did this Win 10 get on this drive? Cloning, via what tool?

Yes and I'm not sure why the rest of the drive is hidden but its been like this since Windows 10 was installed on the SSD.

Windows 10 was installed from a thumb drive, I didn't use any special tools or cloning.

I can try to go thru the steps of how it got to this point to see if that gives any insights.

1. Years ago, new PC build, windows 7 installed on ssd
2. Windows 10 launches, I avoid installing it, eventually windows 10 gets installed automatically on my PC, onto my regular hd (not the ssd).
3. I leave the PC like this for awhile as I didn't know how to get it installed on the SSD at the time.
4. I figure out how to install windows 10 onto the SSD (with the thumb drive and following the instructions), I do notice at this time when I'm given the drive choices to install the OS onto that the SSD is not displaying the full drive size of 128gb but don't see any way to fix it at that point.
5. The win 10 install on the SSD works fine, but half the drive size is missing I believe because of the old windows 7 install

I've always had the 1 ssd and 1 regular hd

 

[USAFRet]

That is weird.

From an admin commandline, the diskpart function and list disk.

What does it show for that Disk 1?

 

[Jovo]

Unfortunately it shows size as 55 GB, free space 1024 KB.

 

[Math Geek]

where did you get the drive? it's possible you got scammed with a 64 gb drive labeled as 128 gb. diskpart and so on should show the full size no matter if partitions are hidden or whatever.

if you got this from a reputable source i'd take it back and get a new one. seems like it truly is a smaller drive than it was claimed to be when you bought it.

 

[USAFRet]

Unfortunately it shows size as 55 GB, free space 1024 KB.

Disk Management and diskpart don't lie.

That looks to be a 64GB drive.

 

[USAFRet]

I would contact Crucial, and give them the specific serial number on the drive.
See what they say.

 

[Jovo]

where did you get the drive? it's possible you got scammed with a 64 gb drive labeled as 128 gb. diskpart and so on should show the full size no matter if partitions are hidden or whatever.

if you got this from a reputable source i'd take it back and get a new one. seems like it truly is a smaller drive than it was claimed to be when you bought it.

I got the drive from a retail store 7 years ago. It used to show the full hd size before windows 10 was installed.

 

[USAFRet]

Install and run the Crucial diag tool.
https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/support-storage-executive

 

[Jovo]

Startup Pic

Take a look at the pic above (the insert image is not working for me), I noticed this on startup. Could my issue be that volume 1, with 64 GB, is listed as disabled?

 

[USAFRet]

Startup Pic

Take a look at the pic above (the insert image is not working for me), I noticed this on startup. Could my issue be that volume 1, with 64 GB, is listed as disabled?

Oh my.

Somehow, that 128GB drive was split into two volumes, and RAID 0 (or cache?) between the two.
Then, one of the volumes got disabled.
Hence, reading only ~1/2 the size.

Not sure how it got that way, but it was not a simple Win 10 update or install.

 

[Jovo]

Is there a way to undo this or to restore it to just one volume? To enable the disabled volume?

I can only say I don't know how it got like that.

 

[USAFRet]

2 methods I would take, both involve a full drive wipe, with the commandline diskpart and clean all.

1. A full wipe and reinstall. OS and everything.
or
2. With Macrium Reflect or similar, create an Image of the C off to some other drive.
Then diskpart and clean all.
Then, boot up from a Macrium Rescue USB you created earlier, tell it where trhe Image is, and which drive to apply it to.

Both of those are done with the HDD disconnected. You want only the SSD accessible.


Personally, I would do #1. Start over completely.
Doing #2 may carry over some remnants of this "RAID" or cache thing.

 

[Jovo]

Is there any risk in doing #1? I guess what I'm asking is if I do that everything should boot up as before because I have all my data except the OS saved on my other drive?

For #1 is there a step by step guide you could point me to?

 

[USAFRet]

#1 also requires reinstallation of ALL your applications. Even if they live on the other drive.
A new OS will know nothing about them.

For a full reinstall, create a Win 10 USB.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Then, this:

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

See Section II, Step 6 & 7. This relates to wiping all partitions on that drive.
That may work.