# How to "Un-Partition" hard drive



## mystic7 (Dec 9, 2007)

I've been using computers for 14 years but one thing I never got into was partitioning my hard drive. I finally did it for the purpose of installing the Windows 7 Beta a few months ago, giving me Vista Home Premium on one partition and Windows 7 on the other (plus the partition with the recovery data, of course), and now that it's expiring I want to go back to my old setup. Do I just delete the partition or do I have to delete Windows 7 first?


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

http://www.techspot.com/guides/144-removing-windows7/


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## mystic7 (Dec 9, 2007)

Yikes, I don't like that part about potential boot loader complications. Is that a likelihood or just a precaution?


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

FWIW, the beta has already expired. If you have the Release Candidate it should be good til June, 2010.


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## smiddy (Apr 5, 2006)

mystic7 said:


> I've been using computers for 14 years but one thing I never got into was partitioning my hard drive. I finally did it for the purpose of installing the Windows 7 Beta a few months ago, giving me Vista Home Premium on one partition and Windows 7 on the other (plus the partition with the recovery data, of course), and now that it's expiring I want to go back to my old setup. Do I just delete the partition or do I have to delete Windows 7 first?


Get yourself a copy of partition magic, I think Symantec owns it now. You boot the OS you are keeping, load it there, and you can delete the other partition and combine it to the current one. Last I knew it runs about $100.00-ish.

EDIT: It is $69.99 here: http://shop.symantecstore.com/store...=hTe0kwoBAiMAAFWvWK4AAAAY&rests=1254798249122


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

mystic7 said:


> Yikes, I don't like that part about potential boot loader complications. Is that a likelihood or just a precaution?


That is a likelihood.
It's not a big deal unless you have an OEM recovery partition.
If it's Dell, it's still not much of a big deal.
Others get more complicated.


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