how do i delete windows 8.1

Cpute

Cpute

Cpute

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Mistley, Essex
Re installed windows on my SSD so I now have 8.1 on SSD and HDD and i want to delete windows of the HDD for obvious reasons, but ive tryed formatting no luck there (windows cannot format) so i tried doing it via disc manager and i get the "windows cannot delete this volume" anybody know a work around for this?

Thanks in advance
 
yeah i used installation disc and when you say boot drive do you mean head to bios and set it as the boot drive or is it something more strenuous?
 
You are trying to format the HDD? If so, is the SSD set as boot or the HDD and yes that can be done in the bios.
 
Ok well I've done something hideously wrong now I headed to bios to change boot options and now I get an operating system wasn't found and can't boot up at all even though both ssd and hdd have windows. I need some major help
 
You need to go to Boot priority and select the SSD as first boot then save settings and let it start.
 
Ok I've got that working again so back to square one tried changing in bios and it ruined everything haha.
 
I did that and that's why I got no os installed changed back to hdd and it boots but gives me the dual boot option and still won't allow me to remove windows of the hdd is it because the hdd has the files on it to make windows boot but it was a clean install on the ssd so I thought it would be a case of backing up files of my hdd and then deleting but nope.
 
Sounds like your boot sector is actually on your HDD, while your boot partition is on the SSD.

Power off. Disconnect your HDD. Put your Windows CD in and do a startup repair on the SSD.

Then you can reconnect your HDD after and do what you like with it.
 
You cant delete the windows files off of the HD that is being used as the boot drive.

If the SSD has had win installed then it would be a matter of making that the boot drive. Disconnect the HDD from the pc after setting up the SSD has 1st boot. Let us know what happens.
 
If you don't mind losing any of your data I'd recommend booting the Windows disk and removing all of the partitions on both drives, turn off the PC and disconnect your normal hard drive so it doesn't get in the way, install Windows on your SSD and then when that's done reconnect your normal hard drive and use disk management to partition it.
 
Ok I've taken out hdd leaving the ssd in tried changing the boot option to cd windows 8 inserted but it's not booting from cd or ssd it's just giving me no os installed message again hit ctrl alt del to restart
 
Make sure bios is set to ACHI for SSD drive too! If it is not then it needs to be set as ACHI. If it is already set right i would then do this:

Ok, well if it were me i would make sure SSD is set as 2nd boot. Make sure HDD is not connected to PC.

Make sure your DVD/CD Drive is set to 1st boot.

Put Win DVD in drive and then restart pc and install Win 8 as normal.
 
Last edited:
Cpute said:
Ok I've taken out hdd leaving the ssd in tried changing the boot option to cd windows 8 inserted but it's not booting from cd or ssd it's just giving me no os installed message again hit ctrl alt del to restart
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You need to press whichever F key puts you into boot selection and choose CD ROM, or you need to press the F key that lets you select the boot device and choose the CD and proceed to format and reinstall without the HDD in.

What happens is during a Win 8 install, it drops a boot flag on every storage drive you have plugged in, so when Win 8 detects that there is a second drive in during installation, it dumps one on the secondary drive, and will refuse to boot without it. If you run the windows install without any other storage drive plugged in, you'll be able to hot swap drives (apart from the SSD) without it coming up with broken OS messages.
 
Ok tried a different setting in boot options and now it's booting from cd hopefully this works I've chosen auto repair that said windows couldn't fix the problem tried refresh says my drive is locked tried recovery and it says I must select an os or something :/
 
Cpute said:
Ok tried a different setting in boot options and now it's booting from cd hopefully this works I've chosen auto repair that said windows couldn't fix the problem tried refresh says my drive is locked tried recovery and it says I must select an os or something :/
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Please, don't autorepair, just run the Windows setup with just the SSD plugged in and do a total reformat and reinstall of Windows. It's the only clean way of doing things.

If it has issues with the installation on the blank partition (after you've formatted and deleted the partitions from the old install), then hold SHIFT + F10 and open boot manager and clean and format the disk to GPT. Then refresh and windows will install on your blank SSD.
 
RCoon said:
Please, don't autorepair, just run the Windows setup with just the SSD plugged in and do a total reformat and reinstall of Windows. It's the only clean way of doing things.

If it has issues with the installation on the blank partition (after you've formatted and deleted the partitions from the old install), then hold SHIFT + F10 and open boot manager and clean and format the disk to GPT. Then refresh and windows will install on your blank SSD.
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Ahh really cos I only have a windows 8 upgrade disc so will I have to re install 7 then do 8 again? Or will it allow me to just re install because I already have 8.1 installed?
 
Cpute said:
Ahh really cos I only have a windows 8 upgrade disc so will I have to re install 7 then do 8 again? Or will it allow me to just re install because I already have 8.1 installed?
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Oh my, that's an awkward factor. Personally, I'm a stickler for freshness, so I'd reformat and reinstall windows entirely (if that means isntall 7 then the 8 upgrade, then so be it). If you have a proper license for Windows 8/8.1, you could just find a download for that version of Windows 8 and burn it to a disk.
 
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