Dual boot and format problem Win10 Pro

Question

This is a problem a lot of other people have had, and I've not found a safe and definitive way to take care of this.

I installed Win10 Pro on my new build, but at the same time I had other drives installed in the case, one being an old Win7 SSD that I used on my other old computer.

It dual boots with that drive in there and I just want to format it and use it for storage, but Windows 10 won't let me. I can delete the drive from dual booting in the boot menu of system configuration, but that's all.

I'm at my wits end with this problem. Why is this happening and how do I resolve this without totally reinstalling the OS.

Answer 1

That's great I'm glad you've got it sorted now,

Kind Regards,

Elise

Answer 2

After much research and finding someone who knew my exact problem, they suggested using EasyBCD. It's fixed. All in all, this is a something that if Microsoft would just not allow to happen in the first place, so many people would not have such problems.

The problem was that when I installed Window 10 Pro on my main SSD, I had placed the old SSD in place in the computer case in my new build to use a storage.

This old drive was Windows 7 that I had used in my old computer. Windows used this drive to deposit boot information on it and makes it a dual boot therefore it could not be formatted or deleted. If I had known this I would have left it out until I had the new drive w/the OS installed and working.

Thanks for the help.

Answer 3

Ok, could you try use a third party tool such as:

https://gparted.org/download.php

And see this if this allow you to perform the formatting.

Kind Regards,

Elise

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

Answer 4

When I go to format the Win7 drive Windows says it cannot format it.

Answer 5

Hi, I'm Elise, an independent advisor and I'd be happy to help with your issue.

Could you give a bit more information on the issue formatting the Win 7 drive, is there an error message being displayed?

Kind Regards,

Elise