May I suggest a couple of references to clarify some of the terminology.
First, run Disk Management. This is a "snap-in" to the Microsoft Management
Console, a part of every Windows since Win2K. There are several ways to
start Disk Management; my favorite is to simply press Start, type
"diskmgmt.msc" and press Enter. (You'll need Administrator credentials.)
There is an excellent Help file here, but be warned that (a) it applies to
the entire MMC, not just DM; (b) even the DM part covers many exotic topics
that most of us don't need for now, such as GPT disks; and (c) it is
organized as a reference, not a text or tutorial, so it jumps around a lot.
Note that DM refers to the HDDs by NUMBER, not by letter. "Drive" letters
actually apply to partitions, not to the physical disks. You should see
that your Drives C:, D: and E: are on Disk 0, and your Drives H: and T: are
on your Disk 1.
Second, the terms "system volume" and "boot volume" are used
counterintuitively; we BOOT from the SYSTEM volume and keep the operating
SYSTEM files in the BOOT volume. For the official definitions, see KB
). To see which
partitions are your current System and Boot volumes, look in the Status
column of DM.
In most computers, the first partition on the first HDD is assigned Drive C:
and is both the System and Boot volume. When a second OS is added to create
a dual-boot system, the boot folder (\Windows - and all the GBs of files and
subfolders under that) may go to Drive H:, but the updated SYSTEM files -
which actually start the boot process when the computer is powered on - are
still on Drive C:. So when we boot into this new OS, DM will show Drive H:
as "boot", but Drive C: will still have the "system" status. While booted
into this OS, H:\Windows is the "boot folder" and cannot be deleted, but
C:\Windows is "just another folder" and can easily be deleted. But Drive C:
cannot be formatted or deleted because it is still the System volume!
WinXP and prior versions of Windows Setup assigned the letter C: to the
System Volume - which was typically also the Boot volume. But Vista Setup -
when booted from the DVD - assigns C: to its own Boot Volume, even if that
is the 3rd partition on the second HDD! And then it assigns D: to the
System Volume - which is still the first partition on Disk 0. This does not
confuse Vista, but it does confuse a lot of users!
If we want to control assignment of the System and Boot volume letters, we
must boot into a Windows desktop that has the drive letters we want to use,
and then insert the Vista DVD and run its Setup.exe from the active desktop.
(Of course, we can change all the other letters by using Disk Management,
but the Boot and System volume letters are assigned at installation by
Setup.exe and can't easily be changed except by running Setup again: by
Maybe you already knew a lot of this, but it helps to review now and then.
And we never know who may be "reading over our shoulders" and can benefit
from some of this long-winded explanation. ;<)
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64
"Boblink" <Boblink@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> Hi, Vista HP was installed on my system on Drive "A" which I Partitioned
> "C", "D" and "E" Drives / Partitions.
> I later purchased a 2nd Drive, Drive "G" and installed Vista and
> it to "h" and "I".
> I then reformatted Partition "C" on Drive "A" leaving me with Vista on
> Partition "G" and to try and get things back to transitional patters, I
> to Delete Partition "C" and rename Partition "G" to Partition "C" (and do
> similar relabeling for some of the other Partitions) and ran into a
> I was NOT able/allowed to Delete Partition "C", it appears that some
> Windows files were still installed so my question is, how to I straighten
> the mess that I created? I would like to have Vista on Drive "C" and
> and or combine some of the other Partitions so I am left with a "C", "D",
> and "F" Drive / Partition.
> Any advice / suggestions, would be appreciated.