Formatting primary drive partition

Hi, I have recently partitioned my c drive, to create a new drive g, i installed w7 on g and its fine and works...

c drive did have a version of vista on, i planned on downgrading it to xp...
i messesd something up trying to install xp over vista so booting up using w7, i manually deleted all the files from the c drive.... now its totally fubar, it wont let me install anything on it atall...

how can i format the c drive which is my primary partition... or so something with it? combine it back into the g partition or anything..???

i can only access my pc booting up using w7, which is running on the g partition

any help would be appriciated

cheers

matt

as you can boot into w7, can you see your original xp parition, i.e the drive you want formatted. and if so you can easily reformat it via my computer.
This way you can do a clean install on the xp partition

yes i can get into admin tools, but it will not let me format the primary partition, .. it simply flashes a message box up saying i cant do it

Hi Matt, please don't double post as it confuses things when people reply to both threads

If you type "computer management" in to the start menu and run that you should be able to click on "disk management" in the left hand window. This will list all of your drives and partitions, allowing you to delete your Vista partition and merge it with the Windows 7 one.

Yes but thats what im saying, if I go to controll panel, then admin tools, then computer managment
then drives

i can see the primary partition where vista is installed , this is the C drive.... when i right click on it and go to format drive it will not let me!

You stated it will not let you format

Have you tried deleting partition and then setting it back up

Ian stated that you could delete the partition

Will it let you delete the partition and then expand the Windows 7 partition?

edit: posted at the same time as Clifford Great minds think alike

if i try to delete, it says..

"Windows can't delete the active system partition on the disk"

if i try to farmat it says...

"windows cant format the system partition on the disk"

I'm wondering if your boot files for Vista are located on the 1st volume that you had Vista on. You could use a 3rd party boot disk (like a Linux live CD) to remove that first partition,resize the second one and then use the Windows 7 startup repair to add the boot files back on your consolodated drive.

I have no idea, thats why im asking, surely there is an easier and cheaper way of doing it than this linux thng your on about?