Windows 10: I have a hd with win10 and win7. Cannot delete win7 partition

I have a dual boot with win10 and win7 on the same 1TB HD. Disk management will not allow me to delete the win 7 partition. I need that disk space back! Delete is greyed out. How can I get around this problem?

:)

 

Windows 7 System Image Not Found on External USB HDD after Windows 10 Backup

I've been successfully saving and restoring Window 7 system images to/from an external USB HD for years. I've successfully restored these Win7 images using a system repair DVD.

Prior to installing Windows 10, I saved a system image to the external HD. After installing Win10, I saved a system image to this same HD.

Now Win10 is randomly freezing, so I wish to restore the latest Win7 image. If I attempt to do this from Win10 Repair, all the old Win7 images are listed, but if I attempt to restore one of these, Win10 Repair says it cannot restore a Win7 image.

When I attempt to restore using the Win7 repair DVD, it fails with the "System Image Not Found" message. The HD is accessible, since I can browse it from a command window. It appears that saving a Win10 image on this HD has broken Win7 system repair.

Any ideas about how to restore a Windows 7 system image in this situation?

 

ual boot system upgrade to windows 10

Thanks Jessen for the hint. I was expecting a yes or no answer, since I already have a dual boot system(xp+win7), and if I upgrade win10 from win7 boot, would win7 be replaced by win10 and becomes a (xp+win10) dual boot system?

But it looks more complicated than I thought, should I check current system has xp and win7 are installed in DIFFERENT partitions, otherwise xp would be gone after win7 is upgraded to win10 if xp and win7 are in SAME partition?

 

First, please post a screenshot of disk management and make sure to drag the columns wider so we can see all the data in the columns:

Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of Windows 10 General Tips Tutorials

It might be that your boot files are also on the Windows 7 partition.

 

Have you tried a third party tool, like the free version of MiniTool Partition Wizard (MTPW)? But first, as NavyLCDR says, you must make sure that you won't be shooting yourself in the foot, and making your system unbootable if you do delete that partition. Because you're messing with boot stuff (the easiest pathway to an unbootable system, when things go wrong), make sure you've got a current image backup and a bootable recovery device or DVD prepared before you start messing about.
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Here is the screen shot

 

Your computer is currently booting from the Windows 7 Pro x32 partition. Delete that partition and you will break booting. Use EASYBCD to move the boot files to the Windows 10 partition. The System and Active flags inside the parenthesis of the Windows 7 partition is what indicates that is where the computer is booting from.

EasyBCD:
EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies

Changing the Boot Partition

After you change the boot partition, reboot the computer. Go back to disk management and make sure the Active and System flags move to the Windows 10 partition inside the parenthesis. Then delete the Windows 7 partition.