Why doesn't Windows 7 allow me to format?

Posted by hydroparadise on Super User See other posts from Super User or by hydroparadise
Published on 2012-07-06T20:18:48Z Indexed on 2012/07/06 21:19 UTC
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Filed under:

windows-7

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partitioning

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dell

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formatting

Dell support can be fun to deal with right?

Ultimately, I have been going back and forth with Dell on an issue and came to reinstalling Windows 7 32-Bit Pro. The problem is that Windows Setup will not let me format. I've read other posts that say Windows 7 must installed on first partition here. But now that confuses me because the computer came shipped with the installation on the third partion as shown in the picture below? Is there a real problem? Or is this a Microsoftism? Should I obliterate the "OEM" partition to make this work? Please note that the format, delete, new, and extend options are grayed out.

enter image description here

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