Full Format And Reinstall Windows 7 Without Boot Disc
Feb 9, 2013
I have an HP G62 laptop which came pre-installed with Windows 7. I would like to fully remove all data on the HDD and reinstall Windows 7.The 'Computer' section of the Start button shows the following HDD (not sure if these are partitions or not, but I'm assuming that they are!):
Local Disk ( C: )
Recovery ( D: )
HP_TOOLS ( F: )
I had a quick look at the D: drive and it showed a few setup files, all of which seem to be related to MSOFFICE. :-?I have been reading about data destruction programs that will absolutely wipe the drive and remove all data; I would like to do this and then reinstall Windows 7 so that the laptop effectively becomes a 'new' one.
1. How do I go about formatting the HDD with a data destruction program and then reinstall Win 7, since I do not have a bootable disc?
2. How reliable are such data destruction programs? Is there any margin of error? (I am a bit concerned about all the sensitive information that I have saved on my laptop such as bank details, family photos, etc.)
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Oct 20, 2009
Is there a way I can remove all the partitions from my Hard drive and do a full format (not quick)? The windows 7 install disc does a quick format but I would like to clean it thoroughly. Is there a utility I can use at boot time to do this?
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Oct 3, 2012
FORMATING my C drive and how to reinstall windows 7 again with the help of recovery disc.
my computer was formated and windows were reinstalled but it was not done by me. I have the recovery discs provided by the hp laptop company.
i have windows 7 home premium 64 bit.My device is HP DV6 6121tx
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Oct 21, 2011
If I use a commercial software like Drive Scrubber to clean my HD, will a Win 7 Upgrade Discboot ? I want to eliminate any possible virus/malware. Is there any advantage to using commercial software to format, or is the reinstall format listed in the tutorials as effective? My concern is that Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 (KIS) had corrupted data bases and after removal and reinstallation did not perform well. I could not download anything, e.g. CCleaner and received Certificate Error questions on certain websites. Also, I would like a fresh registry to insure previous programs like Chrome, Firefox, KIS, remnants are eliminated.
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Sep 5, 2011
My drive passed SMART extended self test that scans the entire disk surface. Is the full format with command FORMAT FS=NTFS overkill?
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Mar 2, 2010
I am giving Fedora (Ext4) the boot from my 150G VelociRaptor and replacing it with Windows 7.What is the difference between a 'Quick' format and a 'Full' format. Does a quick format simply rewrite the FAT and a full format write 0's to the sectors? The reason I ask, is that I am concerned that the Linux Ext4 formatting may leave artifacts which I can do without. So, bite the bullet and go the long route, have lunch and a nap or take the quick way out?
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Jul 5, 2012
i bought a computer from someone, and the windows 7 ultimate has degraded so bad that i need to reinstall it, but no discs came with the machine. I downloaded an iso image of windows 7 ultimate 64 bit that will supposedly work with a key, which i found with "magic jellybean key finder". I put the iso image, about 3.3 Gigabytes, on a dvd disc. Now I want to back up as best as possible before trying a reinstall, and I am an amateur with most of this stuff. I've been investigating backup methods and software, including the windows 7 itself., but supposedly there is a better way with some freeware like maybe easeus, etc.and I wouldn't be confident with the windows 7 backup this is starting to take way too much time and I need to get this done soon. It would be great if you could tell me if what I've done so far is correct and the best way to proceed with backup and reinstall.
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Jul 5, 2012
i bought a computer from someone, and the windows 7 ultimate has degraded so bad that i need to reinstall it, but no discs came with the machine. I downloaded an iso image of windows 7 ultimate 64 bit that will supposedly work with a key, which i found with "magic jellybean key finder". I put the iso image, about 3.3 Gigabytes, on a dvd disc. Now I want to back up as best as possible before trying a reinstall, and I am an amateur with most of this stuff. I've been investigating backup methods and software, including the windows 7 itself., but supposedly there is a better way with some freeware like maybe easeus, etc.
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Oct 4, 2012
[CODE]Realtek High Definition AudioAnd could I just use my windows 7 reinstall disc that came with my computer and use the key on the side of my computer to install to SSD? It isn't OEM windows I think it didn't have any bloatware or anything.
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Jan 13, 2011
I have a Sony VAIO laptop and tried out Linux on it. This gave me the Gub loader, where when I boot up I choose which OS to use. I am done with Linux, and also notice that I have only 250 GB of my 500GB hard drive available to Windows.
I have two questions:
1. How do I uninstall Linux, getting rid of the Grub loader(it's in my MBR, I believe, so it is THERE, not easily gotten rid of).
2. Can I use a friend's Win 7 64bit disc to format and reinstall my OS, using the Activation Code on the bottom of the laptop?- I'm not really stealing this way, am I? Sony did not provide me with a disc when I bought the computer. The Sony method of restoring the OS does not work here- I deleted the Linux partition and did the Restore, but the Grub loader is still there. So I had to reinstall Linux to get things working right.
I'm willing to completely wipe my hard drive and reinstall Windows, even though it won't be the same as I got it from Sony(don't want or need trial offers or the Sony utilities that it came with)
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Jun 11, 2012
I recently built a new desktop from ground up. Of course I needed a new copy of Wind. 7 for it and wanted to also be able to use the install disc after i was done with the new desktop to do a fresh install on my laptop as well. Its a 1 1/2 yr old Dell Studio. When i purchased this windows 7 disc from the Microsoft store the sales rep assured me that it was ok to install to both machines. I now realize he was lying thru his teeth to make the sale. I could have just bought an OEM thru Newegg for 80 or 90 $ instead of paying 200 for the full version which gets me nothing more.
Found out yesterday that I cant use it for both only one. I am gonna address that with BBB and consumer affairs if possible but....
I am waiting on the OEM disc that Dell will now ship to me and will have to do another fresh install on the laptop. This is prob a stupid question and as you prob have sensed I am not the sharpest pencil in the pack with this stuff so I appreciate your patience, but Is there any way i can save the rest of the content of the HDD to an external drive and just put it all back after I do the fresh install of windows? Any cloning software is gonna clone the current windows install as well as the remainder of the drive contents. It took a while to set it up with SSD as boot drive and the older 500 Gb HDD holding the files.
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Jan 16, 2013
I have an HP Presario CQ57 laptop with windows 7 Premium. I keep getting the message that my backup disc is full,,like the others: Data file backups for this computer on HP_TOOLS (E:) and the D: are both full, when I try to delete either one I get told "you will not be able to restore files from this computer from backup" how can I solve this problem,,I did do a DELETE and run backup now but it lasts less than a week. I use my laptop for info and games,,not business.
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Jan 3, 2012
Just built my new computer but realized that I can't use the same Windows 7 disc/cd-key that's on my old computer because it's only one per computer when I thought it was 3. Looking at the prices on the Windows 7, it costs $119 for upgrade and $200 for full retail. From what I have read, when installing using the upgrade disc, it would detect my previous Windows version and if it's older than XP, or if there's no Windows installed, it would not activate Windows as it isn't a proper license and I would need the full retail one. Is this correct?
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Oct 9, 2012
I recently discovered I had a zero access rootkit virus on my laptop. I now need to format/reinstall my windows7.o I do not make any mistakes and to make sure I get rid of that virus.
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Dec 9, 2012
I have a compaq laptop cq62 255nr with win7 home. I made a bootable USB stick iso of win7. I have 4 partitions on my hdd. 1st is system. 2nd is C. 3rd is D/recovery. 4th is hp tools. Should I format the entire thing first or just parts of it or leave it be and let the installation program handle it? This is the first time I've done this. I actually ran the setup.exe from the USB stick after the computer was already running. It asked where to put the OS. I specified "c" and left everything else in place, but I wanna know which is better...what I did or full format followed by booting from stick.
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Jun 4, 2011
I want to reinstall Windows 7 on my OCZ Vertex 2 SSD. I was wondering if formatting and reinstalling would hurt the SSD
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Jan 19, 2012
Is it possible to move the OS to a new drive, like a SSD, without having to reinstall everything?
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Mar 22, 2011
My wife bought a refurbished Gateway computer which we've had a lot of problems with. Long story short - I want to reinstall Windows in case there are corruptions or other issues. Now, the last time I had to reinstall Windows was back in the day when we got discs. I googled how to do it and it pointed me to the control panel recover option, although when I try to do that - the computer informs me that I have no "image" to recover from. At the same time, my computer did not come with discs.
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Aug 3, 2012
an HP desktop E5550/4GB/1TBHDD with W7 Home Premium x64. It is pretty much overrun by rootkits, trojans and all manner of fun. Anyways, I have decided to wipe it clean. The problem is this: She lost the CDs that came with the computer. My current plan is to use a CD key-finding program, get the CD key, and use it in conjunction with a legally purchased Windows 7 Home Premium OEM DVD bought off of Newegg.com. Will this work?
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Aug 28, 2012
Can I format a hard drive that has windows 7 with a Win95 disc to get prompt to format 'c or d'
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Feb 23, 2011
the laptop didn't come with a disk for 7 so i don't know what to do
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Oct 4, 2012
my mothers computer got a few trojans and a bunch of other stuff so i downloaded the windows 7 iso file from microsoft site, mounted it onto a USB, deleted the partition, formatted it and successfully installed windows 7 again. Or so i thought...
- The only thing on the desktop is the recycle bin. Not that it matters too much, she wasnt using all the BS programs that came with the computer
- All the icon sizes real big, like an old school safe mode desktop
- Most important so far: Cant connect to the internet. The computer cant detect the wireless router as it dont have the drivers installed. Now the network of course works because im using it on my (Pardon my swahili right now) macbook.Now im old school (tried to find DOS to format type old school) and maybe i should have gone with the "restore to previous computer settings" option, but the bank that detected the trojan said format everything so i did. This option cant be used anymore.
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Oct 10, 2011
Got my stuff ready to reformat, only to realize I don't have a Windows 7 recovery disc.I created a System Repair Disc using Backup & Restore in control panel but I'm unsure whether this is what I need to do a complete reinstall?I wanted to follow this guide to do a complete reformat, not a recovery.
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May 31, 2012
window unable to format disc
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Oct 4, 2012
but i was wondering do i delete the partition and then create a new partition or do i format it? (see picture)
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Apr 25, 2011
I have a new laptop on its way and my friend suggested for me to to a clean wipe/format and then reinstall Windows 7 so that all the useless softwares that comes with the laptop can be deleted and I can have a fresh start with the laptop. So my questions are considering my situation, which would be better, to wipe or format? And what are the procedures for the doing so, and also reinstalling Windows 7?
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Jun 30, 2011
I can't recover or install a fresh copy, error !disk is write protected or not enabled in bios ! i have checked and double checked , i can not find no password or any thing in the properties
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Feb 7, 2011
I have 2 hard drives, an SSD for my OS, and a 2nd drive that I store all my files on. I had to do a reinstall this morning, and since I understand Windows 7 has issues installing sometimes when there's 2 discs connected, I disconnected the power and sata cable from my 2nd drive. So I install Windows 7, and it goes fine. I turn off the computer, plug the 2nd drive back in, turn the computer on and see the drive letter, but when I click on it, I get a message "You need to format the disc before you use it". I go into disc management and it's listed there as well, but the File System is listed as Raw.
Since Windows 7 only takes 15 minutes to install on the SSD I use, I decided to install it once again but leaving the 2nd drive connected this time. My BIOS recognizes that the disc is there, as does windows. It's just telling me it's in RAW right now, and I have no clue how that happened. Oddly enough I even made an UBUNTU disc and booted to that...but from UBUNTU that 2nd drive doesn't even show up, it only recognizes the existence of my primary hard drive.
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Nov 15, 2011
who are skilled in Installing and Formatting Windows 7 Pro,My Computer is running in Windows 7 Professional 32BIT,after many months that I used my computer, I feel that my computer is in risk because some error/appcrash etc appear.Some .dll files can't be found when i open my PC.Even the antivirus is affected,my antivirus wont start in the startup when i open my PC,even if I try to scan my Hard Disc ,the antivirus wont run and it is not responding,even if I reinstall my antivirus or install new antivirus same problems are occuring. Because of this I decide to Format my PC and reinstall it again,My Hard Disk is a 500GB and it separated in two(Partition) The Local Disk C:and the Local Disk D:, The Windows 7 Pro installed in Local Disk C:,I decided just to format the Local Disc C: where the Windows 7 installed,I choose not to format Local Disk D:because my Important files are there. how to format the local disk C:and reinstall Windows 7 Again..
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May 25, 2010
So I have Windows 7 RC installed on my computer still, and as we all know.What I want to do is simple, I want to reformat my hard drive, and install Windows XP Pro...which I own and have a product key for.When I put my CD in the drive and restart, I get the "Press any key to boot from disc" screen, I press a key, and it'll take me to the blue Windows Setup screen, and it begings to inspect my hardware.. and this is where the problem is (I haven't even began to install or make any changes to my hard drive and I get this lovely blue screen of death-type error: A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:Check for viruses on your computer.Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated.Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.
Now, I haven't have any changes to any hardware on my laptop ever.I ran chkdsk and it didn't find any errors, and it ran both a quick scan, and full scan. And I also ran some type of scan within Window 7 (right-click drive C, then "Properties", then "Tools", then something like "Scan drive for errors/bad sectors") and it also said everything was fine.Last night I sat down, backed up all the necessary data from my hard drive, and was looking forward to having a clean installed OS, and I can't even get it to install.
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Jul 27, 2012
I have a Toshiba laptop that came with a preinstalled copy of Windows-7 (64 bit) version purchased in July 2010. No setup disk came with the laptop, but there is a "Toshiba recovery media creator" utility.
[1] What is the better option for formatting my drive? Should I use the Toshiba media-creator or install a clean version of Windows-7 from an ISO download (am I allowed to do that? If so, what is a good site to download?) There is a "sticker-certificate" on the bottom of my laptop with a product-key. Will it work with the new install?
[2] Do I have the option of installing a 32-bit version of Windows-7 instead of 64-bit with the above license? The reason is that most applications I use are 32-bit and hence a 32-bit OS is better suited for me. But does the license allow me to do that?
[3] (The tricky part) - Since I have a good 320GB HDD, I want to dual-boot by creating two partitions - with a linux distribution (Ubuntu/openSuse) running on the second partition? Assuming I don't have the option of clean-install, will I be able to create the extra partition for linux using the Toshiba utility?
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