how tricky it is to keep a clean install on Windows I'm wondering if i could ask some advice?
I will have the OS and programs on the ssd, let's call that c: and data on a regular hd, d:
If after time my c: has become bloated with appdata, unused folders in the users folder etc. How can I revert c: back to it's original state without changing d: ?
Can I do this with a restore point, or do I need another piece of software?
I have Vista Ultimate installed today. I intend on buying Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade. I would like to install 7 on a new WD Caviar Black I just ordered as a clean install.
1) Is this possible or will Win 7 flag this as a new install because of the new HD and not let me proceed since I plan on buying an upgrade disk?
2) If not, what options do I have?
3) If I can do this, can I plug my old drive in as Drive D: or E: to transfer the data over?
Guys my first post and I have looked at the tutorials just wanting to clear up a few things. I have Windows Vista Home 32 Bit and upgraded to Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. I installed a new HDD at the time as I wanted Windows 7 on that instead of on the Vista drive. That has left me with the little issue of the product key not being valid, as I didn't install on the top of the older system.
Now I will need to activate it at some point and have just come across the forum and your excellent tutorials, now you have linked to Paul Thurrott's guide and he mentions a double install method which is supported by Microsoft. I would prefer this route as it looks easy, and less likely that I will do it wrong. My main questions are when I installed Windows 7 I stupidly clicked the Activate Online thing. Will double install or any of the other methods still work? Will the double install lose all my upgrades I have had to make to get all my devices working?
not to bothered but would prefer this not to happen as it took me 3 days to do my drivers and various other installs to get back to being able to run fully. Anyway so far I am very impressed by Windows 7 and well Vista will never be used again and once I have this little issue sorted I may well be getting rid of vista of my other HDD.
Just one final question how much RAM can I install now that I am running Windows 7 64 bit, I currently have 2gb (1gb per channel for processor). I know what type to get but what is the Maximum it will take for the OS. Anyway I know it is Christmas and not to fussed if I get a reply tonight or tomorrow, I hope some one can help me. Finally I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
I bought an ASUS laptop and it came with no disk. I not only do not want the bloatware but I want to switch the HDD out for a newly purchased SSD. How can I do this? I want to use the license that came with the laptop
I made the naive mistake of trying to upgrade from a Biostar TH67+ MB to a MSI Z77A-GD65 MB using my existing Windows install. After I installed the new MB and the new drivers within Win 7 Pro 64 bit, the machine wouldn't boot. So I reverted to the Biostar MB and it still won't boot. I have tried Safe Mode (which just hangs) and I have run Startup Repair several times. How I can further troubleshoot/repair the boot?
How I got in the current state is a looong story! But I have a new 2TB drive (~2 weeks old) that appears to have 3 partitions on it:
a) "New Volume", 80GB NTFS, Primary, healthy
b) "Local Volume", 0 bytes Not Formatted, Primary Healthy
c) 1.741TB Unallocated
My problem is I didn't create and don't want the "Local Volume" partition. But just about everything I try in Acronis Disk Director either crashes it or says "internal error".I've given up on the data. Is there anything I can do to get this drive back to its original usable state?I'm running Win7 x64 (and I suspect its repair utility caused the corruption).
Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.1 OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium , Service Pack 1, 64 bit Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10 Processor Count: 4 RAM: 4095 Mb Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, 256 Mb Hard Drives: C: Total - 120828 MB, Free - 32402 MB; D: Total - 238471 MB, Free - 238334 MB; E: Total - 102983 MB, Free - 30575 MB; F: Total - 43395 MB, Free - 20055 MB; H: Total - 82348 MB, Free - 82256 MB; I: Total - 248479 MB, Free - 116531 MB; K: Total - 153654 MB, Free - 67650 MB; L: Total - 61632 MB, Free - 18737 MB; M: Total - 312318 MB, Free - 127387 MB; Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC., P5QC, Rev 2.xx, MS1C88B51102856 Antivirus: McAfee Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware, Updated and Enabled
Then when it loads up I get a Windows Error Recovery screen. saying.Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.If Windows files have been damaged or configured incorrectly, StartUp Repair can help dianose and fix the problem. If power was interrupted during startup, choose Start Windows Normally.if not etc. choose Launch Start Up Repair ( Recommended )When I choose the first option ( Launch Start up Repair ), what happens is, it first says Windows is loading files.Then it will just turn into a black screen with no cursor and nothing on it.Will stay that way until I force reboot once again.When I choose the second option ( Start Windows Normally ) , when I do this, it moves to the Starting Windows screen that's black with the Microsoft logo, and stays there for a couple minutes until it will eventually Restart itself back to the Windows Error Recovery screen with the 2 options.These are the two issues, and I have no idea how to start up my computer normally again, which is very frustrating b/c most of my work is on this laptop, and not backed up.I'm using a Windows 7, 64bit Laptop.I cannot restart the computer in safe mode.
So I just successfully did a custom download to Windows 7 64 bit from Windows Vista 32 bit.
I'm trying to delete the windows.old folder but when I use the disk cleanup default application Windows 7 gives you (cleanmgr) no where in the list does it show old windows files. So why can't I delete them from disk clean up? Is there any way to make it so I can?
Also I've already downloaded many things on my computer since I got Windows 7 up and running again and I hope when I do a disk cleanup and delete the windows.old folder it won't also delete the new programs I've just installed.
first time installer of an SSD here! I'm extremely excited to pop this bad boy in mainly for a faster overall boot of my computer. Recently, my friend gave me his Crucial M4 64GB SSD, which I am very thankful for. I plan mainly to put Windows 7 64-bit on it and that will be all. I was reading this guide: (SSD - Install and transfer the Operating System)
Once I opened up the command prompt, I did all the processes stated until I got to, "Clean" for whatever reason, after typing in the command a prompt came up that stated:
"Virtual Disk Service Error: Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefile, crashdump, or hibernation volume."
So, what I'm asking is there anyway I can bypass or fix this problem so I can continue the process of putting Windows 7 on the SSD? And another question is, would it really be worth buying the $20 program that the guide offers?
I'm trying to mount a disk image so that I wont have to have the CD in to play a game.
I downloaded daemon lite but it tried to install a million bullshit things with it, and my computer was having a lot of hiccups until I uninstalled it. Is there a CLEAN program out there that can mount ISO files on W7 x64?
It's important that this be clean because it's my workstation.
tell me if a re-install from a system image file on my notebook is as good as a clean install from say a retail disk.I can not format all my drive and start a fresh. Can my System image file become glitchy or infected with a virus.?
I'm working on a re-install of all components following a complete corruption of the boot sector on my drive which could not be fixed with repairs. The last time I installed everything fresh, I had no issues. Between then and now, there have been no hardware changes on my system, but now I am having issues installing the IDT Codecs. I keep getting an error along the following lines: Quote: ExitError: Error=Device Object not present, restart the system and run setup again. Running under compatibility mode, and running drivers from both the motherboard CD and the manufacturer website both have the same effect. The CD, when booted, says "This OS not support!" and only contains 32-bit vista codecs. ECS' website download indicates the IDT drivers as being compatible with Windows 7. Both do not work. It is almost as if the hardware "disappeared," despite the fact that I was using the drivers quite successfully till just 2 days ago, when the boot sector went kaput.
Windows has installed its own default set, which do nothing to power the 8mm jacks which I use with my speakers, but instead put sound through the HDMI, which is useless because I use a dedicated graphics card. I have tried uninstalling this codec and re-installing IDT, to no effect. Windows replaces with its own default codec.I have referenced this thread here, but offered solutions do not seem to work for me: Intel IDT Audio Driver will not install
Does anyone know whether there is a difference in performance between doing a clean install of Windows 7 vs upgrading Vista? Any better stability? I'm just wondering whether it's worth the trouble of the clean install.
I have seen a lot on clean installs but all guides are from like 2009. Is clean install still a way to install windows 7 with upgrade disc on a new hdd? since i have a hdd with vista on it and i have the licence how do i install 7 with the licence and a black hdd?
I originally did the upgrade install of Windows 7 from Vista to Windows 7. I am seeing that I now am running "ChkDsc" every time that my computer is shut down. I was told that I would be better off to do a clean install and reinstall programs and files. Can I do a clean install with my upgrade disc, or will I be creating additional problems ?
I'm an IT student who got a free Win 7 x64 disk from my school, and I am unable to do a clean install. My system specs are as follows:
Intel Core 2 Duo 3.12 Ghz nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX 512 MB PCI-e 320 GB Western Digital HD SATA 1 Gb DDR2 1066 MHz and 2x2Gb DDR2 1066 MHz SDRAM
I set my boot sequence to boot from DVD-ROM drive first, and HD second. It goes to the "Windows is loading files" screen and gets hung up. I started the process and went to watch TV for an hour, and it is still on the "Windows is loading files" screen. I haven't gotten any error messages. I've unplugged all USB devices from my computer as I have seen on this forum that it has worked for some people.
edited to add: I originally had only 2 Gb of RAM, and it got hung up at the "Windows is loading files" screen. I thought it was getting hung up because I didn't have enough RAM, so I bought brand new 2 sticks of 2 Gb RAM. I took out one of the 1 Gb sticks and placed both of the 2 Gb of RAM...for a total of 5 Gigs. And, it is still doing the same thing.
trying to install Windows 7 on sony laptop with a copy that is different from the original copy of Windows 7.did partdisk, clean all, create partition, and dvd install gave the "can't install to disk, turn on disk controller in BIOS" error. there is no disk controller function in my BIOS.if partdisk clean all was successful, does that mean the HDD and its controller board are ok, that is, not physically damaged, and the problem is with software/installation/setup etc.?what should i do next, in order to have a successful install?
I have few questions on Windows 7 Upgrade. Currently I'm using windows vista home premium 64 bit and I bought an windows 7 home premium 64 bit upgrade disk.
first thing is I want to format my previous operating system and all the data in my laptop and install windows 7 in it using the Upgrade disk.
second thing is I don't have my vista installation disk with, my laptop was pre-installed with vista so in future if I want to switch can I get back VISTA using system restore.
third is can i install windows 7 on a new hard disk using a windows 7 Upgrade disk?
I'm finding this decision quite hard to decide on and can't decide what to do. I am very picky about wasted space or unnecessary stuff on my hard drive, yet I'd rather not install everything all over again which will take about 20 hours or so.
My question is...if I do an upgrade-install, can I just delete everything in the Windows.old folder and have everything practically the same as a clean install? Or will there be still be some left over things from the hundreds of programs I've installed and uninstalled?
Edit: I've ran the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and everything seems ok.
So, I need to know if I can install windows 7 x64 via direct boot when I start up my computer it is in ISO format. So like my default boot will be my DVD drive to install it. can I do that with it being ISO format?
My 2 year old laptop is starting to get sluggish so I'm wondering if I should try to do a clean install of my Home Premium Windows. Problem is, the computer came with no disks. Also, I'm assuming that the Backup and Restore function that's built in would only give me a copy of my crap-filled hard drive contents if I "made" the backup (to an external disk, presumably) then "restored" it to my freshly formatted internal drive. right? So, can I make my OWN clean disks with some utility on the machine? Or do I have to BUY another copy of Windows 7 Home Premium? Or will Best Buy provide me with one if I take my machine in? Or will Lenovo provide one?
I'm about to buy the Windows 7 Professional Upgrade version. Is it possible to do a clean install from it? (I have a preinstalled Windows 7 Home Premium on my pc). If not, what is the preferred product to do this?
I am currently running build 7600 of Windows 7, I did a clean install without formatting the drive over windows vista premium 64bit and then removed the windows.old folder via the directions found on this board. My question is, that when I download my copy of Windows 7 off of digitalriver (I'm a college student) what is it I need to do in order to have a clean install? I've heard numerous reports that say I wouldn't have to install anything because build 7600 is the final version, and all I would need to do is enter the product key given on my upgrade version.
I've purchased and downloaded the UPGRADE 64-bit version of Windows 7. I have a blank HDD waiting to go into my machine. Am i able to just do a clean install of this straight onto the new HDD, or do i need the full retail version of this?
I'm currently using XP Pro 32-bit on my existing HDD, hence getting a new one in preparation.
i purchased a crucial m4 256gb ssd coming in Wednesday anyways i was wondering how can i make a clean install of windows 7 64 bit on the SSD, i have my HDD backed up but unfortunately i lost my window's 7 cd... what can i do? is there a program i could use to transfer from my HDD to SSD, but with clean install? i have 480gb used on my HDD...
i've had enough of 7, I use my PC for music and after months of installing/uninstalling/re installing/researching/driver checking etc. i've decided i'm just not going to get things working with 7.
I have my XP disc and i'm ready to do a clean install, but i'm struggling to get it going... what do I do!? Inserting the XP disc brings up the autopay but the option to install is greyed out, which I understand as it's a step down. However, when I press f12 on booting to try to boot my pc from disc it just locks on the boot menu. What can I do to get a clean install of XP going?
I have been having numerous problems over the past wk. The firewall won't stay on, can't do windows updates etc. I have run Vipre as my anti virus and also mbam and superantispyware and everything is coming back clean. Today I decided to just backup my documents etc and then do a clean install. Now the problem is that the DVD burner doesn't show up in the BIOS. It shows up in my computer and it's running fine. If I format it out of the computer can I get windows to install from that DVD drive?
I have been having a lot of blue screens for the past few weeks. I have tried running a disk check and memcheck and those didn't find any problems. I just did a fresh install of windows 7 64 bit and have been having the same problems.