Windows 7 Clean Install


Recommended Posts

Hi,

Ok, another thread, sorry about this...

I just tried upgrading to the RC, but it wouldn't let me. Said my version of windows is not compatible for an upgrade.

Therefore, I'm going to do a clean install, as recommended by Microsoft.

What does a clean install entail, and does this mean I lose all my files and folder and music etc?

I can easily back everything up to an external, but it takes some time, and so I'd probably do it tomorrow morning, as I'm on the way out right now....

Thanks,

Medking

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah if you format your drive you will need a backup, but if you have enough room you can install the RC and it will put the beta in a Windows.Old and you will have all your documents but you will need to reinstall everything

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Clean install, entails installing the OS on a clean/empty drive.

Lose your files? Yes.

Solution, run Acronis True Image, back up your stuff, then format/install windows 7. If something goes bad, can always restore the backup.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or you could, I dunno, do a clean install without formatting? Windows will automatically move your current install to a folder called Windows.old, from which later you can retrieve your files and settings. Why people continue to insist you have format your drive is beyond me.

Edited by Darrian
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Or you could, I dunno, do a clean install without formatting?

Don't you basically just mean this:

Yeah if you format your drive you will need a backup, but if you have enough room you can install the RC and it will put the beta in a Windows.Old and you will have all your documents but you will need to reinstall everything
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why people continue to insist you have format your drive is beyond me.

Because upgrade installs bring up problems as compared to a clean install. It isn't only a Windows thing, Macs and Linux distros have similar problems as well. Microsoft also wants clean installs because if some fool manages to upgrade and there's problems, then fingers all point at Microsoft for user stupidity. Thats why

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can also use the excellent Disk Management utility built into Win7 to shrink your main partition, create a second partition, long format it (writes zeros to better erase) and then install from mounted or extracted ISO on your desktop. This may be an even cleaner install because you are installing to hard drive space that has been zeroed instead of quick formatted which is all that is offered on Windows install disks since XP.

But if you don't have enough disk space to partition, then the cleanest install possible is to boot from disk, delete what's on your HD, format and clean install the old fashioned way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because upgrade installs bring up problems as compared to a clean install. It isn't only a Windows thing, Macs and Linux distros have similar problems as well. Microsoft also wants clean installs because if some fool manages to upgrade and there's problems, then fingers all point at Microsoft for user stupidity. Thats why

Obviously you're not a Windows user? I'll say it again, and slowly, so you might get it this time. You. Do. Not. Have. To. Format. Your. Drive. To. Do. A. Clean. Install. With. Windows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Obviously you're not a Windows user? I'll say it again, and slowly, so you might get it this time. You. Do. Not. Have. To. Format. Your. Drive. To. Do. A. Clean. Install. With. Windows.

Yeah all you have to do is dual boot with your other windows install, simply shrink your main partition and install win7 in the new partition and it will automatically set up a dual boot and you will have access to all your files that are on your other partiton.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Obviously you're not a Windows user? I'll say it again, and slowly, so you might get it this time. You. Do. Not. Have. To. Format. Your. Drive. To. Do. A. Clean. Install. With. Windows.

Nor Mac, Nor Linux, Nor BSD, Nor ANYTHING. It's all just files in the end.

Pop the Windows DVD in, boot off the disc, select your main hard drive and install as usual, windows will automatically move your files to a 'windows.old' folder.

Only major problem with this system is filesystem fragmentation, but a JKDefrag pass using '-a 7' cleans that up quite nicely :)

Yeah all you have to do is dual boot with your other windows install, simply shrink your main partition and install win7 in the new partition and it will automatically set up a dual boot and you will have access to all your files that are on your other partiton.

Thats insanely overcomplicated, partitioning is not necessary at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nor Mac, Nor Linux, Nor BSD, Nor ANYTHING. It's all just files in the end.

Pop the Windows DVD in, boot off the disc, select your main hard drive and install as usual, windows will automatically move your files to a 'windows.old' folder.

Only major problem with this system is filesystem fragmentation, but a JKDefrag pass using '-a 7' cleans that up quite nicely :)

Thats insanely overcomplicated, partitioning is not necessary at all.

Insanely complicated? if you have vista you can easily shrink a partition in seconds. Then all you have to do is install windows 7....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Insanely complicated? if you have vista you can easily shrink a partition in seconds. Then all you have to do is install windows 7....

Agreed. Plus you never have to worry when you shrink a partition with Disk Mangement because it doesn't fail as a 3rd party app WILL sooner or later, in which case you lose everthing. You also can get long format in D.Mgmt which doesn't exist on installer disks any longer.

I get a kick out of these newbies who have burned a new DVD for every version of Win7, while I have been just installing them back and forth between partitions to compare with last verision. With Win7 you can even wipe your C: drive since the boot files are in a separate hidden partition. There is NO performance hit if you use otherwise empty space to dual boot OS's and Win7 makes it easier than ever.

Edited by gregrocker
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Obviously you're not a Windows user? I'll say it again, and slowly, so you might get it this time. You. Do. Not. Have. To. Format. Your. Drive. To. Do. A. Clean. Install. With. Windows.

It is usually preferable to do so, the excess space Windows.old, Program Files.old, etc take up is not always an option for people with small drives. Try saying that to a netbook user with a 16GB SSD in there. Not everyone has 160GB+ hard drive space and we hardly got to a 128GB SSD which costs $1k approx.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The windows.old file is a great way to move your files quickly into place from the old overwritten installation, but I'd delete it entirely as soon as you do so. It contains a complete copy of the old O.S. and is way unncesssary bloat. After deleting it, use the CCleaner followed by Auslogics Disk Defragger to optimize the bloat removed space.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do have a question. Supposedly you are not able to upgrade from beta or any of the previously leaked builds. Excuse my ignorance here since I have essentially been in the linux world since Redhat 5. I put the cd in and rebooted. The Win7 installer screen came up and I selected upgrade and it off it went. Now does this actually upgrade or does this make a backup file of your previous system and do a fresh install then copy the programs and settings back over to the new install. I only ask this because I thought it was not possible to upgrade from previous builds to 7100 without editing one of the config files before upgrade. I plan on doing a format/fresh install this weekend but it is nice to know what is going on behind the scenes when doing this stuff... Thanx in advance...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.