Bad start to weekend - image failure

Thanks for the answers to my queries Barefoot Kid

I suspect I have misinterpereted your answer to a previous question - as Ive had plenty of time to reflect on it whilst drive formatting is happening:

should i format the 300Mb partition and the 400 Gb Windows 7 partitions through PWBD before installing windows? or should i let windows install take care of all of that side of things?

Use Windows Vista disk management to do the formats, I thought they were formated when created; the W_7 installer will format the partition for the install.

So - ahem. Ive used Vista (as in disk management and from within Vista) to format both the 300Mb System Reserve partition and the Windows 7 partition.

i got a bit confused when you said that i should use vista disk management for the formats and then you also said that W7 will do the formats. i wasnt sure if W7 would use the SysRes partition if it wasnt formated.

how much harm can a tincy wincy format do eh?

Anyhow - its at 82% on the 400Gb drive after which i will be installing W7

Question on Imaging:
Now i know how to image and how darn darn usefull, pwerful, amazing, fast it is I want to image W7 as soon after install as I can so I have a wonderfully fast, clean system that I can always roll back to.

At what point would you take this image?
A) The moment after installation and final re-boot is complete?
B) After all drivers are in and working?
C) after all progs/appas are in?

Whats the definition of a 'clean' install. cos thats when I want the first image taken

Matt

Hi again,

Well, W7 installed fine. In about 21 mins which seemed nice and quick.

Since installing its been downloading Windows updates which is great. its installed about 45-50 updates of which 6 failed.

i was dreading this, as one of the reasons i want to move from Vista was that when Service Pack 2 came out I spend months on and off trying to get it to install (i wish i had found this forum) but to no avail. Sp1 was running fine but SP2 was not going to happen. I d/l all the microsoft scanning tools etc but nothing made any difference. So i was worried when updated failed in W7

However I went back in, got it to check for updates again and it found the 6 that failed and then installed them just fine. No more updates available.

does this sound ok? or is there an issue i should investigate?

In terms of drives and partitions now...dual booting does not seem to be working. If I reboot it just goes straight to W7. No choices appear.

Lastly and probably for me most oddly is that when W7 installed, it seemed to magically connect itself to the internet. I have a hardware router, which I had to set up so Vista could see the world outside....but W7 didnt seem to need any help at all.

How did it perform this trick?

Cheers
Matt

Install EasyBCD 2.0 to Win7, Add Vista by name and drive letter on Add Entry tab, Save Changes, Restart. If no Dual Boot menu, post back a screenshot of your full Disk Mgmt drive map with listings.

The installer had your network drivers so the connection was ready to go at first startup. However there should be a yellow circle on connection icon in SysTray until you click on it to sign into a wireless connection. If you have wired connection, it starts connected in most cases.

Be sure to check optional Updates for any newer drivers. Any drivers then missing in Device Manager (showing a "!") can be found on the Support Downloads webpage for the model device.

Install programs slowly over time to gauge performance after each. Don't let any programs write themselves into msconfig>Startup as they become freeloaders on your RAM/CPU and can spy on you. I only allow AV and gadgets. https://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-d...-msconfig.html

Use a lightweight free AV like MS Security Essentials which works perfectly with Windows 7 Firewall. http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

When it is finished, clean and order the HD perfectly using state-of-the-art free CCleaner then Auslogics Disk and Registry defraggers monthly.

Then save a Win7 Backup image externally so you never have to reinstall again, just reimage the HD or replacement using DVD or Repair CD.

Oh - everything you guys said worked like a charm.

Even the magically self filling SysRes partition.

I was really shocked when it all came together.

Im just trying to get W7 straighter now so I can disk image it, but there are still some things to do.

So off I go to install and run EasyBCD

Matt