Windows 7: Some general weirdness with Windows Explorer, etc

Well, I found my win 7 disk, now I need to find my key and possibly do a fresh install on my newer HDD.



Does anyone have any good sites that go down a checklist of things to do before you re-install? Little things I may miss

This is assuming I can't fix my current issue.

Not a checklist, but the first thing I would do is browse my username folder, typically found within C:\Users. Make sure you've set Explorer options to show hidden and system files, at least for the time being. You don't want Explorer hiding stuff from you in this case. If you've typically saved to default locations under the one username, then you're likely to find most of your data.

Next I'd check Programs and Features in Control Panel, sorting by date can be helpful, and make note of all the stuff I've added. Find the install files for them and copy them out. Or find internet links to reinstall.

I realize it's nowhere near being a comprehensive list (or even any kind of a list), and it'll take some time to scour your user folder, but it can be worthwhile. Might be useful to check the root and it's immediate folders while you're at it, just in case.

Don't forget about drivers you may need.

Saw your mention of cloning. I wouldn't worry about cloning to the new drive as you're likely to have the same problem as you had with the old. Just install fresh, and then work to copy your data from the old.

And then start backing up on a regular schedule. Figure out where you saves are stored and how you can back up and restore your saves. And whenever you start using a new app make sure you figure out how it's saving your data so you can back that up too. Some apps like doing it their own way.

consider this before clean install...

Repair Install

Steve,
I had held off on analyzing the sfcdetails.txt until we had your system specs.

You system specs reveal nothing which would be causing your present problems

The problems you report are probably all self-inflicted rather than hardware problems.

If you desire to perform a reinstall, then we have an excellent tutorial that covers all cases, despite the name of the tutorial: Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

For your 25 character Product Key, then you can use either:
1. Belarc Security Advisor Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit, for software, hardware and security configuration information on your computer. Software license management, IT asset management, cyber security audits, and more.
2. SIW (llnk is in my signature)
3. Speccy (where I think its called Serail Number)
4. The PowerShell script I'm including.

Do NOT ever post your 25 character Windows Product Key/Serial Number which is
available under:
Speccy | Operating System | Serial Number and under
SIW | Software | Licenses | Windows Product Key
Do NOT ever post your 25 character Windows Product Key/Serial Number.

========================================================================

powershell script:
# ************************************************************
# Get Product License Key
# Source is PowerShell.com > PowerTips > Getttin Windows Product Key
# For those interested in learning PowerShell this is an excellent site.
# See their 'Mastering PowerShell' for a thorough presentation of xx chapters
# ************************************************************

# ************************************************************
# Start copying with next uncommented line (no # in first character;
# Copy thru 2nd EXIT;
# Paste into PowerShell using right-click
# ************************************************************
function Get-ProductKey {
$map="BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
$value = (get-itemproperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion").digitalproductid[0x34..0x42]
$ProductKey = ""
for ($i = 24; $i -ge 0; $i--) {
$r = 0
for ($j = 14; $j -ge 0; $j--) {
$r = ($r * 256) -bxor $value[$j]
$value[$j] = [math]::Floor([double]($r/24))
$r = $r % 24
}
$ProductKey = $map[$r] + $ProductKey
if (($i % 5) -eq 0 -and $i -ne 0) {
$ProductKey = "-" + $ProductKey
}
}
$ProductKey
}

Get-ProductKey > $env:userprofile\Desktop\ProductKey.TXT


EXIT
EXIT

# ************************************************************
# Places ProductKey.TXT on your DESKTOP
#
# **********************INSTRUCTIONS**************************
# STEP 1 *****************************************************
# RUN PowerShell as administrator
# START ORB | type POWERSHELL | CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER key combo | ALT+Y keycombo
# ************************************************************
# STEP 2 *****************************************************
# COPY, using CTRL+C, every line down thru both EXIT statements
# PASTE into Powershell == Right-Click at the PowerShell Prompt
# (Ctrl+V does not work)
# ************************************************************
# ***************** NOTE - POWERSHELL VERSION*****************
# if you receive this error msg:
# Get-WinEvent: The system can not find the path specified
# you need to update your PowerShell
# you must be using Powershell 2.0 or later.
#
# To determine your Powershell version:
# Run PowerShell
# enter $host.version
# you should see at least:
# Major Minor Build Revision
# ----- ----- ----- --------
# 2 0 -1 -1
#
# If you do not see the above, update your Vista/Win 7.
# ************************************************************
# *************** NOTE - EXECUTION POLICY*********************
# If you haven't set the execution policy, you may need to:
# Run PowerShell
# enter Set-ExecutionPolicy -executionpolicy remotesigned
#
# ************************************************************

I am still in the process of reinstalling. I tried to install it on a HDD I had a little data on, and got the 'setup was unable to install blah blah' and found the thread about doing a 'clean all'... ugh. I kind of wish I read a little better, this is taking forever. I probably could have gotten away with a 'clean', but 900 gigs is slow. The thread said 500gb took about 2 hours, but I think I have passed the 5 hour mark.

Hopefully it will be done soon, this is the longest format ever.

Steve,
Clean All is writing zeroes to each and every byte on your hard drive.

This is an excellent method of truly eliminating all malware plus a very positive side advantage is that when a bad spot on your disk is encountered then that sector is taken out-of-service, thus you are also getting an excellent CHKDSK for the surface of your disk.

Clean all does NOT format. The Win 7 will format your drive for you, and format the drive correctly.

Let's see I think I have a link from SeaGate on their equivalents of clean and clean all. The explanation there is better than what I've found from Microsoft.

And yes, a Clean All can take a good half of a day on modern size drives. I've used clean all on my ssd which also is only 128 GB and the time was around 30 minutes.

How Do I Low-Level Format a SATA or ATA (IDE) Hard Drive?