Be careful whne you partition because there are some people on this forum who have lost their data ARGH. So I would recommend actually going and getting an external hdd they are dirt cheap nowadays. Get a TB ext hdd and back everything up mate. Believe me the feeling of losing your stuff is a HORRIBLE feeling.
and you have only one partition? It would be better (at least in future) to make one system partition and second with data or even more. Anyway Clean install is nit affecting your data. Please read
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...tructions.aspx
I forgot to mention about getting and using an external HDD, so thanks to digitalrurouni for pointing that out.
To reduce the size of your partition in order to make room for your new one, follow the instructions here Disk Management - Shrink Partition - Vista Forums Accept the default amount, but do not format. Start your W7 installation, point it to the new partition and allow it to format and install. If you are familiar with the Vista installation routine, then it is pretty much the same with W7.
You could also try Windows Easy Transfer - Transfer To & From Computers
This will allow you to copy your files (music/videos/pictures/documents etc.) from 1 installation to another, even on the same machine. You can then save the transfer file to c:\easyt (or similar) and clean install (don't format) and a Windows.old folder will be created, you can delete this whenever you wish. You can then use the Windows 7 easy transfer to recover your files.
Hope this helps :)
Jeff
alright, I have windows 7 up and running with no problems. Thanks a lot
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