64 bit installation question

theog said:

It is always worth cleaning the HD before any reinstall.
SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Hello.

Here's some other relevant information you may find useful and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.


After you have copied out or made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media, use Step One of this tutorial at the link below to do a wipe (secure erase) to the entire Hard Disk Drive / Solid State Drive.

• Then if you do not want to create the new Windows 7 "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #2 to create, format and mark Active a single 100GB partition to do the installation to.
• If you do want to create the "System Reserved" partition use the outline in Step Two #3 to create, format and mark Active the System Reserved partition and then create and format the 100GB partition to do the installation to.

Either way, running the "clean all" then creating and formatting the partition(s) using diskpart will get you the best possible space to do a clean install of Windows 7 to; you can always extend the Windows partition to include the remaining unallocated space on the HDD / SSD or create additional Primary partitions or an Extended partition after the installation completes if you choose.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

DISKPART : At PC Startup

Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

A clean install is seen with any new board + cpu since that would be a major change. The hardware profile created when first going to install Windows also helps in seeing keep track of optional updates for hardwares as well.

When putting this case together a new supply cooked the first board while not hurting the cpu however. Since the replacement was the exact same I was able to save that installation until later a need to swap brands of memory to go from 1.9v(manufacturer's supported list) to the board's own manual's specs that showed 1.5v memory. Clean install required!

Just something to note if you run into any similar situation like going to upgrade ram with a different brand once 7 is on.

Using the Windows setup GUI does not "clean" the drive of any data nor align the partitions optimally (on newer drives), but it does repartition the drive and makes it "good enough" for re-use. If you don't want to do a complete wipe and aren't looking to clean the drive nor are worried about what could be recovered from it if the drive was lost, then you can just use Windows setup. If you're using one of the newer "advanced format" hard drives, an SSD, or want to make it a little more difficult for someone to recover any data that may be left behind from the previous install after you reinstall Windows, you should use the guide that was mentioned here instead.

Once you have the drive cleaned off entirely the guide you will want to be looking over is seen at Clean Install Windows 7

It's always best to see a clean install anyways whenever you upgrade a case with a large swapout of hardwares which typically includes board, cpu, memory as well as a newer larger faster hard drive, possibly new video card, and anything else. You start off fresh with a brand new hardware profile as well as a fresh registry to work with. And no clutter hanging around from a previous installation.