Windows 7: Need help for Clean Install of Windows 7 Home Premium

A few months back I had this problem about my restore point getting auto deleted after reboot (I still have this problem), now due to necessity I need to make a clean install of my OS but the thing is that there was no Windows installation disk given when I bought my laptop last year. Currently I am downloading a Windows 7 Home Premium x86 English ISO. (Im downloading from this site: Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO Image Downloads ), is this Okay? Anybody have a better suggestion where to get a copy of Windows?

here are my main concerns:




1. Will this ISO work if I use my original serial key written at the bottom of my laptop?

2. Is there an option to reformat my HDD before proceeding with the installation?

3. What will happen to the dedicated 15GB recovery partition when I reformat my HDD?

4. If the 15GB recovery partition ever gets disturbed when reformatting can I make a new recovery partition and enable samsung recovery solution?

This 15GB recovery partition along with SAMSUNG RECOVERY SOLUTION 4 has been a great help to me, but sadly it didn't fix the restore point problem that I have, so Clean Install would be the only choice I have left. So if given that everything went well with clean install and all, I would like to have a 15GB recovery partition that would run with SAMSUNG RECOVERY SOLUTION 4 (which is the software version that came with my laptop). Is this possible? Please help.

Did you make the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disks?



How to use Samsung Recovery, make Recovery disks:
Samsung PC Software - Samsung Support Center - YouTube

See comments in bold below.

to theog: OEM recovery disks? I didn't make a system image using disks but when I first booted my laptop it asked me to create an image backup right away. So I assumed that the initial image backup that I made was stored in that 15GB recovery partition since I can't find it in any of the drive in my laptop, unlike the other image backups (after installing programs that I needed) that I made with SAMSUNG RECOVERY SOLUTION 4.

Also as I pointed out earlier, the image backup that was stored in the 15GB partition was the one that I always use whenever I get into trouble but the sad part is that It didn't solve the SYSTEM RESTORE POINT DELETION issue so that would mean that the RESTORE POINT problem was already present from the start, thus clean install would be the viable option.

to ignatz: thanks man, appreciate it.

Queries: Is creating a system repair disc just the same as creating an image backup of your current system? or is it entirely different?

I'll go to theog's links now.

Surely if you restore from your recovery partition there's nothing to stop you using something like Windows or Macrium Drive Imaging to make a further backup of your OS once you have it set-up to suit you?!?!

No, a thousand times no.

A system repair disk is just that--a disk used to (hopefully) repair an existing installation.

An image file of the system will restore it (if successful) to the state the system was in on the date the image was made. It does not "repair" the existing installation--it gets rid of it entirely. An image file completely overwrites the existing installation, rather than make an attempt to repair it. If the image was made in July and restored in December, then the restored PC will no longer contain any changes made between July and December.

Any personal data on that restored partition will also be replaced by personal data as it was in July.

We just had a nightmare experience here with a clean install to a Samsung laptop which you should read over to see if it may apply to yours: New laptop, changing partition disks?

The problem was that Nicole also saved her Recovery as an external image but accidentally wiped the Recovery partition during clean reinstall with a Windows 7 DVD which was provided by Samsung with her machine.

When cam and touchpad features didn't work correctly using the software from Samsung's Downloads wepbage for her model, they told her the actual working software was stored on the Recov partition and is not otherwise available if that partition is wiped or disabled.

We also discovered during research that the only way to reinstall the Recovery partition without shipping the unit back to factory is if you made the Recovery DVD's which are bootable while the external image is only bootable from the Recov partition.

So I would make the Recovery DVDs, save the Recovery partition during Clean Reinstall, and be prepared for the cam software not to work, even though the cam will work when used with other 3rd party messaging, chat, etc. programs. The touchpad gesture features may also not work upon reinstall.

Follow these steps to get a perfect clean reinstall of factory OEM: Reinstalling Windows 7

ignatz: I just checked the date of the backup that is stored in the recovery partition and it coincides with the date when I bought my laptop which was the same day that I first booted it. Thanks for that info with the repair disc man.

greg: Is it possible to burn this backup stored in the recovery partition?

If it's set up like Nicole's Samsung then there is a small Recovery partition which contains apps and drivers, but is needed to boot and run the backup image stored on external or burned to DVD.

So I don't know what you mean by the image stored on Recovery partition - unless you mean imaging the Recovery partition itself so that you can reimage it onto HD. It's possible but then the hotkey might not work to run Factory Recovery from boot.

Best to keep the Recovery Partition, burn Recovery to DVD's if still possible, then save the backup image you said you already made to external, plus another Windows 7 backup image of the full HD: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

greg: yeap, my setup is like nicole's. only difference is the recovery partition size: hers: 20+GB; mine: 15GB.

I think I'll ditch samsung recovery solution and the 15GB recovery partition and start using MACRIUM. Is it a freeware?

Let's say I successfully did a clean install, what's next? (I'm assuming that this windows 7 Home Premium with SP1 that I'm downloading would work on my unit, wait a minute, is there any reason this shouldn't work? like perhaps because it has SP1 integrated or something?)

Should I secure that EASY DISPLAY MANAGER? and all those easy programs that came with my unit?

what else? internet connectivity driver? touchpad drivers? sound drivers?

what will happen to my Nvidia?

I'm at page 7 in nicole's thread, very very informative. I'll have to shrink my drive C coz it's more than 200GB. Also those crapware I think I got lots of it like CYBERLINK and multiple IM apps.