Windows 7: Clean Install Help

Hello,



I have very little experience when it comes to installing operating systems or re-formatting, so please excuse my ignorance.

I had Vista Ultimate, but upgraded it to Windows 7 Ultimate. However, now I want to clean install Windows 7 Ultimate, as in I want my computer to be at the point where it is as if I just bought it and just installed Windows 7 Ultimate onto it, no other programs. Is there any way that this is possible now that I've already upgraded? When I run the disk it only gives me the option to "install", no "custom" or "upgrade" like before.

Thanks in advance for your help and sorry for the basic question.

Welcome to SevenForums, Chuong. Little experience is not ignorance, it's OK to ask.

Option "Install" is precisely what you want. Continue installation, and a bit later you even have an option to completely erase your hard disk. If you choose to do a clean install without formatting your hard disk, you old files are stored in a folder called Windows.old where you find them after the installation. Whatever you do, please do Windows Easy Transfer first to backup your personal files and folders.

Good luck,

Kari

Thanks for the quick reply.

When I do Windows Easy Transfer does that put my former personal files and folders onto my new hard disk, but in some sort of separate folder?

If you do a clean install to a partition where you now have your OS, it makes a folder Windows.old to this same partition. So after the installation you find on your Windows 7 disk all the normal Windows 7 folders (Users, Windows, Program Files etc.) PLUS you find this Windows.old folder. In this folder you find all your personal files and folders like pics, documents, music and so on.

Somewhere else on this forum you find stories how this had not worked. That is why I recommend to first backup your stuff with Easy Transfer. If everything goes OK it's no harm to have double backup.

Easy Transfer lets you choose where to save your files. It is a very flexible program to use. Orbital Shark, one of the real gurus here in SevenForums has made a fantastic tutorial about Easy Transfer. Maybe you should read it first? You find it here.

Kari

Oh alright,

I don't really have anything personal on my computer that I would want to keep though, so would I harm my operating system in any way by not creating a back-up? (I know it's the "safe" thing to do, but would it cause any problems besides the chance of losing personal installations, programs, and settings?)

Also, if I deleted this Windows.old folder from my computer would it harm it in any way, as in would it make any crucial Windows features not work anymore?

Thanks again.

If there's nothing you want to save and transfer to your new clean Windows 7, then no. You don't harm you system in any way when not backing up.

And no, deleting Windows.old does no harm. It's just what the name says, old. The idea behind this folder is only to store personal files from earlier installation. If there's nothing you want to keep, just delete it.

Kari