Windows 7: PC won't start up after reinstalling Win7 OS

NoClue · 14 Apr 2012

Just reinstalled Windows 7, walked away from the PC during the re-installation and it appears that a second partition was created in stead of overwriting the old partition. How can I start up the PC and delete the old OS? Or should I just re-install Windows 7 again and be at the PC when it goes through the steps?

ignatzatsonic · 14 Apr 2012

Quote: Originally Posted by NoClue

Just reinstalled Windows 7, walked away from the PC during the re-installation and it appears that a second partition was created in stead of overwriting the old partition. How can I start up the PC and delete the old OS? Or should I just re-install Windows 7 again and be at the PC when it goes through the steps?

If this is a brand new installation, I'd start all over. An installation normally takes no more than 30 minutes or so.

Begin with only 1 hard drive connected.

Delete all existing partitions when given the chance.

You should end up with 1 very small "System Reserved" partition and 1 larger C partition covering the rest of the drive.

Backup any data on the drive if you have anything personal on it.

NoClue · 14 Apr 2012

when will i be prompted to delete old partition? This is not a new install but a reinstall. Having problems with win 7 so i decided to reinstall it, hoping it would overwrite the old os.

garsar · 14 Apr 2012

I agree with Ignatz. When I had a similar problem I had to do a reinstall and along the way it asks about partitions and you do as he has said and you will end up with the one partition with the new Windows 7 on it. If I have mis-remembered and it doesn't ask you, I know there is a screen where you can make that decision.

Once that has been successful you can create another partition in Windows 7 Admin tools and computer mgmt. I did as I like to have a partition just for data as opposed to one with the OS and data. That's up to you.

ignatzatsonic · 14 Apr 2012

Quote: Originally Posted by NoClue

when will i be prompted to delete old partition? This is not a new install but a reinstall. Having problems with win 7 so i decided to reinstall it, hoping it would overwrite the old os.

Look at steps 7 and 8 here:

Clean Install Windows 7

Look for "drive options, advanced". Choose that, then delete all partitions.

That will make the whole drive "unallocated space".

Then continue. Windows will format the unallocated space automatically.

Solarstarshines · 14 Apr 2012

Before you install Windows to a partition you have options at the bottom to delete or make a couple partitions out of one

After you established what drive and partition's you want to use you can then go ahead and install WINDOWS

One thing i see you didn't do when Reinstalling WINDOWS was wiping the hard drive clean and re-alligning the hard drive to make sure all is well

As above follow the steps and you can't go wrong

garsar · 14 Apr 2012

Thanks for the reminder, Ignatz, that's what I did and it worked fine. Hope No Clue gets it.

gregrocker · 14 Apr 2012

In addition to Ignat's sage advice, if this is for your SystemMax rig follow these additional steps to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Windows 7: PC won't start up after reinstalling Win7 OS

PC won't start up after reinstalling Win7 OS problems?