Windows 7: How Do I Reset Mobo To Original In-The-Box State - Fresh Start Desired

Hello Gents,



My name is James & this is my first post here.

I built my own rig last year for the first time ever, and installed everything just fine.

But now I have purchased a number of SSDs, and really just want to start all over again right from scratch.

I'm talking about resetting the MoBo and starting as if I was firing it up for the first time to install from my Windows 7 - 64 Bit OEM System Builder disk.

Reason: I have too many Windows 7 installs on the wrong drives, and want to install Win 7 only on 2 of the new SSDs.

I plan to use the 2 Western Digital 1-TB drives for storage, libraries & photos only.

So I'm wanting to wipe my drives clean & reformat them as well, as I have already saved anything I want to keep on the external USB 3 Drive.

I'm comfortable with installing the OS and any programs & even customizing things, but admittedly not very knowledgeable about the MoBo, BIOS, inner workings and details of necessary files, etc.

I did all the installing of both the hardware & software myself, and it went well, but now I have one drive with the 'System' on it, others that are 'Active', another has the 'MBR' [Master Boot Record], and I just want to wipe it all and start again being much more selective this time.

So proper guidance and/or links to info will be much appreciated.

My Rig: [In case it doesn't show up in my specs.]

-Intel i7-2600k LG 1155 CPU
-ASUS P8 Z68 V-PRO MoBo
-Antec High Current Gamer 520w Power Supply
-16 Gigs DDR3 Corsair Vengeance LP RAM
-Hyper 212+ CPU Cooler
-1 Crucial M-4 64 Gig SSD
-1 Crucial M-4 128 Gig SSD
-1 Intel 330 Series 240 Gig SSD
-Western Digital Black 1-TB HDD
-Western Digital 1-TB External USB 3 Drive
-Windows 7 - 64 Bit

Thanks for your reading this & your consideration to help out,

James

I would take the cmos battery out for a couple of minutes - or pull the jumper. http://www.ask.com/web?l=dis&o=14595...q=reset%20bios

Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

Partition or Volume - Create New

You may find these two tutorials helpful in cleaning your disks and then reformatting.

Back up your files, unplug all other HD's and peripherals,

Reset the BIOS to defaults: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS. Then set SATA controller to AHCI, set DVD drive first to boot, HD second. Save changes and Exit.

Then boot into installer DVD or flash stick burned or written using tool and latest ISO for your licensed OS version here.

At first installer screen Press Shift + F10 to open a Command Box, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK 0 (after confirming Windows 7 target HD #)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="WINDOWS 7"
ACTIVE
EXIT
EXIT

Next click Install Now to Clean Install Windows 7 to the partition you created.

In addition read over these steps to understand the tools and methods which work best to get and maintain a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. The steps are the same for retail.

Clean the HD Drive, using Step one in this tutorial:
SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation
Than type> convent gpt
& than Reboot PC to install.

As the ASUS P8 Z68-V Pro has a uEFI BIOS:
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 8 with

Thank you so much for your replies, Fellas!

Lot's of advice and links - just what I asked for!

james

I'd just like to note that this below in particular is what helped & worked out right away for me:

So a big thank you to gregrocker for this!
.......................................................

...At first installer screen Press Shift + F10 to open a Command Box, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK 0 (after confirming Windows 7 target HD #)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="WINDOWS 7"
ACTIVE
EXIT
EXIT...
.......................................................

THe commands combine steps which solve 70% of install failures. These include wiping the HD which clears the boot sector. This alone solves nearly half of install problems caused by interfering code remaining in the boot sector even after deleting and reformatting partitions.

Commands also pre-partition for the purpose of marking the partition Active which solves other install problems where HD or partition isn't detected by pointing the installer to the target partition.

It also gives a full format which should quarantine bad disk sectors.

Hey Greg, if I may ask: Marking a partition 'Active' - what is the advantage of doing this - or not?

Reason I ask, is that that's what I did to one of my drives before and that's how things got all messed up.

So I've been hesitant to do that again.

The partition which holds the System boot files - signified by "System" flag - should also remain marked Active or it will not boot.

The Active flag should only be moved if you intend to also move the System boot files, which is best done by running Startup Repair - Run up to 3 Separate Times and only if advised to do so for good reason.

In your case the Active flag was planted on the created partition to show the installer where you want the System boot files in case it failed to do so, as sometimes happens causing install failure. It was added to the other commands to make sure almost everything causing install failure is covered.