Do i have to partition my hard drive for clean install?

hi,
I have download windows 7, backed up all my drivers and copied all my important info onto my external Hard drive and am about to try and clean install windows 7.

But do i have to partition the hard drive? My Dell laptop has a 110GB hard drive which came already partitioned. 10GB is called 'Recovery', do i need to do the same and make a larger partition and install Windows 7 or just leave it as it is?

thanks!

eldraw44 said:

hi,
I have download windows 7, backed up all my drivers and copied all my important info onto my external Hard drive and am about to try and clean install windows 7.

But do i have to partition the hard drive? My Dell laptop has a 110GB hard drive which came already partitioned. 10GB is called 'Recovery', do i need to do the same and make a larger partition and install Windows 7 or just leave it as it is?

thanks!

Click to expand...

Hi by that do you mean you are attempting to dual boot with an older version of windows, and your asking if you need to make a recovery drive for wndows 7? IF this is the case you wont need to make a recovery drive but you will need to partition the 100gb hard drive as you cant install 7 on the recovery partition.

Or are you saying that you have a 10gb for recovery and the other 100gb clean and ready for install on the 100gb?

If the answer to the second one is yes, just install it. If you are installing it over windows, a new file called windows.old will be made, and you can extract all of your files from the previous windows if needed.

hi eldraw44, and welcome to sevenforums,

the 10gb partition is the dell recovery system, and is there in case you wish to restore your laptop to the exact same state it was when it was shipped to you - was it with vista?, and lots of unwanted crapware?

if you're sure you never want to go back to factory settings, you can delete this partition, and merge the space with your current 100 gigs.

are you planning to do a dual-boot system with your drive, so you still keep your existing os and run 7 alongside it, or were you going to nuke your current install and run 7 on its own?

Hi by that do you mean you are attempting to dual boot with an older version of windows, and your asking if you need to make a recovery drive for wndows 7? IF this is the case you wont need to make a recovery drive but you will need to partition the 100gb hard drive as you cant install 7 on the recovery partition.

Or are you saying that you have a 10gb for recovery and the other 100gb clean and ready for install on the 100gb?

If the answer to the second one is yes, just install it. If you are installing it over windows, a new file called windows.old will be made, and you can extract all of your files from the previous windows if needed.[/QUOTE]

thanks for the quick reply, i dont want to dual boot i only want one OS. what im asking really is do i need to have a partition on my hard drive like i have now? Should i get rid of the partition or is it safer to keep a recovery partition?

what operating system are you using at the moment?

mickey megabyte said:

what operating system are you using at the moment?

Click to expand...

Vista 32-bit

ok - near the beginning of the install process, you will be asked what type of installation you want, whether upgrade or custom(advanced).

choose custom, and you will taken to a screen something like this:



but yours will show two partitions - select the one you don't want, and delete it.

then extend the other one to use up the extra space. i suppose it wouldn't hurt to format it first if you are sure you don't want anything off of it.

read a lot more about the install process here.

hope this helps, and enjoy your new os - we are always here to help if you have any more problems.

after saying all that, eldraw, i'm a little concerned that you may find you have troubles with windows 7, for unforeseen reasons - maybe your video driver won't work properly or something.

in that case, you may need to go back to vista - do you have recovery dvds for vista that you can use to reinstall if necessary? and do these discs rely on the dell recovery partition to operate?

is there anything on the dell website which says your laptop is compatible? - if it could run vista, then it should be ok with 7, but there's always the slim chance that it isn't...

mickey megabyte said:

after saying all that, eldraw, i'm a little concerned that you may find you have troubles with windows 7, for unforeseen reasons - maybe your video driver won't work properly or something.

in that case, you may need to go back to vista - do you have recovery dvds for vista that you can use to reinstall if necessary? and do these discs rely on the dell recovery partition to operate?

Click to expand...

I have tried using the Windows 7 Upgrade Adviser which has given me the thumbs up on the 3 system requirements and a green tick for all the drivers.
I do have all the disks that came with the laptop like the Reinstallation Vista disk and the Drivers and Utilities disk, but am not sure if they rely on the partition?

in that case you should be ok.

but i'm just being ultra-cautious.

my new-and-improved buy-one-get-one-free advice is to keep this 10gig partition for now, go ahead and install 7 into the other 100 gigs, and then if all is rosy, you can delete the dell recovery partition later, but only once you've established that all is groovy in the land of 7.

Mickey, I like your last post.


Welcome to Seven Forums eldraw44,

I would also recommend to keep the Dell recovery partition.
Your Dell re-installation DVDs can be used instead of the recovery partition, it's still best to keep them both.

In Dells Hardware Warranty small print, they can ask you to re-install the original OS, Vista, for any warranty issues. Or if you ever decide to sell the laptop you can put Vista back on it.

Good job running the Microsoft Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, it will find any issues hiding and waiting for you.

Do you have all the files you want to keep backed up?

I would just use your 100MB partition for the install.

A Clean install is the best way, good choice.

I would recommend using a USB Memory key instead of burning to DVD, we've seen a lot of issues with burning. If you do burn to DVD, burn at the slowest possible speed, x2 or x4. Faster speed results in errors and failed installations.
USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create

This Seven Forums tutorial will help you, Clean Installation with Windows 7.

You might want to try Windows Easy Transfer - Transfer To & From Computers, it will restore all your user settings. You will still have to install all the programs. It makes the process a little easier.

For more tutorials on Win7 installation: Tutorial quick reference list for Installing Windows 7

Let us know how it goes.

Installed windows 7 with no problems, thanks for all your help.
Should i go ahead now and delete the partition? If so how would i go about doing this?

thanks

good news - i didn't think there would be a problem, but a faint chance did exist.

anyway, you need to read a few tutorials.

first you need to delete your old dell partition.

then you've got 10 gigs of free space...

...you can either extend your windows partition to absorb emptiness, or make a new partition and start saving data to it (or maybe you already use an external drive for data storage?)