Clean Install Windows 7

Golden said:

Nixion said:

hey if i don t have a product key what should i do?

Purchase one

well thats OBVIOUS

at the time of installation if i dont have a key can i purchase one later and enter it in?

Hey:

I found this paragraph on the Microsoft Community: Can I do an Upgrade Install on a Clean/Empty Hard Disk?

A. You cannot install an upgrade version of Windows 7 on a blank hard drive. The installation procedure does not ask you to insert a Windows disc in the drive for verification, the actual qualifying operating system must be installed.

I am replacing my Vista 32 bit OS and failing HDD with a new one. Based on the above it appears I can't do a custom/clean install using a "upgrade version" of Win 7 on a new blank HDD. Can anyone confirm if this is correct?

Thanks, Vista32toWin7.

Thanks for the reply.

I did read that tutorial, I was under the impression you could do a clean install using the upgrade version if going from Vista 32 bit to Win 7/64 bit. Whether an old or new HDD?

The clean install process wipes the old HDD clean and is blank before installing the new OS, correct?

Wonder what that MS tech was referring to?

Thanks.

Thanks again Brink for your answers/links.

The Clean Install Windows 7 link above also has a tipat the beginning that I am concerned about. That tip partially states: "Sometimes you may have a problem with installing Windows 7 with more than 2 GB of RAM installed on some older motherboards. If you have this problem, then you should install Windows 7 with a maximum of 2GB of RAM installed and add the rest of the RAM after Windows 7 is fully installed."

My laptop is a 2009 Vista 32 bit OS, which came with 3GB. About a month ago, I switched out the two original 3GB ram sticks with Crucial replacements, and now have 4GB of memory. The above tip suggests to me I should put the two original memory sticks back in until the new Win 7 is installed. Then after the new OS install is complete, replace the original 3GB memory sticks with the Crucial 4GB sticks.

Would doing this be necessary?

This is assuming having one [1] extra GB ram would/could actually cause a install problem? As suggested in the above tip.



Thanks again, Vista

FWIW, I was unable to create a bootable USB drive using Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool, despite having installed WindowsXP-KB932716-v2-x86-ENU.exe when prompted. I used it on Windows XP. It told me that all my DVDs were broken (I doubt it) and when I tried to create a USB disk, it copied all the files successfully but at the end stated that it could not make it bootable. I googled a bit and found and tried Rufus to create the bootable USB disk, which worked as advertised.

Hi brink,

Great guide. Is it possible to do this if you already have windows 7 installed? I'm looking to basically format my harddrive and reinstall windows 7 but dont have those recovery disks.

thanks!