Do I need to delete all partitions when doing Clean Reinstall ?

[Lovus]

I am reading posts here but when you tell them to do a Clean Reinstall why do we need to delete all partitions ?
Is it okay to only delete the partition where windows will be reinstalled ?

 

[bigmck]

I am reading posts here but when you tell them to do a Clean Reinstall why do we need to delete all partitions ?
Is it okay to only delete the partition where windows will be reinstalled ?

If your Hard Drive has a C: and a D: partition on it, you just install your Win 7 in the C: partition and leave D: alone. When you do a clean install in C:, it will delete all files in C: but will not touch anything in D:.

 

[Alejandro85]

Deleting the partitions is not required at all when reinstalling, Windows will install itself in any already created partition you can have or you may chose to delete and recreate, but it's your choice really.
It's neither mandatory to format them. Not even the one you're installed on if it's already created, all the data there will be still there after the install.

 

[Sir George]

I am reading posts here but when you tell them to do a Clean Reinstall why do we need to delete all partitions ?
Is it okay to only delete the partition where windows will be reinstalled ?

Yes, it is OK to delete just the OS partition, but not necessary. However, when it comes to computers, I always go with the possibility that something may go wrong; therefore, I backup the data on the partition I am preserving as a safety net. Worst case scenario, I won't need it.

There is a good article on the process at the following link;

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/windows-7-clean-install-part-1.htm

HTH

 

[Lovus]

Thanks for opinions. Now I have an idea what to do when doing Clean Reinstall

 

[edwar]

To do a CLEAN REINSTALL is Just that. A CLEAN REINSTALL. Without Deleting all partitions you really are not doing a Real Clean Reinstall.

Now it is up to you what you want to do.

 

[bigmck]

To do a CLEAN REINSTALL is Just that. A CLEAN REINSTALL. Without Deleting all partitions you really are not doing a Real Clean Reinstall.

Now it is up to you what you want to do.

I think you are confused as to what he is asking. If he has three partitions on his hard drive, he can leave two of them and do a clean install on the C: drive. Deleting data drives is not part of a clean install.

 

[gregrocker]

If you have the typical Win7 HD setup it will have a 100-200mb System Reserved partition which boots Win7, followed by the C partition housing the OS. Then it may also have a data, Recovery and tools partition.

If you reinstall only to C and ignore the other partitions, it will place the System boot files on C abandoning the System Reserved partition for booting Win7 and making it wasted space. The only way to avoid this is to delete both System Reserved and C during install so that the installer handles this correctly.

Now as to any other partitions like Data, Recovery or OEM Tools which comes on many factory preinstalled Win7 machines. Data is up to you although saving your data there during reinstall is not a responsible backup method. Recovery and OEM Tools (bootable diagnostics) may or may not run afterwards so we recommend making your Recovery disks before reinstall.

This is further explained with more details on the various OEM partitions viability after reinstall in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. Many users don't even want Factory Recovery which contains the preinstalled crap that throttles and corrupts Win7, so deleting those partitions is fine with them after perhaps making their Recovery disks as a backup in case a new owner might want them in the future.

 

[Lovus]

OK . This is what I did, I just deleted all partitions including system reserved , recovery and my os partition except for my data partition. And then reinstalled win 7. After reinstalling I deleted my system reserved using the easier way. After that I tried dual booting with Windows 8 because my friend gave me a fresh copy of it and told me to activate it through kms servers (sorry for using pirated software). And this is what I got
Is this the right thing to do ? (except for using pirated software)
I'm using Acer Aspire X1440 which is low mid end pc and full of OEM craps

 

[AddRAM]

Looks fine, get rid of the pirated windows 8 garbage.

Pirating is not tolerated here.

 

[Lovus]

I'm so sorry AddRAM . I just tried it Don't be mad
Ok I'll delete it because it's premature, just testing it .

 

[gregrocker]

If your friend gave you a copy of Win8 which he said would activate through KMS servers then it was Enterprise which must have had a key available or it wouldn't activate through KMS servers.

But unless he assures you this is his business offering you a key to activate from his account, then it's best you should delete Win8 now. This gives you space to Extend both C and D if you want: Partition or Volume - Extend

or let us know if you'd like to distribute the unallocated space otherwise and we will give you the steps using Partition Wizard Resize Partition Video Help.