Re-installing 7 Professional on Asus Eee PC Netbook

[sixpartseven]

I bought me Eee PC with Windows 7 Starter Edition and immediately had a friend of mine upgrade it to 7 Pro. The problem is, I don't have a disc drive, but he downloaded the install file from his school's website (they give free copies to their students with extra licenses). He had to create a partition on my C drive to put the install files so they would install on the original partition of the C drive.

Now, I have a problem. I need to reformat my PC and I don't want to be stuck with 7 Starter. I'm wondering how I would go about doing this. The install files should be on the partition still (labeled WIN7INSTALL) but I can't view the files. Also, I have no idea how to reformat a computer (I'm not too experienced with this kind of thing).

Is it possible to reformat the portion of the drive that doesn't contain the install files so that the install files will still remain? I lost the original 7 Pro install program, so I need the install files that were extracted to that partition we created to store them, but I'm afraid if I format the drive, I will lose them.

So, my questions are:

1) How do I do reformat my PC?
2) How do I NOT reformat the partition that contain the extracted 7 Pro install files?
3) If it's possible to do (1) and (2), how do I access these install files so I can run them?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and if there are any other steps to this process that I'm not considering, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

 

[theog]

Try a look here.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html?ltr=U

 

[sixpartseven]

Thanks for the link, but I don't think that will work in my case. For one, I don't have a USB drive large enough to hold all the files, but more importantly, all the install files are on a partition of my C drive and I don't know how to access them, so I don't know how I'd move them to the USB drive.

I know that with the way it's set up right now, I don't need to do the USB thing. When we first installed 7 Pro, we considered doing the install via USB, but decided to just create a partition to store the install files and boot from. I know it can be done that way again, but I just need 1) to know how to access the files on the partition with the install files, and 2) remove 7 Pro from my system so I can reinstall it via the files on the install partition.

In other words, I just need to know how to remove 7 Pro without losing the install files that are on my C drive so that I can use them to reinstall Windows.

Again, thanks for the link, but I don't think that's going to help me in this case.

 

[gregrocker]

Please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu and attaching file using paper clip in Reply Box.

Next unhide Hidden and System files in Control Panel>Folder Options>View, then click on Start>Computer and post screenshots of each of your lettered drives' contents.

Be aware that if you again run your install files from a partition or Win7 that you will not be able to format your HD first, just overwrite Win7. This is not as clean an install as you get by booting the installer to do a Custom install using Drive Tools to delete all, create New, and format partitions.

 

[theog]

Take a look at this:
Windows Anytime Upgrade - Windows 7 - Microsoft Windows

No install files needed.

All you need is your KEY.

 

[sixpartseven]

Please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu and attaching file using paper clip in Reply Box.

Next unhide Hidden and System files in Control Panel>Folder Options>View, then click on Start>Computer and post screenshots of each of your lettered drives' contents.

Be aware that if you again run your install files from a partition or Win7 that you will not be able to format your HD first, just overwrite Win7. This is not as clean an install as you get by booting the installer to do a Custom install using Drive Tools to delete all, create New, and format partitions.

There might be no point in me doing that because I have to do a clean install. I've been infected with the Aleuron Rootkit and need to get rid of it, but I can't find any way to remove it except for formatting.

Take a look at this:
Windows Anytime Upgrade - Windows 7 - Microsoft Windows

No install files needed.

All you need is your KEY.

Will that do a clean install, or just over-write my current version of Windows?

 

[Jonathan_King]

A clean install will overwrite your current version; an Anytime won't.

 

[theog]

Encyclopedia entry: Virus:Win32/Alureon.A - Learn more about malware - Microsoft Malware Protection Center

Run the MS Windows Malicous Software Removal Tool.

 

[sixpartseven]

^ I've ran it 4 times. Nothing.

EDIT - I see they've recently updated that program. How do I get it and run it and will it remove the Rootkit?

Jonathan_King: Well then yeah, I need to do a clean install.

 

[theog]

A clean install will overwrite your current version; an Anytime won't.

OP has Windows 7 Starter Recovery partition.

Anytime upgrade will get OP back to Win 7 Pro.

 

[theog]

^ I've ran it 4 times. Nothing.

EDIT - I see they've recently updated that program. How do I get it and run it and will it remove the Rootkit?

Jonathan_King: Well then yeah, I need to do a clean install.

Run windows updates.

 

[sixpartseven]

A clean install will overwrite your current version; an Anytime won't.

OP has Windows 7 Starter Recovery partition.

Anytime upgrade will get OP back to Win 7 Pro.

I don't understand what you mean by that. I have the 7 Pro install files on a partition. I don't know if I actually have the Starter recovery partition or not.

What I need to do is basically reformat my PC so that it is back to Starter and everything has been cleaned (if this malicious software removal tool doesn't work) so that I can then use Anytime Upgrade to get back to 7 Pro

 

[sixpartseven]

Also, to the poster that linked me to the updated Aleuron definitions...what do I do with those? Does that mean I can just run the Malicious Software Removal tool after installing the definitions and it will remove the Rootkit?

God, I wish I was better at technical stuff like this. I really appreciate all the help you guys have been giving me and will be adding to your reputations shortly when I'm no longer doing 7 things at once.

 

[theog]

Your pc came with a Recovery partition or Recovery DVD's.

You need to run Windows updates first.

 

[sixpartseven]

Your pc came with a Recovery partition or Recovery DVD's.

lol actually, yeah, it came with DVD, which is retarded because my computer doesn't have a disc drive.

You need to run Windows updates first.

I downloaded the Malicious Software Removal tool from the MS website and am running it now. I did a quick scan and it found infections, so I'm doing the full scan now. Hopefully this will do the trick.

It took 4 hours to do the scan last time, so I expect it will take at least that long to do it this time.

 

[theog]

Try a look here.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html?ltr=U

Have got a mate with PC with a DVD?
If yes, get yourself a USB stick.

 

[gregrocker]

Install free Microsoft Security Essentials to make sure you are uninfected, then post back the screenshots of your full disk Management drive map, and the contents of each drive in Start>Computer so we can help you either 1)Run the install files from Win7 to overwrite itself which will not format the HD first, or 2) create a USB flash stick installer so you can boot the installer, deep clean the HD using Diskpart then do a clean formatted install.

 

[sixpartseven]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I will now add to your reputations.

But, last night a friend of mine gave me a link to download TDSS Killer and it has removed the Aleuron Rootkit from my system, so I no longer have any need to reformat.

Again, thank you for all your time put into helping me and patience with my inexperience. It is very much appreciated.

 

[theog]

You are welcome.

Make sure your backup your Upgrade Win7 Pro installer.