New
#1
New Install - no problem
Hi guys,
Thought I'd post and not ask for answers / help / advice!...
Following on from my thread about Win7 Home Premium OEM - changing Spanish to English, I would like to say I took the plunge and format-freshinstalled.
Just a few things of note (I had nervously investigated this a lot beforehand).
Not wanting to waste hours doing the "clean all" in diskpart, I booted USB (thanks Brink), setup menu > selected C > delete. Select system partition > delete. Then got a "Windows could not instal to the selected partition/drive. Check log for details" when I tried to instal.
Tried a Macrium Reflect image restore - it reimaged but couldn't get past a flashing cursor/black screen.
Thankfully my Win7 image restored everything :). After debating continuing, I decided yes because Win7 image restore wiped my data partition and my factory OEM restore partition - nothing to lose now!. I booted from Hirens Boot CD, wiped and merged all partitions, then tried USB 7 instal again. Success!
After much tweaking / customising / installing, I now have my perfect setup imaged (Win7, Macrium Reflect AND Paragon).
OK, so the things of note mentioned above:
Hope this helps anyone wanting to cleanup an OEM rig. I'm happy now - it just works, no problems whatsoever.
- Space saved = 15Gigs of OEM bloat: 33Gigs down to a trim 18Gb. (Toshiba)
- Boot time 85 seconds down to 70 seconds.
- No problem installing with 4Gb (2+2) of RAM - no need to remove one stick.
- Win7 image restore wiped all partitions (system, B<OEM restore> C, + D<my data>, not just the replaced C and system partition.
- Macrium Reflect, whilst being a heck of a lot faster than Win7 image backup didn't seem to have a system partition restore.
- Online activation after all setup & customisation = painless. (Retail Win7 Home Premium English ISO + Spanish OEM key)
D