Windows 7 - Clean install of windows 7 on new PC

whs said:

I would get a clean Windows 7 SP1 .iso from this site, burn it to DVD and install with that. Then you do not get all that bloatware. For activation use the product key that is on the COA sticker. That sticker is on the bottom of your Laptop.

But first you have to align the SSD and define an active primary partition. Use Command Prompt with these commands:

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your SSD in List disk)
Clean
Create partition primary align=1024
Format fs=ntfs quick
Active
Exit

Then install Windows 7 into this partition. That way you also do not get the dreaded 100MB system partition.


PS: make sure you get the .iso for the same Win7 edition hat is currently on the laptop - e.g. Home Premium 64bit. Your COA key will only work with the same edition.

This probably should be a no-brainer. I have prepared my recovery disks, now I am ready to align the SSD. Where do I start? Do I attach the SSD after detaching my HDD and boot up my system to do the alignment? Or do I attach my SSD with an enclosure to my PC now to do the alignment before I do the clean install?

whs said:

I would do it with an enclosure. Then you have command prompt under your hand ==> Start > Accessories > right click on cmd > run as Admin

i have attached my SSD via the USB enclosure. I followed the steps in the command prompt. I encountered this error: There is no disk selected. Please select a disk and try again.

I entered diskpart, then disk list (my ssd and hdd showed up), i entered 1 (ssd #) a list of data showed up: merge, online, etc, DISKPART showed up again and I entered clean and I encountered this error: There is no disk selected. Please select a disk and try again.

I fixed the problem, I left out the word select. Everything went well. So now do I shut down my PC and detach the HDD and attach the SSD then reboot for clean install? Do I need to do any BIOS changes?

whs said:

When you are done with the installation, set the SSD as boot device #2 (the CD/DVD reader should be #1).

How would I do that? I just received BOOTMGR is missing error?

Did you unplug all other HD's during install? If not it wrote the new install's System boot files to the old OS so you'll need to do it over.

If so then make sure the SSD is set first to boot in BIOS setup. Does it boot now?

all clear now. Thanks for everyone's help. Clean Install accomplished. Since I will be using this PC as a HTPC I opted to not re install the programs that it came with to reduce bloatware.