Reinstalling Windows 7

Hi Greg,

There are plenty of reasons a reinstall of Vista may be needed. Unless the OP already has recov discs run off - it's not a good idea to delete the recov partition.

It won't normally be accessible from the F1 ( or whatever ) key after another o/s has been installed.

Often , just marking the recov partition Active will start the recov program - allowing a recovery - or even to run off the discs.

Otherwise, it is possible to find an .iso , or the installation files on there and create your own recov discs.

Exactly how that is done will depend on the oem and what is on the recov partition.

Currently reinstalling, but anyway, at some point in the last few months, the recovery had the vista data deleted, but the partition remained. So starting the recovery process gives the option of exit, but months before I installed 7, it offered to restore to factory. Installing 7 may have broken it, but I don't know.

Posted from a phone, sorry about any mistakes.

So you can delete it then.

@greg, exactly, removed them, got an 20GB which is nice.

@ignatzatsonic, you're correct, my friend was possibly wrong, office activated fine.

Everything went fine, thanks everyone.

Glad to hear.

Now save a Win7 Backup Image to a primary formatted partition and/or external so you never need to reinstall. Just boot from DVD, select "Recover using an Image" in repair and reimage the HD or a replacement in 15 minutes.