A little guidance for a fresh install of Windows 7 ultimate, please.

[Toasty84]

Hey, newbie here looking for a little guidance in regards to a fresh install of Windows 7 ultimate.

My boss recently gave me a copy of Win. 7 Ultimate 32 bit so I decided to give it a go.
Not sure if this makes a difference, but it is being installed on a Compaq Presario F700 (laptop). The laptop was bought with Vista pre-installed.

Now, before I went ahead and installed 7, my HDD was set up in that Vista itself was on partition D: as a recovery partition, and everything else (My documents, Program Files etc..) was on C:.

When I installed 7, I left both partitions the way they were, formatted them and pointed the 7 installation to (what was) D: (is now C.
The problem is, Program Files and all that is stuck on that partition. I can 'move' My Documents and whatnot from within the properties tab, but not Program Files.

Basically, what I'm looking to do is have it setup the way it was when Vista was installed - C: Program Files, My documents etc... D: Win. 7 (recovery partition?).

Thanks in advance for and help.
Joe

 

[seavixen32]

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums, Toasty.

Use this link to HP support for your laptop then choose from the various options within.

Compaq Presario F700 Notebook PC series*-* System recovery - HP Business Support Center

If your recovery partition is still intact your recovery procedure is quite straightforward.

If you don't have a recovery partition you can use recovery discs if you created them.

If you don't have either, you can buy recovery discs from HP.

You will need to backup all your personal data first, and then reinstall your programs after your computer has been restored to its factory state.

 

[Toasty84]

seavixen, I appreciate the response, but I am not looking to recover anything.
The reason I wrote 'recovery partition' is because that's what the partition was labled as when Vista was installed.

All I'm trying to do is get the partitions set up more or less the same as they were in Vista; C: (My Documents, Program Files etc..), D: (Windows 7).

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Hard to follow your explanation, but....

I doubt if Vista was ever on D. The D partition was presumably a partition from which you could restore Vista to C.

It looks like you may have installed Windows 7 to what used to be D, thereby overwriting your previously available recovery partition?

And did not touch C, where Vista was originally installed?

Or I may be confused entirely about what you have done or what you originally had.

Can you post a screen shot of your Disk Management as it now exists?

 

[seavixen32]

In that case, the title of your thread is somewhat misleading: A little guidance for a fresh install of Windows 7 ultimate

That suggests to me you're wanting to re-install Windows.

Further confusion arises from this: Basically, what I'm looking to do is have it setup the way it was when Vista was installed

That also suggests you're wanting to re-install Vista.

The problem you're faced with is that for some reason Vista was installed to your D drive, when normally you would install it on your C drive, now that you've installed Windows 7, it will automatically change its drive letter to C.

Before we go any further can you please upload a screenshot of your fully-expanded Disk Management layout to give us a better idea of what's going on?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[Toasty84]

" The D partition was presumably a partition from which you could restore Vista to C.". Perhaps you're right, ignatzatsonic. I'm semi computer illiterate.

"It looks like you may have installed Windows 7 to what used to be D, thereby overwriting your previously available recovery partition?" Correct.

"And did not touch C, where Vista was originally installed?" I wiped C as well before installing 7.

So what you're saying is that D was nothing more than a recovery partition?
If so, should I just get rid of the D partiton altogether?

Thanks.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

My guess is that yes, D was only a recovery partition.

If you installed to it, whatever it was, it's no longer a recovery partition.

Offhand, I'd delete all partitions and install to a new C, but we'd really like to see a pic of Disk Management to see the extent of the carnage.

 

[Toasty84]

Yeah, sorry. Screenshot is now up on my previous post.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Yeah, the C that you wiped is now shown as D, 137 GB, and empty.

I assume you have a valid install disc and don't care about anything now on that entire hard drive?

If that is the case, do the install over.

Delete all partitions in the process.

You should end up with 2 partitions: C of around 149 GB and a little one called System Reserved of 100 MB or so.

You have passed the point of no return---you can't go back to Vista unless you have Vista disks of some type.

 

[seavixen32]

As we suspected, you've installed Windows to your recovery partition.

The System Reserved partition holds the master boot record files and your D drive holds your personal data.

I agree with ignatzatsonic, save your personal data , wipe your hard drive and clean install Windows 7.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[Toasty84]

I have a Vista disk as well as a Windows 7 disk. I have absolutely nothing on the drive as of now as I just installed 7 before creating this thread.

I will take both of your advice and do another install of 7 and delete the partitions.

Thanks for your help, seavixen32 and ignatzatsonic. Much appreciated.
Joe

 

[seavixen32]

You're very welcome, Joe.

Please post back if you need further help.

 

[Toasty84]

Alright, did a clean install and everything seems to be in check.
Thanks again for the help, guys.

Joe

 

[seavixen32]

You're very welcome.

Thanks for the update.