A reformat may be possible

[julio99]

I made a Windows 7 x64 clean install disk to reformat my computer but I may have some issues that need to be clarified. I originally had a 600 GB hard disk on my acer laptop when I decided to install a SSD. I had a space on the bottom of the laptop for an extra hard drive. I decided to take out the hard drive, (600GB) and put it in the reserved space. I installed the new SSD in the spot where the original hard drive was, so now I have the SSD with the Boot files and reserved partition. I also have a 600GB hard drive that is classified as a primary partition. Now if I decide to do a clean install I know the files on the SSD will be overwritten but how about the 600GB hard drive that I keep all my Data on. Will the clean install wipe that too? That is not what I want but because of the fact that it is classified as a Primary partition I keep getting this feeling that windows will wipe it when I choose to do the fresh Clean install with the Windows 7 x64 Digital River SP1 media refresh disk that I burned from the .iso. If you know what will my computer Management look like after I do the clean install. I will leave a SNIP of the way it looks right now and maybe you can tell me what will be left after the install.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

If you want to clean install to Disc 0, which I assume is the SSD, it won't affect Disc 1, the 600 GB drive----IF you select the SSD as the drive on which to install Windows.

The safest and smartest thing for you to do is to completely disconnect or remove the 600 GB drive before beginning the clean install to the SSD. That way, there is no way it could be wiped out.

After the clean install, reconnect the 600 GB drive. It should still appear as D.

The clean install will leave you with just 2 partitions on the SSD: system reserved and C.

You won't have the other two. So you won't be able to "restore" using that recovery partition. You will still be able to use any recovery DVDs you may have if you had to.

I just realized that you currently have C on a logical partition. After the clean install, it won't be a logical any more. Just an ordinary primary partition.

Having that logical partition may cause some issue when you try to clean install. I'm not sure how the installer disc will react to that logical. Ideally, it will give you the opportunity to delete it. The point is that on a clean install, you want to wipe out all existing partitions and you don't want to be forced to install to that logical C partition. Worst case scenario, you use the Diskpart command from the install disc and forcibly get rid of existing partitions on the SSD.

I assume you have a legit "Product Key" to activate the clean installation and realize that a clean install will not have whatever extra lovely goodies Acer may have put on that machine at the factory.

How did you get the current install onto the SSD?? By using your Acer recovery disks?

 

[julio99]

If you want to clean install to Disc 0, which I assume is the SSD, it won't affect Disc 1, the 600 GB drive----IF you select the SSD as the drive on which to install Windows.

The safest and smartest thing for you to do is to completely disconnect or remove the 600 GB drive before beginning the clean install to the SSD. That way, there is no way it could be wiped out.

After the clean install, reconnect the 600 GB drive. It should still appear as D.

The clean install will leave you with just 2 partitions on the SSD: system reserved and C.

You won't have the other two. So you won't be able to "restore" using that recovery partition. You will still be able to use any recovery DVDs you may have if you had to.

I just realized that you currently have C on a logical partition. After the clean install, it won't be a logical any more. Just an ordinary primary partition.

Having that logical partition may cause some issue when you try to clean install. I'm not sure how the installer disc will react to that logical. Ideally, it will give you the opportunity to delete it. The point is that on a clean install, you want to wipe out all existing partitions and you don't want to be forced to install to that logical C partition. Worst case scenario, you use the Diskpart command from the install disc and forcibly get rid of existing partitions on the SSD.

I assume you have a legit "Product Key" to activate the clean installation and realize that a clean install will not have whatever extra lovely goodies Acer may have put on that machine at the factory.

How did you get the current install onto the SSD?? By using your Acer recovery disks?

I took my laptop to Wintronics in St Catharines and had them do the install. What they did was pull the old hard drive put in the SSD and ghosted the programs and Win 7 OS over to the SSD from the old hard drive and the Tek had to do a little plastic surgery to fit the old hard drive into the extra empty space as Acer didn't design the opening to fit the old hard drive. I originally bought the laptop with Win 7 key installed so if and when I do the clean install the key on the bottom is the one to use correct? I don't know to tell you the truth how to disconnect the old hard drive and even though I'm savvy enough to figure it out I'm just wondering if it might not be wiser to just use my recovery discs from Acer? It will add a few gigs of Acer bloat, but I can always uninstall those. I used the clean install disk on my other Acer x86 laptop and that does such a nice clean install I hate using anything that leaves bloat on it. What happened to make me do this was I was using Emsisoft Emergency Kit Scanner and at the end of the scan it wouldn't register the driver to send the infected files to quarantine so somehow there was a glitch that was causing that to not work and when I asked Emsisoft support about the problem they told me to try disabling Norton IS or Malwarebytes and see if the tool worked. I did that and it still didn't work so I told them and he sent me a link to Windows Repair Tweaks and there is a tool that re-registers windows registry files and a bunch of other tweaks and he told me it could be a permission issue or something like that. That scanner always worked great for me so I really would like to find out why it stopped. The driver that registers before it cleans shows itself in Autoruns but the box is unchecked. Strange?Here is a link to the tool he reccomended that I useWindows Repair (All In One)

 

[ignatzatsonic]

see comments:

I originally bought the laptop with Win 7 key installed so if and when I do the clean install the key on the bottom is the one to use correct?

Yes, IF, I say IF the Windows 7 version shown on your sticker is the SAME version as the ISO you downloaded.



I don't know to tell you the truth how to disconnect the old hard drive and even though I'm savvy enough to figure it out I'm just wondering if it might not be wiser to just use my recovery discs from Acer?

Your Acer Recovery disks will NOT give you a clean install. They will put where you were when you bought it. 4 partitions, withe Acer bloat.


It will add a few gigs of Acer bloat, but I can always uninstall those. I used the clean install disk on my other Acer x86 laptop and that does such a nice clean install I hate using anything that leaves bloat on it.

You don't need to disconnect that D drive if you pay attention and are careful.

I would download and save the Windows 7 NIC (Ethernet) driver for the laptop from the Acer website before beginning. It should be provided directly from the Windows 7 install disk, but you don't want to risk a foul-up and not be able to connect to the Internet.

Your SSD is shown as Disc 0. That's good.

What do you have to be careful about? Exactly this: you will come to a screen in the installation process where you are asked where you want to install Windows. If you choose your large hard drive, you will wipe out everything on it---your data. So you have to choose the SSD and delete all partitions. Disconnecting the large hard drive would prevent you from making that mistake. So be careful. If you don't understand or aren't sure when you get to the screen asking about location, stop and ask questions.


What happened to make me do this was I was using Emsisoft Emergency Kit Scanner and at the end of the scan it wouldn't register the driver to send the infected files to quarantine so somehow there was a glitch that was causing that to not work and when I asked Emsisoft support about the problem they told me to try disabling Norton IS or Malwarebytes and see if the tool worked. I did that and it still didn't work so I told them and he sent me a link to Windows Repair Tweaks and there is a tool that re-registers windows registry files and a bunch of other tweaks and he told me it could be a permission issue or something like that. That scanner always worked great for me so I really would like to find out why it stopped. The driver that registers before it cleans shows itself in Autoruns but the box is unchecked. Strange?Here is a link to the tool he reccomended that I useWindows Repair (All In One)

Never heard of Emisoft; may be good, bad, or mediocre. I have no idea why it mis-behaved. I'd generally be skeptical of third-party tools, with the possible exception of CCleaner, Malwarebytes, and some anti-virus packages.

You don't need a bunch of auxiliary tools to keep Windows 7 in good form.

I would be skeptical of "Windows Repair Tweaks" or that link.

 

[gregrocker]

Everything is here to do a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. It will be the best possible install of Win7.

If you decide to do the Clean Reinstall be sure to delete all partitions during the booted install using the Drive Options pictured in Steps 7 and 8 of Clean Install Windows 7 which are the illustrated steps of the actual install, since much of the rest of the information in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 is about preparing and the tools and methods which work best with Win7.

If you have no problems with the ghosted SSD you have now then go ahead and run with it for awhile to see how it pans out. But I'd not want all that Acer crapware starting up and conflicting with better versions already built into Win7. So at the minimum I'd Clean Up Factory Bloatware .

 

[julio99]

see comments:

I originally bought the laptop with Win 7 key installed so if and when I do the clean install the key on the bottom is the one to use correct?

Yes, IF, I say IF the Windows 7 version shown on your sticker is the SAME version as the ISO you downloaded.



I don't know to tell you the truth how to disconnect the old hard drive and even though I'm savvy enough to figure it out I'm just wondering if it might not be wiser to just use my recovery discs from Acer?

Your Acer Recovery disks will NOT give you a clean install. They will put where you were when you bought it. 4 partitions, withe Acer bloat.


It will add a few gigs of Acer bloat, but I can always uninstall those. I used the clean install disk on my other Acer x86 laptop and that does such a nice clean install I hate using anything that leaves bloat on it.

You don't need to disconnect that D drive if you pay attention and are careful.

I would download and save the Windows 7 NIC (Ethernet) driver for the laptop from the Acer website before beginning. It should be provided directly from the Windows 7 install disk, but you don't want to risk a foul-up and not be able to connect to the Internet.

Your SSD is shown as Disc 0. That's good.

What do you have to be careful about? Exactly this: you will come to a screen in the installation process where you are asked where you want to install Windows. If you choose your large hard drive, you will wipe out everything on it---your data. So you have to choose the SSD and delete all partitions. Disconnecting the large hard drive would prevent you from making that mistake. So be careful. If you don't understand or aren't sure when you get to the screen asking about location, stop and ask questions.


What happened to make me do this was I was using Emsisoft Emergency Kit Scanner and at the end of the scan it wouldn't register the driver to send the infected files to quarantine so somehow there was a glitch that was causing that to not work and when I asked Emsisoft support about the problem they told me to try disabling Norton IS or Malwarebytes and see if the tool worked. I did that and it still didn't work so I told them and he sent me a link to Windows Repair Tweaks and there is a tool that re-registers windows registry files and a bunch of other tweaks and he told me it could be a permission issue or something like that. That scanner always worked great for me so I really would like to find out why it stopped. The driver that registers before it cleans shows itself in Autoruns but the box is unchecked. Strange?Here is a link to the tool he reccomended that I useWindows Repair (All In One)

Never heard of Emisoft; may be good, bad, or mediocre. I have no idea why it mis-behaved. I'd generally be skeptical of third-party tools, with the possible exception of CCleaner, Malwarebytes, and some anti-virus packages.

You don't need a bunch of auxiliary tools to keep Windows 7 in good form.

I would be skeptical of "Windows Repair Tweaks" or that link.

I understand what you are saying when you say you will come to a screen with the ssd showing as 0 disk. With that my second hard drive shows as Disk 1. Iknow that my install is to be on disk 0 my SSD. That said it will delete all partitions on the SSD drive but will it leave the Disk 1 completely alone? That is all I'm worried about. I backup all my drivers on DoubleDriver and leave them on a Flash drive or my second disk. As long as the 2nd disk gets left alone I'm good to go. The only thing my Windows 7 didn't come with when I bought the laptop was SP1 and I don't believe that matters. The iso I burned was for Windows 7 Home Premium sp1 media refresh. The laptop came with same minus sp1 media refresh. Good to go?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

see comments

I understand what you are saying when you say you will come to a screen with the ssd showing as 0 disk. With that my second hard drive shows as Disk 1. Iknow that my install is to be on disk 0 my SSD. That said it will delete all partitions on the SSD drive but will it leave the Disk 1 completely alone?

It won't delete anything unless you tell it to. It's not "automatic.". You have to make a deliberate choice. As you delete partitions, they will become unallocated space. You then choose that unallocated space as where you want to install Windows and Windows will then format that space as part of the installation process.

If you tell it to delete all partitions on the SSD it will do that. It will delete all partitions on Disk 1 if you tell it to do that. It's entirely up to you to know which is which and make the correct decision when you get to that screen.

You'd think it's easy, but the fact is people can get confused and choose the wrong drive.

Just be careful and if in doubt, don't go through with it. Instead stop and make a post about what confused you.

I'm not sure if you already said you had your data backed up, but you should have done that in case you do make a mistake despite trying to be careful.



That is all I'm worried about. I backup all my drivers on DoubleDriver and leave them on a Flash drive or my second disk. As long as the 2nd disk gets left alone I'm good to go. The only thing my Windows 7 didn't come with when I bought the laptop was SP1 and I don't believe that matters. The iso I burned was for Windows 7 Home Premium sp1 media refresh. The laptop came with same minus sp1 media refresh. Good to go?

Sounds like you are ready.

I assume you have your Product Key?

Do you have the NIC (Ethernet drive) included in your driver collection? Be sure you do.

DON'T install any of your drivers UNLESS you later on have problems or are missing some type of functionality. The Windows disc you burned will supply drivers and it's normally quite good at providing what you need.


As soon as you finish the install, get your anti-virus going and then go to Windows Update and get updated. Some drivers may be updated during that process. You don't necessarily have to accept all offered updates, but I'd certainly get any that are marked as "important" or "critical".

I wouldn't take all of the offered updates at one time. Take them in groups. You'll probably be asked to reboot a bunch of times and the update process may take hours, depending on your Internet speed.

Then maybe do a benchmark on your SSD and confirm that it is aligned properly.

Then start thinking about installing applications.

 

[julio99]

see comments

I understand what you are saying when you say you will come to a screen with the ssd showing as 0 disk. With that my second hard drive shows as Disk 1. Iknow that my install is to be on disk 0 my SSD. That said it will delete all partitions on the SSD drive but will it leave the Disk 1 completely alone?

It won't delete anything unless you tell it to. It's not "automatic.". You have to make a deliberate choice. As you delete partitions, they will become unallocated space. You then choose that unallocated space as where you want to install Windows and Windows will then format that space as part of the installation process.

If you tell it to delete all partitions on the SSD it will do that. It will delete all partitions on Disk 1 if you tell it to do that. It's entirely up to you to know which is which and make the correct decision when you get to that screen.

You'd think it's easy, but the fact is people can get confused and choose the wrong drive.

Just be careful and if in doubt, don't go through with it. Instead stop and make a post about what confused you.

I'm not sure if you already said you had your data backed up, but you should have done that in case you do make a mistake despite trying to be careful.



That is all I'm worried about. I backup all my drivers on DoubleDriver and leave them on a Flash drive or my second disk. As long as the 2nd disk gets left alone I'm good to go. The only thing my Windows 7 didn't come with when I bought the laptop was SP1 and I don't believe that matters. The iso I burned was for Windows 7 Home Premium sp1 media refresh. The laptop came with same minus sp1 media refresh. Good to go?

Sounds like you are ready.

I assume you have your Product Key?

Do you have the NIC (Ethernet drive) included in your driver collection? Be sure you do.

DON'T install any of your drivers UNLESS you later on have problems or are missing some type of functionality. The Windows disc you burned will supply drivers and it's normally quite good at providing what you need.


As soon as you finish the install, get your anti-virus going and then go to Windows Update and get updated. Some drivers may be updated during that process. You don't necessarily have to accept all offered updates, but I'd certainly get any that are marked as "important" or "critical".

I wouldn't take all of the offered updates at one time. Take them in groups. You'll probably be asked to reboot a bunch of times and the update process may take hours, depending on your Internet speed.

Then maybe do a benchmark on your SSD and confirm that it is aligned properly.

Then start thinking about installing applications.

I have all non-microsoft drivers backed up with Double driver. I will have to check for the LAN driver but as I am running my laptop plugged in ethernet wouldn't it be backed up as one of the last ones scanned. Whatever the case I will back it up fresh. I keep my whole system backed up disk image once or twice a week by acronis True Image 2014. Love the program, hate the support. I should be good to go. Thanks a million!!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I have all non-microsoft drivers backed up with Double driver. I will have to check for the LAN driver but as I am running my laptop plugged in ethernet wouldn't it be backed up as one of the last ones scanned. Whatever the case I will back it up fresh. I keep my whole system backed up disk image once or twice a week by acronis True Image 2014.

Don't assume that Double Driver program is doing what you hope.

You might want to go to your laptop manufacturer's web site and download their drivers as a backup. You might eventually need some oddball OEM driver that Windows doesn't supply and who knows if Double Driver has it. Just my idea of being extremely careful.

Does your Acronis recovery disk boot your PC?

 

[gregrocker]

Are you following the steps for Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7?

You will get and keep a perfect install as long as you stick with the steps in the blue link. It specifies in red type how drivers are best handled in Win7, so there is no need to use a driver program as these are almost never needed in Win7.

 

[julio99]

I have all non-microsoft drivers backed up with Double driver. I will have to check for the LAN driver but as I am running my laptop plugged in ethernet wouldn't it be backed up as one of the last ones scanned. Whatever the case I will back it up fresh. I keep my whole system backed up disk image once or twice a week by acronis True Image 2014.

Don't assume that Double Driver program is doing what you hope.

You might want to go to your laptop manufacturer's web site and download their drivers as a backup. You might eventually need some oddball OEM driver that Windows doesn't supply and who knows if Double Driver has it. Just my idea of being extremely careful.

Does your Acronis recovery disk boot your PC?

Double Driver does what it is supposed to. I used it when I did the clean Windows 7 install on my other Acer 5100 laptop 32byte. That install was done as a clean install on a laptop that was an upgrade. I had to use the batch file on the upgrade install page but it worked great. I just followed all instructions and when the time came I loaded the drivers that I had backed up. A couple of them came back as unsigned so I just skipped them and either let them prompt me or I went to the Acer site. All the drivers I use are pretty well updated from the Acer site. I usually use the policy if it ain't broke don't mess with it and you wouldn't believe how many people that I talk to from forums and such that tell me you should update your drivers for no reason other than they are old. I do that case by case. I don't just run through Device Manager and start updating because something is old. Double Driver is all the drivers that are installed on my laptop now. This is a screenshot of some of the backed up Acer drivers from their site. You can see the LAN and the WLAN drivers are both backed up.PS yes the Acronis recovery cd does boot my PC. Actually I use a USB 2gb flash drive, but it does boot to the program in case and it is the latest version so it has all the bells and whistles in the Utilities section. I didn't know till I opened the program to do a backup that you can actually do a reformat to the original OS that came out of the store. I guess it works with the Recovery partitions somehow. Pretty cool if you ask me.

 

[gregrocker]

Did you think you were installing XP, or do you realize this is the first driver-complete OS in the installer and via Windows Updates? There are only a couple of drivers missing after that which are easily found on the PC or device maker's Support Downloads webpage.

Windows 8 doesn't even have user participation with drivers, using these advancements developed in Windows 7. Are you going to run the XP-era driver program on that too?

Did you come here for advice or to offer retro solutions for a modern OS?

The methods offered in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 compile what has worked best in tens of thousands of installs we've helped since Win7 beta here at the top tech forums on the web.

 

[julio99]

Did you think you were installing XP, or do you realize this is the first driver-complete OS in the installer and via Windows Updates? There are only a couple of drivers missing after that which are easily found on the PC or device maker's Support Downloads webpage.

Windows 8 doesn't even have user participation with drivers, using these advancements developed in Windows 7. Are you going to run the XP-era driver program on that too?

Did you come here for advice or to offer retro solutions for a modern OS?

The methods offered in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 compile what has worked best in tens of thousands of installs we've helped since Win7 beta here at the top tech forums on the web.

How am I making that different. I told the poster that I use the drivers that I had backed up. It's still a clean install. I just don't feel like waiting for my drivers to be found via windows updates. Why are you talking about xp an windows 8? I don't use those and I don't mention them. All I did was ask for some help and I explained myself in return. I don't come here to ruffle feathers.

 

[gregrocker]

I just didn't want you or others to waste a lot of your time collecting drivers since this is automated in the OS. It's important now to remind users of this since many millions are moving off of XP into a modern OS for the first time. That's all.

Every few months I come up empty in searching for a rare driver and will still install DriverMax for it's free scan and one free download per day. So they're not defunct, but using them for more than that is going down the wrong path from what we've learned here in the five years of Win7.