Solved Can I clean reinstall after activating, with upgrade disc?

[hazel123]

I have just bought a used Vista laptop (Sony Vaio) and have a Retail copy of a Windows 7 upgrade disc. I have made recovery discs of the Visa. Have followed option 2 of the tutorial on how to install using an upgrade disc. So I haven't reformatted or cleared the partitions. I did this because I didn't want problems with activation, as was mentioned in some of the other options.

Anyway, all has installed fine, with most drivers from Windows updates, and the couple that aren't there, I have on usb. But my question is - if I go ahead and get it activated online now - can I then start from scratch and do a clean install with the upgrade disc, reformatting, deleting the partitions? Or will this 'wipe out' my activation?

I suppose I was thinking that once activated, the product key would be registered with this laptop and then I could do a clean install and clear everything off the hard drive. But is that the case, or would deleting the partitions mean I have to activate again and then have problems activating online?

Many thanks.

 

[Kaktussoft]

There will be no problems at all!

 

[hazel123]

Thanks. I can confirm that this worked absolutely fine. However I did need to activate again on the second install.

Here's what I did:

Laptop had Vista installed.

Did a custom install, without deleting any partitions. Did not connect to internet during install. Connected to internet and did Windows updates to check if all drivers installed ok. Activated online.

Then switched off, installed my upgrade disc and booted from it, selected custom install again, but this time deleted the partitions and let Windows make new partitions. Then continued with install. Did not connect to internet or activate during install. After install, connected to internet, installed antivirus. Then activated online - all went smoothly. Am now doing all Windows updates.

The only thing I would say though is, although I deleted the partitions (thus wiping everything off them) and allowed Windows to set the partitions, I was still only showing 149gb free on a 160gb hard drive. I am wondering, if I had formatted, if I would have got the whole 160gb back. However, I think if I had formatted, my activation may have failed.

I am not going to quibble over 10gb as I now have a clean install and simple activation, although it would be interesting to know a) where the 10gb is and b) what it is being used for.

After deleting my partitions, I had one partition with 149gb free. After allowing Windows to make its partitions I had two - the usual one of 100mb made by Windows and the main one with the rest on.

 

[hazel123]

It's Ok - just read up about it and apparently it is quite normally to only get 93% of your advertised hard drive space! The naughty people.

 

[hazel123]

Would any of the moderators like to add this to the tutorial on Windows 7 upgrade using an upgrade disc?

 

[RoasterMen]

We already have a thread on how to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 but that's another way to upgrade, my computer sadly went slower after the upgrade because my hard drive is dying

 

[hazel123]

Oh shame. Hope you managed to find another, good used hard drive.

 

[theog]

Why start a new thread?
http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...ade-after-oem-has-been-installed-removed.html

 

[hazel123]

Sorry, I thought I had moved onto a different topic - ie how to install an upgrade, rather than whether or not it mattered if a previous version of Windows 7 had been installed before.