Solved Clean Install Problem

[Odd]

Hi,

A couple days ago I wanted to try doing a 'super' clean install I suppose, and had heard briefly about DBAN (Boot and Nuke). It sounded good, so I set that to run and went away for about 2 hours and came back to find it at about 15% and it said I had 9 hours to go or something. I had no idea it would take so long, so I turned off my computer (it seems there's no way to cancel the process).

First of all, I realize using this program was a bad idea and totally unnecessary for a clean install. I should have just used the built in features with my windows 7 disk (by the way, it's Professional x64).

Anyway, when I tried to just do a regular clean install with my disk, I ran into some problems. When I come to the partitioning screen, I can't edit the size of new partitions I make (so that I can make multiple ones). It only lets me make and delete the max size. And if I let it try to install with those settings, it seems that it just gets stuck and doesn't work.

So, what I did was throw in an Ubuntu disk and install that. That worked just fine. I have since tried to install Windows 7 one more time with no success and have gone back to Ubuntu. Now, I love Linux and all, but I really want Windows 7 back...Any advice?

Thanks.

 

[Night Hawk]

Familiar with Linux? Familiar with GParted! That will nuke the drive entirely and set the new partitions the way you want them easy enough. You shouldn' have any further problems seeing 7 go on a new NTFS primary once the drive is cleaned up.

 

[Odd]

Not too familiar unfortunately I just got GParted though. Can I nuke the drives and then just set up the partitions through the windows installation later?

And..how exactly do I wipe my drives in gparted? hehe

Thanks.

 

[Night Hawk]

If you are not familiar with GParted the best informaiton is seen in general documentation. GPARTED DOCUMENTATION - GENERALITIES

Note this is better for the live cd version in most cases since the ubuntu installer's version will want to reserve the entire drive for the other OS. For any resizing of an existing partition refer to GPARTED DOCUMENTATION - RESIZING

Windows is best seen on the first NTFS primary partition. The installer will recognise any NTFS primary created and format it during the install. The installer will allow you to create a new primary of a certain size that you set. If the drive is raw when starting off following a complete deletion of the present partitions you will likely the 100mb system reserved partition for the BCD store and boot files placed there by the 7 installer.

Using GParted to create the number and size of each partition 7 will simply install onto the new primary without the 100mb boot store partition created. To see how that looks note the image attached below. The host drive was set up using the 7 installer's drive tools while GParted was used to partition the second test drive. On a new raw drive the 7 installer created the second smaller boot partition.

Once each partition is created you can see them formatted and labeled to distinguish them apart if electing to use the Linux drive tool before the 7 install. Once 7 is on and running you can then go into the Disk Management to change the drive letters for any second or third partitions as well as the optical drives and bring up the properties screens for each volume to change the label you first saw or leave the general tab box blank.

With multiple drives in use here each has it's own label which can help when using a backup option or browsing with any 3rd party app.

 

[Odd]

Thanks, I'll see what I can do.

 

[eldinv]

I came from Linux Mint to Windows 7 on this PC. Follow this tutorial to: Prep a Drive for Installation

Or use CopyWipe:

[URL]http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NUDYQ5T2[/URL]

Burn the ISO and boot from CD. Then Wipe the drive and follow the this tutorial: Clean Install Windows 7

 

[Night Hawk]

Take your time first and make a test run before clicking on the apply button. You may also want to grab the latest gparted-live-0.7.0-4.iso just out since the previous 0.6.0-1 proved to be a headache with the "start x" auto deteect and configuration method used to detecting your monitor(s) and setting the correct resolution.

You can also see the iso image written to a usb flash drive and boot from that live using the free trial version of UltraISO. ISO CD DVD image creator, editor and ISZ DMG DAA UIF to ISO converter - UltraISO can extract/create/edit/convert CD and DVD image files directly, make bootable CDs and convert ISZ DMG DAA UIF to ISO.

Now the main idea for getting familiar with GParted and not simply going for any other partitioning method would be the possible consideration of seeing a dual boot of ubuntu with 7 later. Plus this program allows you to both create and remove both MS and Linux partition types which is where you at now.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Odd.



All you need is contained in this tutorial at the link below; the Windows 7 installer will wipe (secure erase) a HDD natively.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation



It will take about an hour per 300GB, just relax and do it, it is needed after the issues you're having; then it is advised to create a single 100GB partition to do the install to as we're seeing issues with some trying to install Windows to very large spaces.

 

[Odd]

Thanks Bare Foot Kid. That sounds like it can solve my problem.

I'm going to give it a shot

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

You're welcome; be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

 

[Night Hawk]

An hour for 300gb? GParted can be used along with Eraser(security tool) if necesssary to wipe a 1tb drive and create entirely new partitions in minutes.

If you have nothing on the drive(s) such as the recovery partition from a previous preinstalled Windows or anything you haven't backed up already you could simply open DiskPart up and type the "clean all" command" to nuke the drive but still end up using GParted if you have any plans on dual booting ubuntu with 7 there.

Once you have the partitions the way you want them you simply follow the guide here for a custom install of 7 to the select primary. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20146-custom-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[Odd]

Just thought I'd post a quick update. I got everything working earlier today following the guide you provided Bare Foot Kid.

It's good to be back on 7 =]

Thanks again.

 

[Odd]

An hour for 300gb? GParted can be used along with Eraser(security tool) if necesssary to wipe a 1tb drive and create entirely new partitions in minutes.

If you have nothing on the drive(s) such as the recovery partition from a previous preinstalled Windows or anything you haven't backed up already you could simply open DiskPart up and type the "clean all" command" to nuke the drive but still end up using GParted if you have any plans on dual booting ubuntu with 7 there.

Once you have the partitions the way you want them you simply follow the guide here for a custom install of 7 to the select primary. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20146-custom-install-windows-7-a.html

Yeah, the DiskPart method took me a few hours. My drive is about 600GB. The formatting after running clean all took forever too.

But, what can I say, worked like a charm.

 

[Night Hawk]

Well you could only spent a few minutes rather then a few hours to still see a clean install of 7 using the remaining for grabbing all of those updates! You'll find with a fresh install you'll be looking at a ton of those!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Just thought I'd post a quick update. I got everything working earlier today following the guide you provided Bare Foot Kid.

It's good to be back on 7 =]

Thanks again.

You're welcome; good to see you got it sorted and thanks for the update.



I don't see the logic having to download/ burn disks and sort "how to" with those when Windows will do it all natively using these easy to follow steps from start to finish.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation