Clean Install Windows 7

How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7​

   Information

This will show you how to do a clean installation with a retail Windows 7. A OEM Windows 7 may have a few different screens than below, but basically the same.

Yes, you can do a clean install from a upgrade Windows 7 version.
NOTE: See this tutorial for how: Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version

   Note

Do a Clean Installation if:

• Your computer has no operating system installed, or it’s running a version of Windows prior to Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (including Windows XP).
• You do NOT want to preserve your data, programs, or system drivers.
• You want to delete your current operating system and replace it with Windows 7.
• You want to create a multiboot system by installing Windows 7 on a separate hard disk partition.

   Tip

• Sometimes you may have a problem with installing Windows 7 with more than 2 GB of RAM installed on some older motherboards. If you have this problem, then you should install Windows 7 with a maximum of 2GB of RAM installed and add the rest of the RAM after Windows 7 is fully installed. You may need to flash your motherboard BIOS with the latest version to support more RAM like this. (WARNING - DO NOT FLASH THE BIOS if you do not know what you are doing. Please ask for help instead. One mistake can kill your motherboard permanently.)
• Before doing this clean install, you should download and save all of your device drivers to a USB flash drive, DVD, another HDD, or some other media to have them handy to make setting Windows 7 up easier when finished installing Windows 7. For example, having the network driver available in case you cannot connect to the internet until it's installed.

   Warning

Windows 7 Minimum Hardware Requirements:

NOTE: For more information on this, see: Windows 7 system requirements

• 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
• 1 GB RAM for 32-bit Windows 7 OR 2 GB RAM for 64-bit Windows 7
• 16 GB available hard disk space for 32-bit Windows 7 OR 20 GB for 64-bit Windows 7
• Graphics card or chip that supports DirectX 9 with 128 MB memory (to have Aero theme enabled)
• DVD-R/W drive, or bootable USB 2.0 port with Windows 7 USB flash drive
• Internet or phone access to activate Windows 7.

Here's How:1. Boot the computer from your Windows 7 installation DVD/USB.
NOTE: Make sure that the CD/DVD drive is selected first and your HDD second in the boot priority order in your BIOS settings. Usually it is by default.

   Warning

If you want to install Windows 7 using UEFI instead of BIOS, then see this below first.

How to Install Windows 7 Using "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)

   Note

If you do not have a Windows 7 with SP1 installation DVD/USB, then you can download the latest official Windows 7 with SP1 ISO file at the links below.

:ar: Microsoft Software Recovery

:ar: Microsoft: Windows 7 Direct Download Links

You can use Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool to create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive with the ISO to do the clean install with.

2. If using a DVD, then when prompted, press any key to boot from the installation DVD. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You will only have about 8 seconds to press this key. If you miss it, you will have to restart the computer.
3. Set up your language preferences, and click on the Next button. (See screeshot below).
4. Click on the Install Now button to start the installation. (See screenshot below)
5. Check the I accept the license terms box, and click on Next. (See screenshot below)
6. Click on the Custom (advanced) option. (See screenshot below)
7. Select the hard drive or partition that you want to install Windows 7 on, and click on the Drive Options (advanced) link. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If the hard drive or partition that you have selected is unallocated, then you can just click on the Next button instead and go to step 9 since it is already empty.
WARNING: You may not have the Drive options (advanced) option unless the installation is done at boot, and not running the installation from within your current OS.
8. Select a hard drive or partition that you want to do a clean install of Windows 7 on, do what Drive options (advanced) you want if any, and click on the Next button when finished. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you have your hard drives in a RAID setup, then connect your USB key with the RAID drivers on it, click on Load Driver, select the folder on the USB key that contains the RAID drivers to install them. Afterwards, your RAID drives will be available to select from to install Windows 7 on.

   Tip

Drive options (advanced)

• If you have more than one partition for a disk # (hard drive) and want to get rid of them to make that disk # one partition drive again, then select a partition with that disk # and click on the Delete option for each partition with the same disk # until there is only one "unallocated space" with that disk # left as in the screenshot below.
• To shrink an existing partition to create another partition to install Windows 7 on instead, select the partition you want shrink and click on the Extend option. Type in how much in MB (1 GB = 1024 MB) that you want to shrink it by. Now select the new extended partition.

   Note

The 100 MB System Reserved partition is used for the Boot Manager code, BCD (Boot Configuration Database), System Recovery Options (Windows RE), and start up files for BitLocker (if turned on).

• If you want to have the 100 MB System Reserved partition in addition to the Windows 7 C: partition on a HDD or SSD after installation, then you would need to make sure that all partitions on the drive have been deleted until it is only unallocated space. Next, select the unallocated drive to install Windows 7 on. If there are no partitions on the disk, you will get the 100 MB System Reserved.
• If you do not want to have the 100 MB System Reserved partition and only the Windows 7 C: partition on a HDD or SSD after installation, then select a formatted partition or drive to install Windows 7 on. If there are any partitions on the disk, you won't get the 100 MB System Reserved.

9. The installation of Windows 7 will now begin. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: During the installation process, your screen may flash and computer will restart a few times.
10. After the final restart, you will see this screen for a moment. (See screenshot below)
11. Type in any user name that you want for your default administrator account and any computer name, then click on the Next button. (See screenshot below)
12. Type in a password you want for your default administrator account. Type it in again to confirm it, then type in a hint for your password. Click on the Next button. (See screenshots below)
WARNING: The password will be case sensitive. The hint will be seen by all users on the computer, so do not type your password as the hint.
NOTE: If you do not want your your user account password protected at this time or do not want to have to type in a hint, then leave this blank and click on the Next button. You can create a password later for your user account in the Control Panel User Accounts after installing Windows 7 without having to type in a hint.


13. Type in your Windows 7 product key number. (See screenshot below step 14)

14. Uncheck the Automatically activate Windows when I'm online box, then click on the Next button. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You can activate Windows 7 later after you make sure it is running properly. (See step 21 below)
If you chose to automatically activate Windows 7 online when you set up your computer, automatic activation begins trying to activate your copy of Windows three days after you log on for the first time.
15. Click on Use recommended settings to allow automatic Windows Updates and proper security settings. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: For more information about these recommended settings, click on the Learn more about each option link in this window.
16. Select your time zone and set your time and date settings, then click on the Next button. (See screenshot below)
17. Click on your computer's correct network location type location to select it and have the settings for that location automatically applied. (See screenshot below)
18. Windows 7 will now prepare your desktop to startup. (See screenshots below)


19. When it's finished and you are at your desktop, you can now remove or disconnect your installation DVD/USB from step 1 above.

20. Install all of your device drivers, then Windows Updates.

21. Refresh your Windows Experience Index (WEI) score.

22. When finished, all you will need to do is to activate Windows 7. (See screenshot below)

   Tip

If you are dual booting with another OS (ex: Vista), then that OS partition may not show up in Computer with a driver letter in Windows 7. You will need to add a drive letter to the OS (ex: Vista) partition in Windows 7 Disk Management for it to show up in Computer with a driver letter.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Downgrade Windows 8 to Windows 7
• How to Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version
• How to Use Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
• How to Do a Upgrade Installation with Windows 7
• How to Setup Windows 7 to Boot from a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)
• How to Create a Windows 7 VHD at Boot to Start with from Boot
• How to Do a Repair Install to Fix Windows 7
• How to Activate Windows 7 Online
• How to Extend the Windows 7 Activation Trial Period Up to 120 Days
• How to Change the Default Operating System to Start in Windows 7
• How to Change Time to Display Operating Systems at Boot in Windows 7
• How to Delete an Operating System Listed in Windows Boot Manager
• How to Create a Windows 7 Installation USB Key
• How to Install Windows 7 from USB Pen Drive Using Grub4Dos
• How to Create a New Partition or Volume in Windows 7
• How to Fix Missing Vista Hard Disk Partition Letter in Windows 7
• How to Setup a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Setup a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP
• How to Install Windows 7 FAST without a DVD or USB Device
• Install Windows 7 Without Using Any External Device
• How to Do a Custom Installation of Windows 7
• How to Partition the Hard Drive in a Windows 7 Install
• How to Install Windows 7 on Computer with Less than 512MB RAM
• Slipstream Windows 7 SP1 and Updates to Create a Bootable USB, Installation DVD, or ISO File
• How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 7 from the Windows 7 Desktop
• How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 7 from the Windows XP Desktop
• How to Install Windows 7 Using "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)
• How to Clean Reinstall a Factory OEM Windows 7
• New Installation: How to Create a General System Image in Audit Mode
• How to Clean Install Windows on a MSATA (SSD) Drive

 

[NZCampbell]

Hi Brink
Something odd is going on , maybe its normal , not sure. Windows asked me to select a drive. I selected the unallocated SSD with 238GB on it The others were the 16GB pen drive and the SSD cache drive with 18GB on it.
Now it went through the installation i.e expanding files etc then it said restarting. It restarted and asked me to allocate a drive again. It had made a 100MB reserve on there already. I selected the SSD and now its going through the same procedure of installing windows windows again for the third time with the dive size getting smaller

 

[NZCampbell]

OK I know what I have done. I should have taken the USB key out
Now its going normally.

OK I have three other windows folders because it kept reinstalling off the USB stick. Can I delete these: windows.old windows.old001 Windows.old002 ?

 

[Brink]

NZ,

Yes, you can safely delete the Windows.old folders.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19151-windows-old-folder-delete.html

 

[NZCampbell]

Hi Brink
Done that. All the drivers are installing smoothly. Whats the deal with the Asus utilities ? Should i even bother with them ? I am installing all intel drivers and device drivers as I type. Another thing I have this weired problem with a couple of drivers. One is for the ATK0100 driver. Asus wireless console is asking for it but it wont install.

UPDATE : The ATK0100 comes with the package file which is available under utilities. I think that's all the drivers for me. Im giving a miss all the asus utilities for now and I will see how I go.

 

[Britton30]

Hi NZ, I would not install the ASUS Utilities. It's one of those board programs that can mess with your installation. I have an 2 ASUS boards and do well without it.

 

[Lehman111]

Alright so I'm stuck at step 10 and 11. I've done a clean install via usb and everything worked fine aside from that step. Initially it showed up just my mouse and keyboard didn't respond (they're usb and computer doesn't have slots for ps2) but now after changing boot order in my BIOS, which now I regret doing, as soon as it reaches the loading for first use my computer automatically restarts. After restart it goes to the screen to either start in safe mode, safe mode w/ network, w/ cmd, or start normally. Either selection I choose it will continue same cycle.

My BIOS seems to be extremely hard to use as I can't even see the F options as monitor doesn't load fast enough as my computer does so there may be additional options I'm not aware of.

Is there a way to actually tell my computer from BIOS to start with disc or USB besides boot sequence? Because that's obviously not working the way people say on other forums.

Edit: subsequently after spamming F12 it popped up the old school loading screen and went through to the windows set up thing. However, mouse and keyboard still MIA. Computer only has usb slots and there's no ps2 slots to be used.

 

[Brink]

Hello Lehman, and welcome to Seven Forums.

What brand and model # is your mother board or computer (if store bought)?

I'll see if I may be able to look up what F key you need to press at boot to enter the "Boot Menu" to select to temporarily boot from the USB instead of through BIOS to always boot from it until changed.

 

[Lehman111]

Well, actually I finally got passed the BIOS mess and reached the next step. Now it's giving me a driver load error. There's very few options that I've found online for the issue I'm seeing now and majority show no guarantee.

Edit - New development. I've reached the part where I select custom install and each drive shows that I'm using the wrong format partition. I'm apparently using GPT and it's showing an error for each drive.

 

[Brink]

Lehman,

Yeah, Windows 7 needs to be installed to a MBR disk instead of GPT.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26203-convert-gpt-disk-mbr-disk.html
Do you happen to have a motherboard with EFI or UEFI? If so, then you should see this tutorial below first.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-7-a.html

 

[bowman321]

bowman321

hi i want to clean install windows 7 my question is i have 3 hdd installed, is it best to diconnect the 2 i am not going to install on.the install will be on a clean hdd which i have wiped clean with boot&nuke

 

[Golden]

i have 3 hdd installed, is it best to diconnect the 2 i am not going to install on

Yes. Only have the disk to be installed to, connected.

 

[bowman321]

bowman321

many thanks for prompt reply. i take it i then just reconnect the other 2 hdd

 

[Golden]

Yes, thats correct.

 

[bowman321]

Thank you

 

[blockie]

In used this tutorial to get rid of my years of misuse. Worked great except for some steps that I screwed up on.They are the steps concerning partitions. I wound up with a "System Recover" parition and in my attemps to get rid of it I added an unallocated partition.Now I have 4 partitios on drive O. I only want two. How can I get rid of the two umarked ( no drive letters) partitions so that I wind up only with two partitions on drive 0?

 

[Brink]

Hello Mariner,

Please go ahead and post a screenshot of your Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) window showing the full layout of your hard drives.

Since you deleted the "System Reserved/recovery ?" partition, be sure that you DO NOT restart or shut down your computer. That partition may have been your boot partition, and Windows will not boot at startup now if so. If you do by mistake, then you may be able to get Windows to boot by running a Startup Repair possibly up to 3 times if Windows does not boot.

 

[blockie]

Thanks Brink for looking at this. A screenshot is attached.I want to delete the reserve partition as well as the unallocated space and put it all into the large partition.
By the way, I have rebooted several times without any problems.

 

[VistaKing]

Do you want to move your boot files to the C:\ from the system reserved partition ? And then merge the unallocated space with the system reserved partition ?

C:\ does say boot on it but the system reserved partition is your active partition

To make your system partition viewable do this

Open up your cmd with admin rights. Press on the start menu type in cmd right click on cmd and choose Run as Administrator

Type in Diskpart

list disk

select disk 0
list partition
select partition 1 ( if this is the system reserved partition )
detail partition
set id=7

To add a drive letter to System Reserved partition

use Disk Management to assign a drive letter to it:

Click the Start button.
Right-click on Computer.
Click on Manage in the pop-up menu. Computer Management will open.
Click on Disk Management in the tree on the left side.
Right-click on the System Reserved partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths... from the pop-up menu.


Open another Command Prompt with Administrator Rights

Type the commands and press enter after each command

reg unload HKLM\BCD00000000

robocopy H:\ c:\ bootmgr

( H:\ is your System Reserved )

robocopy e:\Boot C:\Boot /s

( To verify that the files been copied )

Type this

dir c:\ /ah

bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:

Return to Disk Management (in the Computer Management window).
Right-click on the System Reserved partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths... from the pop-up menu.
Click the Remove button.
Click the Yes button to confirm the change.
Right-click on the Windows 7 partition and select Mark Partition as Active from the pop-up menu.
Click the Yes button to confirm the change. You should see the Active tag move from the System Reserved partition to the Windows 7 partition.
Close the Computer Management window.

Restart computer and you should be booting off your C:\ drive not your " System Reserved " partition.

 

[blockie]

Do you want to move your boot files to the C:\ from the system reserved partition ? And then merge the unallocated space with the system reserved partition ?

What I want is only two partitions, the C drive which I will boot from and the E drive(which I will later change the drive letter to D). The existing unallocated space and any recovered from system reserved be put into the existing E drive. The result would be only two partitions on the disk.
I'll hold off on making any changes until I hear from you.

 

[Brink]

Mariner,

Depending on how much you would have to reinstall, it may be easier to boot from your Windows 7 installation DVD/USB, delete the "System Reserved" and "C" partitions. This will merge all 3 as one "unallocated space" to the left of your "E" partition.

Next, format the "unallocated space", and select it to do the clean install of Windows 7 on.

This will give you one C: partition on the left with the E: still intact on the right.

Afterwards, you'll just need to install all of your drivers, Windows Updates, programs, and such again in Windows 7.

It may be a bit more work, but you will have a much cleaner and better installation.

If you decide to this, then be sure to backup anything you do not want to lose first.