Clean installing Windows 7 on a SSD and wiping Windows 8 64bit

[xpancakeprodigy]

I own a Dell Inspiron 17R laptop and currently have Windows 8 64 bit installed on my 1TB HDD. I want to wipe both my HDD and SDD and then install Windows 7 Home Premium on the 32 GB SDD. I had looked at two tutorials-- http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html and http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html --but the former advises to not "clean all" on a SSD and the latter does not include information on how to safely clear either drive. Are there any tutorials I can follow to do this safely? Any help is much appreciated

 

[theog]

Is this a new Dell with Windows 8 Pre-installed?

 

[xpancakeprodigy]

It's refurbished and has Windows 8 preinstalled

 

[VistaKing]

Use Diskpart .

When you get to this screen ( image below )

Press Shift and F10 . You will get a command prompt window . It should open up to X:\Sources . In there input these commands and press enter after each line .

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK 0
CLEAN
CREATE PRIMARY PARTITION 
SELECT PARTITION 1 
ACTIVE 
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="Windows 7 OS" QUICK 
ASSIGN LETTER=C
EXIT
EXIT

   Note

Disk 0 is the first hard drive .

To format the 2nd drive type in Disk 1 press ENTER and type clean and press [ENTER]

Back on the image above press Install Now . Check the I accept the license terms box and click on Next. Click on the Custom (advanced) option. Then choose
Disk 0 Partition 1: Window (C:\) and click Next

When it reboots don't press any keys it will continue on its own

 

[xpancakeprodigy]

Okay thanks a bunch. I'll post on this thread again if I have any additional problems

 

[VistaKing]

When you're installing Windows 7 remove the 1TB hard drive

 

[xpancakeprodigy]

Im on a laptop so I don't think I can do that, or at least I have no idea how :/

 

[VistaKing]

What is the full model of the Dell Inspiron 17R ? There are like 4 models of 17Rs

 

[xpancakeprodigy]

This is the exact model I purchased: Newegg.com - Refurbished: DELL Inspiron 17R Special Edition Notebook Intel Core i7 3630QM(2.40GHz) 17.3" 8GB DDR3 Memory 32GB SSD 1TB HDD DVD+/-RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M

 

[theog]

1) Downgrade to Windows 7.
Downgrade Windows 8 to Windows 7
Warning you must have the uEFI/BIOS firmware setting in Step Three set.


2) If Using a USB Pendrive on a PC with a uEFI BIOS.
USB Pendrive need to be formated to FAT32 as in
UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows
Take note of Step 11 for Windows 7.
Also you will need to use a USB 2.0 port, as there are no USB 3.0 drivers in Windows 7.

As you have the 32gb mSATA,
Take note of the Intel Rapid Storage Technology setting in the BIOS.
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19473548/20217017.aspx#20217017

 

[gregrocker]

The 32 gb SSD is meant to be a paging file to speed up the HDD, however we have helped users install the OS to it.

What's worked before is to pre-format the SSD so it will show up during install to choose for Win7 install. You can try doing this with Disk Mgmt or if necessary use Partition Wizard to Format Partition.

If the SSD does not show up first as DISK0 during install, the installer may write the boot files to the HDD since it writes them to the first Primary partition in order. For this reason I would try to disable the HDD in BIOS before install, or delete all HDD partitions and repartition it Logical using Partition Wizard Create Partition - Video Help so that boot files cannot be written to it.


You'll likely want to put your User files on the HDD and then link them to the corresponding Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forums. This avoids the HDD becoming a System drive if you move the User Folders - Change Default Location to it, although if you use an imaging app besides Win7's build-in one then that is not an issue.

 

[VistaKing]

Take a reading below

:ar: Needs help on Installing SSD and using HDD as data drive on Inspiron 17r SE

It will tell you how to get to the hard drives .