Solved Format question

[WolfSoul]

This is what I have now
Is it ok that the System Reserved is visible in Explorer

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

It's ok but it would be better if it had no drive letter so it can't be accessed unintentionally, did you give it the letter for some reason because the Windows 7 installation process will not letter it by default?

Before you make any changes a question if I may, are there bootable OSs on "Disk 1" and "Disk 3", or are they just data drives, the reason I ask is that they're marked "Active" and that can cause issues on data drives that aren't OS bootable?

 

[WolfSoul]

About the letter Im not sure
But yea those others are supposed to be data disks

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

If you are going to do this you may as well do it the correct way so you don't have other related issues along the way.


If the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) at "Disk 2" is the one you're going to wipe and reinstall to, power down the machine and disconnect all the HDDs and connect that HDD to the #1 SATA port on the motherboard and set it as the second boot device after the CD/DVD drive in the BIOS; leave all the others disconnected for the entire process; do the wipe and the reinstall to that HDD.


When you have the new Windows 7 installed and booting good, then power down the machine and reconnect the other HDDs to the mobo, then use the information in the snip in Option Two #2 of this tutorial to mark the other HDDs " Inactive " so they don't cause future issues.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

 

[WolfSoul]

Actually that's what I did.. the disk2 you see I left conncted to the mobo as only HD and wiped and followed the tutorials, then afterwards I reconncted the 3 other disks
Btw, I have removed the driveletter on the 200 MB now

 

[WolfSoul]

This looks right then

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Yes that's excellent; now notice that the Windows C: is "System Active" there's now no need for the SysResv partition at all, Windows 7 is booting all on it's own now.

 

[WolfSoul]

I have to say I picked up an OEM dvd with alot of versions and picked the Asus version then used my own OEM serial
So might be that the Asus setup adjusted some settings by itself

 

[WolfSoul]

This worked great btw (jut have to figure out to format/clean on a new install but that's not immediate concern)
Only thing I wonder is well isn't 100 Gb a bit small for lets say someone who plays alot of games
I have the same concern towards SSDs seeing as I play alot of games and high capacity SSD is not a very affordable option for now

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello again mate.



Only you know how much space you may need for C: if you feel you need more added to the C: partition you could use the free bootable Partition Wizard CD to shrink/resize the F: partition and that space could then be added to the C: partition; have a look at this tutorial at the link below for an outline of the process.

Clean Install Windows 7 : Ahead of Vista



Then have a look at Option Two of this tutorial to see how to recover the space from the old SysResv partition into the C: partition though of-course you won't need to do the startup repairs because the C: partition is already the "System" partition but the wipe would be a good idea.

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

 

[WolfSoul]

Might put this on hold been building a couple pcs for my friend and maybe I'll be able to buy a raptor from the costs/parts I used

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Be sure to post back with an update when you're able.

 

[WolfSoul]

Ok I have my SSD meanwhile btw.. feels fast

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Well done mate, makes a difference eh.

 

[WolfSoul]

Aye.. but I might do a decent reinstall again soon :lol: Plans to get a second of these.. and I have a Samsung G3 placed in order

 

[pallesenw]

   Note

Contrary to popular belief, formatting does not remove any data at all, it just checks for sector errors and marks the space to be over-written as needed, all the data is still there including all the code from previous/failed installation attempts.

That is a little bit outdated. Vista and later zero fill when you do a full format.

 

[WolfSoul]

Hm on a disk IN windows then.. because when you install it won't give you the choice which kind of format

 

[pallesenw]

Change in the behavior of the format command in Windows Vista

"The format command behavior has changed in Windows Vista. By default in Windows Vista, the format command writes zeros to the whole disk when a full format is performed."

 

[pallesenw]

Simulate all you want. When you check with your disk editor when done, you will see only zeroes

 

[WolfSoul]

Ok update..
This is what I have now and Ive been using diskpart/clean all the last times I reinstalled Windows 7