Fresh install gone wrong

[Woozle]

I have had trouble with Windows 7 media centre and corrupt audio drivers and followed the tutorial install from my manufacturers supplied OEM disc. However, I seem to have installed the fresh install in a recovery partition and so now have 2 installs of windows 7 and am given the option of which one to use on boot up. The audio problems are not there in the second install but it is obviiously in the wrong part of the drive as I now get a warning message saying that my recovery drive E is full. How do I uninstall the newly installed version from this drive and then I can go back to the original version and have aniother go of getting this to work properly. When I tried the install I was not permitted to install into the C Drive (OS) but I presume that this is where it should have gone

 

[theog]

How to use Dell Recovery,make Recovery Disks & how to order Recovery Disks.
Dell - Support


What type of Windows 7 DVD did you use?

 

[gregrocker]

Your Recovery Partition is now borked anyway, so I would boot the Win7 DVD, use Custom install>Drive Options to Delete all partitions, Create new as you wish, Format all before installing to the first OS partition - ignore the 100mb Boot partition it creates which conveniently places the repair console (normally only on DVD or Repair CD) on the F8 Advanced Boot Options.

Follow these steps to get a perfect clean reinstall of factory OEM: Reinstalling Windows 7

You can also order Recovery Disks from the manufacturer if you didn't make them but this will restore all of the preinstalled bloatware, so I would use the Win7 OS installation DVD which you were fortunate to receive since it is not shipped any longer except with high end PC's.

 

[Woozle]

Hard work ahead then

looks like I have got to spend a bit of time with this problem then. job on the back burner for a couple of weeks. thanks for the advice though

 

[Woozle]

DVD Supplied with Laptop

The DVD used was the Operating System Reinstallation DVD as supplied by Dell for the software already installed on the machine. It can only be used to Reinstall on this particular machine

 

[gregrocker]

A Reinstallation DVD should not contain the preinstalled bloatware and useless Dell utilities which have better versions built into Win7. OTherwise it would be labeled "Recovery Disk(s)" which you can also make: Dell Restoring Your Computer´s Software to the Factory Settings

This is a much cleaner and more lean install with only the Win7 OS.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Woozle, welcome to Seven Forums!


Have a look at the information in this tutorial at the link below and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

Clean Install : Factory COA Activation Key

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