How do i format my hardrive and reinstall Windows7.

[Guitfiddler]

My first install of Windows 7 was the update version. Now I'm having freezing up issues and want to do a fresh install. So my first thought was to format the hard drive, but it say that it has too big of volume. How do i get around that and do a fresh install? Any help is welcomed.

 

[torrentg]

If you are completely sure that there is nothing that you want to save from your hard drive, then you could just do this:

Boot into bios, change the boot drive to your DVD drive and put the Win 7 DVD in. Reboot.

Go to install Windows normally and it will eventually ask you which drive and partition to install to. At this screen, go to advanced options. If I remember correctly, this is where you can format and then continue to install after.

 

[Night Hawk]

First off welcome to the sevenforums!

Once you start up the installer you should look for the "drive tools" section first seen with Vista and now 7 with the format option found there. Before rushing into the bios to change any settings there look to see if the board offers a boot device menu for selecting the optical drive. Usually the F1, F8, F12, or another F key are set aside for that. Once the first restart takes place the hard drive is already set to boot from.

Besides the format option being seen right there you also save time going back and forth into the bios by using the one time boot session through the boot device menu. Once the primary is wiped you should see a fresh working copy of 7 on in about 20 minutes.

 

[Night Hawk]

Another good one is found in the "Free Great programs for 7" thread http://www.sevenforums.com/software/92-free-great-programs-windows-7-a.html
called Macrium Reflect that can be a real time saver! Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

 

[wajid]

thanks alot for your help

 

[John Henry]

If you are completely sure that there is nothing that you want to save from your hard drive, then you could just do this:

Boot into bios, change the boot drive to your DVD drive and put the Win 7 DVD in. Reboot.

Go to install Windows normally and it will eventually ask you which drive and partition to install to. At this screen, go to advanced options. If I remember correctly, this is where you can format and then continue to install after.

Just a pair of questions about your answer:
I was installing Win7 over VISTA but i didn't chose the upgrade way, i did want to format, so i chose advanced setup. Clicking on FORMAT does nothing (unless it's a fast format that lasts 4 seconds, it's the time setup freezes when i click on format). So i had to delete the partition with vista and chose to create a new one which , strangly, created me 2 partitions: one is a 100mb partition called system and other is the remained space. Is that normal? Plus is there a way to format like we could with XP (i mean by entering the recovery console and write "format c:" ) ?

 

[Orbital Shark]

If you press Shift+F10 (at drive selection, during install) you should be able to access the command prompt. You should be able to format c from there.

Hope this helps




Jeff

 

[John Henry]

If you press Shift+F10 (at drive selection, during install) you should be able to access the command prompt. You should be able to format c from there.

Hope this helps




Jeff

Thank you Jeff, gonna try it next time i install windows.

 

[Night Hawk]

The partitioning tools themselves are still not quite fully ready explaining the problem you had there. This is one reason I keep the latest GParted live cd release onhand to bypass any OS limitations including 7 while still not being the finished version with everything working at this time. It will be soon enough however when RTM.