How do i re-install Windows 7 without CD ?

[BossSiggy]

[FONT=&quot]Hello.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I have a old laptop that i would like to sell and because of that re-install Windows 7, so that all traces of me gets deleted and also so that its like someone just bought from a store, what options do i have ?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Thanks.[/FONT]

 

[SIW2]

what is the make and model of the laptop ?

 

[file3456]

From your other post it looks like your laptop has a platter hard drive. Acer Aspire 7551 specs | laptop spec

This is good in terms of trying to sanitize your data off the drive because trying to do this in a flash based drive like an SSD or NVMe is a lot harder to do in terms of making sure the data is really wiped. Without getting into all the details, flash based media needs an elevated amount of voltage to ensure the cells are wiped. And this is something only the manufacturer of the drive will know. They sell so called USB wiping tools and crap for hard drives. That can't be trusted, plus you put unnecessary wear and tear on a flash based drive that has a finite write cycle.


Since it appears you do have a platter based drive and not an SSD you can use DBAN. I used this all the time back in the day. However, it's been years since I used it since I have not needed to wipe a drive. I see they have gone on to full on marketing mode with real DoD 5222.2M certification. In actuality, the proper way to wipe a platter is with a few thousand dollar degausser. DoD spec this and that be damned.

What you first need to know on how to run an OS or install an OS via CD is how to either burn the ISO to USB or use what I use and that's Ventoy. Others use something called Rufus.

 

[SIW2]

I have a old laptop that i would like to sell

It might be more attractive if you install windows 10.

If you have the coa key on a sticker, you can use that with windows 10.

If you don't have the coa sticker, install win7, use slp activation, then upgrade it to windows 10.

 

[file3456]

Are you good at following instructions? Then read on to wipe the drive. I'll give you the easy way and the more elaborate paranoid way. As far as OS installation, I'll leave that up to others who may chime in. If not I guess I'll try and help. Do you still have the OEM install disk though?


1) Platter data erasure the paranoid way.

A) Download Veracrypt from here. You'll want the Windows executable (exe). Now install it to the laptop being sold.

B) Launch Veracrypt. At the top go to System | Encrypt system partition drive. Chose the HDD, select the whole damn thing, chose the hash (SHA512 will work), chose an encryption of a cascade of three ciphers. Like AES, Twofish, Serpent or something. Chose the option to save recovery media and not write to a disk like a USB drive. Don't chose wipe free space and let Veracrypt encrypt. It may take a very, very long time. Like over night.

C) Download Hiren's Boot CD here or DBAN from the link I gave.

D) Download Ventoy from here.

E) Write Ventoy to a blank USB drive.

F) Copy/paste the ISO or image file of DBAN or Hiren's Boot CD to the USB drive that was formatted with Ventoy.

G) You now boot the USB drive. Read how to do that here. (Scroll down to where it says "How do I boot from USB in the BIOS?." You want an F key that ASKS what drive to boot from. You don't need to monkey in BIOS its self. Unless BIOS has no option to ask you which drive to boot from. In which case you need to set up boot priorities in BIOS so that the USB drive is first to pick from.

H) If successfully booted from USB the Ventoy menu appears and you can now start DBAN or Hiren's Boot CD. If using Hiren's Boot CD you want to find the program Eraser and use that to erase the entire drive.





1) Platter data erasure the easy? way.

Start from step C above. I'm done typing. LOL

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If you don't have the coa sticker, install win7, use slp activation, then upgrade it to windows 10.

He/she is not going to know how to do that. Just guessing...

 

[Fox Computers]

It might be more attractive if you install windows 10.

Seconding this. More buyers are searching for a Windows 10 (or newer yet, Windows 11) laptop over a Windows 7 laptop nowadays.

 

[Megahertz07]

Most laptops has a Factory Recover function that you can launch from BIOS
It will clean the drive and install an image stored on the Recovery partition. You will have Win 7 as the computer came from factory.

To do a Win 10 clean install without having to upgrade first
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First | Tutorials

 

[siliconbeaver]

HeHe,
If the laptop is with a platter hard drive, then better go Windows 7 than 10/11 unless he would upgrade to SSD.

I did re/install Windows 7/10/11 often. my experience is to install OS 7-11. i.e.

1. If computer with SSD, then install Windows 11 (I skip Windows 10), the fast hardware can take advantage of newer OS.
2. If without SSD (SATA PATA IDE, , ,), then Windows 7 is best choice. compact and fast on old hardware.

To install Windows 7, start from here.
Update your Win 7 installation media by SIW2

From your other post it looks like your laptop has a platter hard drive. Acer Aspire 7551 specs | laptop spec

 

[BossSiggy]

what is the make and model of the laptop ?

acer aspire 7551 series model ms2310

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From your other post it looks like your laptop has a platter hard drive. Acer Aspire 7551 specs | laptop spec

This is good in terms of trying to sanitize your data off the drive because trying to do this in a flash based drive like an SSD or NVMe is a lot harder to do in terms of making sure the data is really wiped. Without getting into all the details, flash based media needs an elevated amount of voltage to ensure the cells are wiped. And this is something only the manufacturer of the drive will know. They sell so called USB wiping tools and crap for hard drives. That can't be trusted, plus you put unnecessary wear and tear on a flash based drive that has a finite write cycle.


Since it appears you do have a platter based drive and not an SSD you can use DBAN. I used this all the time back in the day. However, it's been years since I used it since I have not needed to wipe a drive. I see they have gone on to full on marketing mode with real DoD 5222.2M certification. In actuality, the proper way to wipe a platter is with a few thousand dollar degausser. DoD spec this and that be damned.

What you first need to know on how to run an OS or install an OS via CD is how to either burn the ISO to USB or use what I use and that's Ventoy. Others use something called Rufus.

i think the hard drive is SATA, i definitely know its not SSD. I might check out that DBAN. But is there no ways to to do it without CD or USB ? I just made Rescue Media with Macrium Reflect for my new pc on my USB and made a backup of my OS on my external SSD for my new pc, so i dont have more space, i guess i could delete that and then do what you are saying and then after delete what you are saying and either make Rescue Media or a backup of my OS again.

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It might be more attractive if you install windows 10.

If you have the coa key on a sticker, you can use that with windows 10.

If you don't have the coa sticker, install win7, use slp activation, then upgrade it to windows 10.

Can you still upgrade for free to Win 10 ? I remember doing that on my old stationary. When you say coa key on a sticker, do you mean the sticker on the backside of the laptop where it says what type of Windows i have, product key, etc. ?

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Are you good at following instructions? Then read on to wipe the drive. I'll give you the easy way and the more elaborate paranoid way. As far as OS installation, I'll leave that up to others who may chime in. If not I guess I'll try and help. Do you still have the OEM install disk though?


1) Platter data erasure the paranoid way.

A) Download Veracrypt from here. You'll want the Windows executable (exe). Now install it to the laptop being sold.

B) Launch Veracrypt. At the top go to System | Encrypt system partition drive. Chose the HDD, select the whole damn thing, chose the hash (SHA512 will work), chose an encryption of a cascade of three ciphers. Like AES, Twofish, Serpent or something. Chose the option to save recovery media and not write to a disk like a USB drive. Don't chose wipe free space and let Veracrypt encrypt. It may take a very, very long time. Like over night.

C) Download Hiren's Boot CD here or DBAN from the link I gave.

D) Download Ventoy from here.

E) Write Ventoy to a blank USB drive.

F) Copy/paste the ISO or image file of DBAN or Hiren's Boot CD to the USB drive that was formatted with Ventoy.

G) You now boot the USB drive. Read how to do that here. (Scroll down to where it says "How do I boot from USB in the BIOS?." You want an F key that ASKS what drive to boot from. You don't need to monkey in BIOS its self. Unless BIOS has no option to ask you which drive to boot from. In which case you need to set up boot priorities in BIOS so that the USB drive is first to pick from.

H) If successfully booted from USB the Ventoy menu appears and you can now start DBAN or Hiren's Boot CD. If using Hiren's Boot CD you want to find the program Eraser and use that to erase the entire drive.





1) Platter data erasure the easy? way.

Start from step C above. I'm done typing. LOL

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He/she is not going to know how to do that. Just guessing...

Sometimes im good at following instructions lol. Im not sure what OEM means, but no i dont have any discs for it. I have that sticker on the backside of it with the product key that SIW2 is talking about though. But what you are talking about here is that the same stuff as you mentioned in your other post ? I see you are mentioning DBAN again, so i guess so ?

and i have once installed Windows on a old stationary, cant remember what Windows though its 14 years ago, then i bought a new pc, i downloaded Windows 7 from a torrent homepage and booted it from BIOS and installed it that way (from what i remember), upgraded that pc to Windows 10, now just bought a new stationary that came with Windows 10 installed though.

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Seconding this. More buyers are searching for a Windows 10 (or newer yet, Windows 11) laptop over a Windows 7 laptop nowadays.

Maybe i should go with Windows 10, since i know you are selling pc's yourself and thats what my plan is aswell and Windows 10 does seem more appealing than Windows 7, unless the pc is to bad to handle Windows 10 ?

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Most laptops has a Factory Recover function that you can launch from BIOS
It will clean the drive and install an image stored on the Recovery partition. You will have Win 7 as the computer came from factory.
I was inside BIOS on it yesterday and also something called advanced boot settings or something where i booted it with commandprompt after googling how to reset it back to factory settings, but it ended up wanting to go back to a older version from commandprompt and thats not what im looking for, so i exitted that. But how do i find what you are talking about ? I didnt see anything like that inside BIOS.
To do a Win 10 clean install without having to upgrade first
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First | Tutorials

Clean Windows 10 installation might be the best, since Fox that is in here and selling pc's is saying that aswell, so he kinda know what people wants and that also makes sense that more people wants Windows 10 over Windows 7, since its newer and support for Win 7 stopped back in 20 i think ?

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HeHe,
If the laptop is with a platter hard drive, then better go Windows 7 than 10/11 unless he would upgrade to SSD.

I did re/install Windows 7/10/11 often. my experience is to install OS 7-11. i.e.

1. If computer with SSD, then install Windows 11 (I skip Windows 10), the fast hardware can take advantage of newer OS.
2. If without SSD (SATA PATA IDE, , ,), then Windows 7 is best choice. compact and fast on old hardware.

To install Windows 7, start from here.
Update your Win 7 installation media by SIW2

how do i know if the hard drive is platter ? I know its not SSD, but i thought the only other option was SATA ? Fox that is selling alot of pc's, wich is what im going to do with this one aswell is saying that Windows 10 would be more appealing though ?

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Thanks to everyone for your answers, i have to figure out what im going to do though and im thinking maybe upgrading to Windows 10 is the smartest move, instead of a clean install of Windows 7, since Windows 10 is more appealing to most people, the question is if the pc is good enough for Windows 10 though, i would have to look up what minimum specs is recommended for Win 10 before deciding on that, but if the laptop is good enough for that, is it still possible to upgrade for free to Win 10 from Win 7 ? I remember i did that years ago on my old stationary.

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its good enough for Windows 10, i just checked the minimum specs you need for Win 10, the question is just if you can still upgrade from win 7 to Win 10 and if all i need for that is the sticker on the back off the laptop for that or do i need something else ? I will check out what everyone wrote with Windows 10 again, but i need to go to work soon, so will have to do that later.

 

[Megahertz07]

My suggestion: If the laptop has 4G or less memory, install win 10 32 bits.

 

[BossSiggy]

My suggestion: If the laptop has 4G or less memory, install win 10 32 bits.

Its 4 GB ram

 

[Fox Computers]

Can you still upgrade for free to Win 10 ?

Yes, see Upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 7 for Free | Tutorials (tenforums.com)

Since Windows 7 is already on your laptop and activated, when you upgrade to Windows 10 it should activate itself automatically.

so that all traces of me gets deleted and also so that its like someone just bought from a store

As you run through the upgrade tool you will be asked what you want to keep from your installation of Windows 7. You can select to keep nothing from it for when you upgrade to Windows 10.

This is not the most secure thing in the world, but one way I like to imagine it is if someone is so technologically inclined and malicious enough to want to try recover whatever you had on your Windows 7, they are probably not going to be browsing to buy some random laptop (yours for instance) were there is no guarantee of what they can get off it. It just does not make sense. Plus there is no reason to advertise the fact that the laptop has been upgraded to Windows 10 (in other words saying it did not come with Windows 10 by default) when you come to sell it anyway nowadays, it does not help anything believe it or not to give such a minor detail. You only need to write somewhere that the operating system is Windows 10, what version of Windows 10 and if it is 32 or 64 bit (if you upgrade using the linked guide it will most likely be Home edition and 64-Bit) You can find all this out by searching "about", then going to "about your PC" in Windows 10.

i would have to look up what minimum specs is recommended for Win 10 before deciding on that

My suggestion: If the laptop has 4G or less memory, install win 10 32 bits.

If the OP was keeping the laptop themselves it might be advisable, but when it comes to selling any potential buyers who are even slightly technologically inclined will be off put to hear it is 32-Bit. If OP does chose to install 32-Bit Windows it should be clearly stated when it comes to listing the laptop for sale anywhere, otherwise you may get customers trying to install 64-Bit applications (intentionally or unintentionally) and wondering why they do not work.

Whether you install 32 Windows, or, what I recommend in your case 64-Bit Windows (as I say if you upgrade using the guide it will most likely be 64-bit anyway), there are lots of tweaks you can easily perform were the only difference you will notice is better performance / "responsiveness" and not notice any negatives such as different appearance.

• Disable animations and transparency effects.
• Go to advanced system settings > performance settings > select "adjust for best performance" > renenable smooth edges of screenfonts and show thumnails instead of icons.
• Turn game bar off.
• Windows 10 likes to quietly install Microsoft Teams via update and set it to run automatically at startup. Be sure to turn this off in the startup programs.
• Since it is a laptop you will want to leave it in the balanced performance plan so as to preserve a good balance of performance and batteyr life. However when the laptop is plugged in there is no need to worry about batteyr life so search "power plan" > go to "edit plan settings" > change advanced power settings > expand processor power management > expand minimum processor state > change plugged in to 100%. You might think this would make the laptop run hotter or louder but I have never once had this be the case.

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Of course is only suggestions as yours was Megahertz so feel free to ignore !!