Install Windows 7 from scratch

[gillesht]

Hi,
My nephew's PC is very infected. I want to format his C: drive and stat from scratch. Can I use my image DVD to rebuild his OS? He doesn't have any image backup. If no what's the other solutions.
Best regards.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
If you don't have a installation disk for his version of windows ask some of your friends if they do and use his oem activation key with it,

Otherwise I doubt your recovery image will work but you can try

Lastly clean the system we have some great free scanners
Review Jacee’s instructions to run Adwcleaner here post #7,
Ignore the title of the thread,
http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/316404-instant-savings-app.html
On the BleepingComputer site use the button that looks like this,

You can use these free tools to see if they find anything,
Manually Update them before running full scans,
Try not to use your computer while the scans are running, (one at a time of course).
See this tutorial on how to download and run Malwarebytes,
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/338716-malwarebytes-anti-malware-free.html
Also use the Custom scan option not the Threat scan,
Malwarebytes | Free Anti-Malware Detection & Removal Software
SAS is safe to remove anything it finds
SUPERAntiSpyware | Remove Malware | Remove Spyware - AntiMalware, AntiSpyware, AntiAdware!

 

[Ztruker]

Great tutorial here for clean installing Windows 7, with some suggestions on how to find a Windows 7 ISO to download.

Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

 

[Ztruker]

You can do a torrent download from here for some of the versions: Download Windows 7 ISOs, Legally and for Free

You need to install a torrent client. I looked at the ones suggested and didn't like any except for qTorrent which doesn't try to install a bunch of scamware. I used it to download Windows 7 Pro X86 and X64 and compared the md5 checksums with what they posted and they matched. Now I need to find somewhere to compare them against actual md5 checksum values from Microsoft Downloads or at least MS published.

Good luck.

 

[AddRAM]

Image dvd ? Are you saying you stored a backup image on dvd`s ?? (totally normal)

If you used dvd`s to create your backup image, then of course you can use them to re image windows, that`s their entire purpose.

 

[hazel123]

If you mean use an image from your computer on his, that won't be possible. Presumably his laptop has an option to restore to factory settings (this will basically reinstall windows from scratch with all the original software it came installed with). Each laptop has different ways of doing this. The manual will tell you which key to press on boot up to restore to factory settings, or there may be a manufacturer program installed that gives you this option.

If restoring to factory settings is an option, I would do a clean up first. I'm not an expert so haven't tried all the tools on here, but malwarebytes mentioned above is good. You can download malwarebytes free (if it won't download on his computer, download it on yours, copy the download to an sd card, install the sd card in his, double click on the download and it will install on his computer). Before you install malwarebytes, turn off his antivirus program. Let Malwarebytes install then run it and it will clean up any viruses. Before factory resetting you need to back-up/make copies of all his personal files on another drive or on large (eg 30gb) usb sticks -eg documents, music, photos and videos. Make a list of all programs installed and their product keys. Then reset to factory settings or reinstall from an ISO as suggested above.

 

[AddRAM]

I misread you

No you can`t use your image to install windows on his pc, just do a clean install.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

Download an iso file from the site Z linked and burn to dvd (no faster then x4 speed) or put it on a usb stick.

Free ISO Burner

WiNToBootic bootable usb drive windows vista/7/8 - Bootable USB | Bootable USB