Need to reformat HD without current functional os

[Silverpilgrim7]

HD crashed, been replaced. local tech installed xp, never worked. found win7 clean install info, but cant get past "sorry for the inconvenience" page. want to just reformat the hd, but have no actual working os. tried Killdisk, wouldnt work. what is a good boot disk/reformat disk i can download to start from scratch?

 

[C-11]

Good tutorial here
Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing

 

[seavixen32]

Partition Wizard is one that many of us use to partition a hard drive: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93322-partition-wizard-use-bootable-cd.html

Just a thought, according to your specs, you're using Windows XP.

How do you think you're going to install Windows 7 without buying it first?

 

[gregrocker]

What is the "Sorry for the inconvenience page?" Never heard of it. Please post back the verbatim error message.

WHere did you get WIn7 and how do you plan to activate it? Did you burn the DVD or write to bootable flash stick yourself?

 

[AddRAM]

Partition Wizard is one that many of us use to partition a hard drive: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93322-partition-wizard-use-bootable-cd.html

Just a thought, according to your specs, you're using Windows XP.

How do you think you're going to install Windows 7 without buying it first?

+1:sarc:

 

[Silverpilgrim7]

Came with win 7 installed. Ive got the product code on the computer. when the hd crashed i had the tech guy put xp in instead. the version he gave me hasnt worked properly from day 1. ive tried killdisk to reformat (didnt work), tried the bootable thumbdrive i made from the microsoft website, nothing works. Ive ordered the recovery disks from Acer, that's the next step. but right now Im not optimistic.

 

[gregrocker]

In that case you can try these steps to Clean Reinstall Windows 7 Factory OEM
to get a superior install without the OEM bloatware and useless factory utilties which have much better versions built into Win7.

Boot the clean copy Win7 installer w/SP1 for your licensed version, delete all partitions and create your own or just click Next and the installer will do it for you.

 

[whs]

If you follow Greg's advice, there is no need to preformat the disk. But if you absolutely like to format the disk, the advice given with Partition Wizard bootable CD is a good option.

You can also do it from a Command Propmt (e.g. from your bootable stick) and define an active primary partition at the same time. That way the installer will not create a seperate active 100MB system partition. The commands are:

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for the disk you want to format)
Create partition primary format=ntfs
Active (assuming you want to install an OS)
Exit