Noob in need of a little help

[jree]

Hey guys, as you can tell I'm new to these forums and after reading through some of the post on the site I feel like I'm new to computers now. I had Vista and just recently installed 7 pro from a digital download that they were offering to students. I did some searching on this site and didn't quite find the answer that I though suited me.

Here are the issues:

Recover drive D is almost full

When installing new drivers (i.e. Microsoft intellipoint mouse, Explorer 9) they save in the recovery drive automatically instead of C

when booting it gives me the option to either run Vista or 7


I saw on here that Barefoot Kid suggested to do a clean install but I read somewhere that if I tried to reinstall my upgrade version it wouldn't let me
Clean Install Windows 7 With Upgrade Media and Product Key on Formatted or Empty Blank Hard Drive » My Digital Life


Any help is appreciated guys, thanks and if any more info is needed just let me know

 

[MilesAhead]

See if this tutorial helps:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

 

[Bill2]

The recovery partition and OEM partition in that disk management window are the remains of your vista install. Some OEMs configure their machines to write restore points etc. to the recovery partition which is a terrible idea.

Anyhoo, I suggest you do a clean install with the upgrade disk using the workaround described in the tutorial MilesAhead linked. During the install, use the Advanced drive options to delete all the partitions so that the entire drive becomes one big unallocated space, then follow this tut.

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

(Dont get confused, this tut is also linked in the upgrade media tut).

Backup all critical data before doing this. If you wish you can copy the contents of the recovery partition to an external drive, this may enable you to restore the factory vista in the future. Although it remains to be seen whether that partition is uncorrupted.

 

[jree]

I'm sorry for being a little slow at this stuff but I am not that versed in computers. Should I put my "window.old" file back on my D drive, revert back to Vista, and then do a clean install of my upgrade? I'm just trying to be very cautious with this cause I really don't want to lose out on my $30(I know its not much but to a colleg kid with a mortgage and family it is) and I definitley don't want to lose Windows 7.

I really appreciate the help but more than anything I appreciate the patience with me and I honestly apologize for any aggrevation

 

[Bill2]

You dont need to go back in time. Windows.old contains the vista files so you may like to just save it somewhere like on an external drive. One can actually recover files from that folder. If you are certain you dont need anything from the previous install, just delete windows.old.

You dont need to revert to vista. Just boot from the win7 upgrade dvd and do a clean install, as described in this tutorial.

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

but with just two special things- use the advanced drive options to completely delete all partitions and format the drive during the install and second UNCHECK the box "Automatically activate windows when I'm online".

Once install is complete, use the registry workaround (Option 3) in this tut.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

Feel free to refer back after each step.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello jree, welcome to Seven Forums!


In the post above this one Bill has given you the best way to complete the process.


If you need to back anything up, have a look at this tutorial at the link below.

How to Backup User and System Files in Windows 7

 

[jree]

Thank you very much guys!! I'm going to give it a shot

 

[MilesAhead]

If you are going to back up Windows.old take a look at RichCopy:

Free Utility: RichCopy, an Advanced Alternative to RoboCopy

If you try dragging the folder to another drive in Explorer the dialog will sit there for 4 hours while it counts how many files it's going to copy. I copied my Windows.old and there were over 200,000 files and folders in it. Your system may even crash if you try to do it with drag & drop. RichCopy will be done by the time Explorer starts the actual copy.

 

[jree]

I would like to thank everybody for helping me out....Great advice guys, again, thank you

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

It's been our pleasure, if you need further assistance we'll be around!