Solved reinstall without discs

[Scallywag355]

I’ve bought a PC with Win 7 Pro pre-loaded; so I have the activation code but it came without disks
I want to upgrade the hard drive but how do I reinstall the Win 7 without these disks; or even can I?


I do have a copy of Win 7 Home Premium which came with my old now “dead” PC, but I’m lead to believe that this has an embedded code in it which locks it to this old redundant PC and is therefore unuseable?
:sarc:

 

[maxie]

Hi ... Read the Tutorial below it contains every thing you need to get the perfect Clean Install including the ISO ...


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

 

[Scallywag355]

Hi Maxie
Thanks a bunch for this! This would seem to be the perfect answer; I just need a clear day (no problem), a clear head (always difficult), and lots of coffee and a good touch of patience; which is always in short supply!
I will attack this once I have all of the above in place, together with the replacement HD
Thank heavens for forums, that’s all I can say!!
Once again thanks a lot
Richard

 

[maxie]

Most welcome Richard

 

[Scallywag355]

Hi all

Thanks to Maxie I have a good idea of what is involved, but before I use his guide and reinstall Win 7 I need to select & buy the new HD.

I read that it is better to match the SATA of the existing chipset to maximise transfer speeds? This PC has an Intel(R) N10/ICH7 family Serial ATA Storage Controller 27CD

Which I assume is a SATA 2, but where do I confirm this?
Google is good but all I can find are sites listing (and selling I assume) driver updates

I apologise if my question appears stupid, but I’m just feeling my way here so any advice is good advice and much appreciated

 

[maxie]

Sata 2 will work

List of Intel chipsets - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Scallywag355]

Hi Maxie

Many thanks for your answer re SATA2; although I assume SATA 3 will also work?

Not wishing to outstay my welcome but can I ask a supplementary question?
Reading up on the various HD reviews I come across “GPT & MBR” which I have Googled up so I now know what they are, or at least I think I do
I want to fit at least a 1TB HD (if not bigger); and I believe that my PC has a UEFI BIOS (Windows say that all 64 bit machines do) so runs on GPT
But I also came across a comment that Win 7 cannot work above 1.5TB (something to do with partioning?), so the question is 1TB the maximum I should aim at, or can I go bigger?
Bearing in mind the processor I assume

Does that make sense?

Regards
Richard

 

[maxie]

You should consider getting a couple of Drives if you need a lot of space ..


Ssd is very good and would suggest you use that as your main Drive ...


I always think the bigger the Drive you get the bigger the loss you may have ..


3 TB SATA hard drive show up as 750 GB hard drive on Dell Optiplex 980


Windows support for hard disks that are larger than 2 TB

 

[Scallywag355]

Thanks once again Maxie

You have given me much to study and ponder, as in all things we like to get it right the first time
So once again thanks a bunch, and I'll leave you in peace

All the very best
Richard

 

[maxie]

Most welcome .... One last piece of advice get an External Drive use it to make regular Images ..

That way you should never have to Re-Install again ...

 

[Scallywag355]

Hi Maxie

I may seem a tad slow here, by images do you mean archiving?

I do have an external HD with which I used to archive my Office 2007 files on my old PC; and it used to show them as being there before it “died”
But when I connected it up to this replacement, my normal files (photos, letters etc) were there but no sign of the Outlook Office files?

I’m sure I will get there but yes I have learnt a hard lesson, back it up and back it up again; reminiscent of the old Win 95 & 98 where you had to save at regular intervals before “blue screen of death” would appear

(I still have a an old PC that runs on Win 98 for a Wissen program I sometimes use)

A good and interesting learning curve, thanks for the assist!
Regards
Richard

 

[maxie]

Hi Richard ... When you take an image of a hard drive, the image is an exact replica of your computer at the time the image was taken ... I do one every week always think prevention is better than cure ...

 

[Scallywag355]

Hi Maxie

You are going to think me a bit thick, but how do you take an "image"?
It is not something I have ever heard mentioned before, but seems a wise move (that being you know what it is!!)

Richard

 

[maxie]

No problem Richard ... Read the Tutorial below ... There are also other links at the bottom of the page which you will find useful ...


http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

 

[Scallywag355]

Thanks Maxie

Promise I will leave you in peace (for a time!) while I do some serious reading.
I’m going to pick up another of these, they are cheap and I can get one for pennies as it has a very small HD; which of course I am going to ditch (or maybe use as the place to store the OS)

But I would prefer to play with something that I can afford to wreak (or improve)
We will see!!

Take care & thanks
Richard

 

[maxie]

Richard that is why we are here it is to Help in any which way we can

Drives have become really cheap ... I am sure you know where to pick one up at a reasonable price ..

 

[Scallywag355]

Maxie

As a man once said in a crappy film "I'll be back"!
Bet your sweet life I will be back once I have got the info stuffed in between my ears, assimilated and largely understood

I rebuilt my old Yamaha motorbike via various forums and a big dose of YouTube; which begs the question what did we (and our fathers before us) do before 'tinernet??

Take care and thanks, will speak again of that I am very sure!!
Richard