Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Hello and thank you for a very comprehensive guide!

I have a dell xps 17 with two hard drive slots and I wanted to install an SSD to run windows 7 and other commonly used programs, while keeping the bulk of music, videos, etc. on the HDD that came with the laptop.

I was just wondering if the approach in this guide is feasible to do a fresh install of windows 7 on the SSD rather than migrating? Windows came preinstalled on the laptop's HDD and I only have the system recovery discs I made, but downloading and burning the Windows 7 ISO will allow me to install and activate windows 7 on the SSD? Also, is there a problem in having windows installed on both drives, as long as I boot from the SSD? I suppose the best thing would be to format the HDD as soon as windows is installed properly on the SSD, and keep backup on an external drive.

I am relatively inexperienced in the field, and I'm trying to find the most convenient way to install and optimize the SSD. It would be great to know which adjustments, such as alignment and disabling of disk defragmentation, are necessary in this approach.

Any input would be appreciated!

Warm regards.

In addition you can best link your files to Win7 from the HD by sorting them into the named User folders and rightclicking each User folder to add to the related Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forums.

Later when ready to wipe the HD and repartition as a data/storage drive, back up the User folders and then relink them using this simple method after copying them back onto wiped and formatted HD.
Diskpart Clean Command
Partition or Volume - Create New

Another really cool way to sync your files to cloud backup easily and free for 7gb per Windows Live ID is to rightclick each to Sync Any Folder to Your SkyDrive Account | PCWorld.

Thanks for quick responses and great advice, guys!

Reorganizing the files into libraries is a very good idea so that I rarely have to access the HDD and get confused over where I put things. I suppose a "clean all" of the HDD will be convenient after backing up and installing win7 on the SSD, as I'm only keeping it for storage and don't need an OS on it.

I'll eventually pick up the Samsung 830 series SSD 256 GB and hopefully the installation will proceed without a hitch. Will check in again if something comes up. :)

Edit: Probably a stupid question but.. In terms of activating Windows again, I assume it will still recognize my computer although it is installed on a new drive, considering that it won't allow activation on a different computer?

Warm regards

Hi Everybody,
I have been trying to do a clean install (Win7 Home Premium 64Bit) on a friends laptop. It is a Toshiba Satellite A660 and had slowed to a crawl, he did a factory restore but the machine was still running slowly, I have tried to do another factory restore (from hidden partition) and it keeps coming up with disk errors. To cut a long story short I purchased another HD, downloaded the ISO (as per the tutorial) but am still running into problems. I get through to the screen where it is Expanding Windows files. It stays at 0% then comes up with an error.
"Windows cannot install required files make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error Code 0x80070001"
I assumed this was because of a bad burn of the ISO file but I have since burnt 4 more copies from newly downloaded files (3 files via Firefox and 1 via IE8).
So am a bit stuck at the moment.

Confirm the ISO by size and if necessary HashTab .

Burn to DVD using ImgBurn at 4x speed with Verify.

If this fails again then write to flash stick using Universal USB Installer with Win7 in dropdown menu, or UltraISO Software To Create Bootable USB Flash Drive which never fails while the others can.

Test the DVD on another machine. If it boots and proceeds beyond where it is stalling here then reset the BIOS to defaults: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS. Set HD to boot first, trigger DVD or stick using one-time BIOS Boot Menu key.

Done. See how you like the wording.

Previously we could also backup System32\Drivers and know we had everything but many are now out in the root of Sys32 folder.

Keep em coming! Thanks, Golden.