Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

gregrocker said:

That's OK. Seems the comments about download failure are cropping up this month just as MS announces it's abandoning Starter. You can try installing the download on another machine to see how it works.

Not that fortunate anymore. There was a time when I had 6 machines running, though those days are long gone now.

gregrocker said:

There's also Open Office which is very well liked and completely compatible.

I may try it, although I've found that I just like the feel of MS Office. It's comfortable. I've tried some open source stuff before and didn't care for it much.

gregrocker said:

The Toshiba Recovery disks normally have everything that's preinstalled on them. You can always try to Clean Up Factory Bloatware.

That is the entire reason for this interrogation; To get prepared to clean up the machine. From what I've noticed myself and heard from others, 7 is pretty clean as is. It's the crap the OEM throws in that gets ya.

You will know after completing Clean Up Factory Bloatware if it is sufficient if Win7 never hangs or bogs, responds instantaneously. If not I would Clean Reinstall when you have access to MS new Office Web freeware. You should at least try Open Office to see if it suits you. Most everyone I've talked with about it likes it and won't go back.

gregrocker said:

You will know after completing Clean Up Factory Bloatware if it is sufficient if Win7 never hangs or bogs, responds instantaneously. If not I would Clean Reinstall...

Already have cleaned the factory install and it is not sufficient. Next option is to create my own install which will perform as desired.

Whether or not I am able to use certain aspects of the laptop with the 7 iso from MS is the question. I have read conflicting reports as to whether or not the OEM key will work on MS retail software. This is obviously the biggest issue. I should retain the factory recovery partition until I am sure. If it works and I want to reclaim that portion of the drive, I would be forced to reinstall, would I not?

Other options like drivers for the Fn keys, Office Starter, etc. would be trivial, but an inconvenience or an annoyance.

The only function I have ever used out of the Fn keys is that this is where Toshiba has decided to locate Print Screen. Is Snipping Tool an adequate replacement? I suppose I may have to learn to use it.

gregrocker said:

...when you have access to MS new Office Web freeware. You should at least try Open Office to see if it suits you. Most everyone I've talked with about it likes it and won't go back.

I will, on your advice.

Steve

The retail installer has been used to successfully Clean Reinstall factory OEM since Vista. I don't know where you read otherwise but we are the top resource on the web on these having helped countless thousands of users get one since Win7 release.

As it says in the tutorial you can wait to see if your Recovery partition will run after reinstall then reclaim its space without having to reinstall.

Snipping Tool is a great Win7 feature I use every day.

I don't see many problems with Toshiba drivers or software allowing full functionality of hotkeys or other features. The problems are normally with Sony or Samsung.

gregrocker said:

I don't know where you read otherwise...

Wish I could remember. It could have been something such as a few someones reporting errors after mistyping. As you say, that is the most common issue.

gregrocker said:

...but we are the top resource on the web on these having helped countless thousands of users get one since Win7 release.

You are great. This is now my go-to forum for issues.

gregrocker said:

As it says in the tutorial you can wait to see if your Recovery partition will run after reinstall then reclaim its space without having to reinstall.

I missed that one, thanks for the clarification.

gregrocker said:

Snipping Tool is a great Win7 feature I use every day.

Hopefully I won't lose my print screen, but if I do, I will adapt.

gregrocker said:

I don't see many problems with Toshiba drivers or software allowing full functionality of hotkeys or other features. The problems are normally with Sony or Samsung.

The issue would be that I do not seem to be able to find stand alone drivers for the Fn keys. It seems to be bundled in the TVAP, which I really don't feel I need and seems like a waste of space and time.

I would probably need to install a clean version of 7 just to find out what drivers I am missing or need to replace. No matter how many times I look and try to think ahead, something will fail to function properly.

In that case you can save a WIn7 backup image of your current System partition then Clean Reinstall a test install. If it doesn't work like you want you can reimage back to what you have now in 20 minutes. This is your customized OS as it exists now so is a much better method than messing with clumsy Recov partitions.

I'd use two methods:
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
System Image Recovery
or Macrium - Image your system
I prefer Acronis premium imaging/cloning app which comes free if you have any WD or Seagate HD's in the mix.

gregrocker said:

In that case you can save a WIn7 backup image of your current System partition then Clean Reinstall a test install. If it doesn't work like you want you can reimage back to what you have now in 20 minutes. This is your customized OS as it exists now so is a much better method than messing with clumsy Recov partitions.

This is what I was considering, leaving the Recovery alone for now.

gregrocker said:

I'd use two methods:
Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Accompanied by:

gregrocker said:

System Image Recovery

• Since I had few DVDs and very small USB storage, I was forced to trim what I will keep. With the image, everything will be replaced. Might the image of a drive which has 287 occupied GB (plus Toshiba Recovery) fit on a 4GB USB stick, or would I need larger? I had assumed that since a clean copy of Windows recommends a 4GB flash drive (And if I remember right, the install was around 16 GB?), depending on the compression of the additional files, using the 25% ratio as a guide, I would need ~70GB for the image?

From your pink warning (Apparently repeated 3 times for clarity): "...Windows 7 cannot include the partition or drive that you are saving the backup image to in the image."

"...All "system" or "boot" drives/partitions are included in the system image by default, so you will not be able to save the system image to a system or boot drive/partition."

"...If you are saving the system image to a HDD or partition, then you can only save the system image on a separate hard drive (recommended) or partition than what Windows 7 is installed on. It cannot be saved to the C: drive."

• I only have 1 usable partition on 1 drive. Even if allowed to save to the drive, I would have to transfer the image in order to use it. I have 2 small USB sticks I'm using for the remaining backed up data. I have no DVDs at the moment and I also find fault with using them for backup files where the content is consolidated into a single file. I don't mind using them for backups if the data is not crucial and each file is separate.

• If I instead backup my C:\ to the USB, I won't have a way to extract just the files from the image without restoring the image to the drive, thereby defeating the purpose.

"...All "system"...partitions are included in the system image by default..."

• Then this includes the Recovery partition, even though it's not visible? Just in case.

I now have to assume that Windows Backup is out of the competition.

gregrocker said:

or Macrium - Image your system

• Last contestant. Again, how big would the image be?

gregrocker said:

I prefer Acronis premium imaging/cloning app which comes free if you have any WD or Seagate HD's in the mix.

• Would that I had a quality drive. I'm afraid I'm stuck with the Toshiba. Well, maybe that's not fair. I haven't had any problems with their hardware, just their software installs so far. *Knock on wood*

The backup image is about as big as the used space of your C drive. You'd need an external.

You can also shrink the C drive to boot the installer and clean reinstall to a 20-30 gb test partition . If it doesn't work out you only need to delete it in Disk Mgmt. If you want to keep it we can help you do that.

Toshiba is likely not the HD make. Google what's listed under Disk Drive in Device manager to learn the make.

gregrocker said:

The backup image is about as big as the used space of your C drive. You'd need an external.

Was afraid of that.

gregrocker said:

You can also shrink the C drive to boot the installer and clean reinstall to a 20-30 gb test partition . If it doesn't work out you only need to delete it in Disk Mgmt. If you want to keep it we can help you do that.

Eh, jump in head first. You're about 2 hours too late.

BTW, Fn keys still have their functionality. After revisiting the Toshiba site, I realized my error. The item included in TVAP is the Flash Cards module, the graphic displayed when the Fn key is pressed. Trivialities.

gregrocker said:

Toshiba is likely not the HD make. Google what's listed under Disk Drive in Device manager to learn the make.

MKxx75GSX - Product Detail So far as I can find, Toshiba US only lists externals, but Euro lists the internals as well. Google returned Asian results as well. I don't know if they don't sell them retail here or what, but I've got it.

I didn't know they made drives, either, until I got this one.

erm...

Clean install not so clean

What did I do wrong? And if it can be screwed up, leave it to me to find the way to do it.