Format hard drive for fresh install of Win7????

S

safehaven

Limp Gawd
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Apr 28, 2008
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I want to install Win7 Pro32. The laptop currently has Vista Basic 32. The machine is also massively infected with all kinds of nastiness at the moment. So, I want to format the hard drive and get it good and clean, prior to the new install. What is the best way to accomplish this? I tried using the format option during the setup of Win7, but it did not seem to do anything.

I am guessing a boot disk??? If so, what is the best way to create one. Free is always a good price. Can I create what I need using my desktop with Win7 Pro64? Is there a freeware program that would work better?

Links or instructions would be greatly appreciated. I did a google search, but I had not heard of any of the websites that came up in the search results. So, I was hesitant to try any of them. I know that no one here will steer me wrong.

Thanks!
 
It's about this simple:

1) Make sure you've got all your stuff "saved" if necessary before you start this, to the best of your ability since you're about to wipe the drive(s)/partition(s) clean.
2) Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD (x86, x64, doesn't matter)
3) Boot the machine off that DVD.
4) When you get the first dialogue box, click Next.
5) When you get the next dialogue box, click Install Now.
6) The next dialogue box, put the check in the box (to accept the license terms, click Next.
7) Next dialogue box, select Custom install (just click in that area) - do NOT do an upgrade, period.
8) Next dialogue box, click the Drive options link, highlight the partition(s) one at a time - if you have more than one, you're primarily interested in the system partition, where Vista is currently installed, and Delete it - completely delete it totally. If it's the only partition (one big partition using the full capacity of your given hard drive), you'll end up with a completely unallocated drive at that point.
9) Once that's accomplished, highlight that drive/space by clicking on it, then either you a) choose to use a portion of it for the system partition or b) use it all.

- For a) click the New button, then punch in the amount of gigabytes to use for that partition (in thousands, so if you wanted a 50GB partition, that's 50000) then click Apply - it'll take a few seconds to create the partition which will be unformatted, and the installation will pop up a box telling you that Windows might create additional partitions for system and boot files, that's normal, so just click OK.

- For b) just click Next - that's all that's required. The installer will automagically use all the available space (that's showing as unallocated in the highlighted selection) and start the installation.

That's about it. You don't need any other tools, CDs, utilities, etc - Windows 7's installer can manage the hard drive and partitions right there when you install it. Windows 7 creates a small 100MB partition (that's hidden from normal viewing in Explorer) that contains some boot files and system utilities for recovery, etc.

It's normal and that way by design so don't go freaking out about that tiny 100MB partition if you happen to go looking for it with Disk Management or whatever, and of course, leave it alone. ;)

And for the very first tool/utility/application you should install: Microsoft Security Essentials and update it, before anything else gets on that drive, including Windows Updates. At least that's my recommendation for AV software.
 
Thanks so much for the reply!!

I had already done step 1-8 exactly as you describe.

Step 9, I chose to use 9b.

I then started the install, but quickly terminated the process it when it said it was copying Windows file and it did not seem like it prepared the hard drive at all.

When I tried again, I did steps 1-7. On step 8, it was showing the system partition and the 100MB partition, just as you said. From there, I tried to format the system partition. It gave me the "are you sure" prompt. I clicked yes, but then it didn't seem to do anything to the hard drive. So, I chose 9b again, and hit start. Again, I canceled the process because it was said it was installing Windows files, but did not appear to clean the disk first.

Will the hard drive be nice and spic-n-span if I just let it install following your steps?
 
What you should do is steps 1-8 again, and delete all the partitions on the drive once again, make it completely unallocated. Once that's done, and the drive is totally bare - even that 100MB partition is gone - then click that space (highlight it) and click Next and leave it alone from that point on.

The drive partitions are created (the 100MB partition and then the rest as one big partition), they are both QuickFormatted (takes a few seconds) and then the file copy to the boot partition (the 100MB one) happens first, system files are transferred over, the partition tables are backed up, the recovery info is put into place, and then after a few minutes the actual file copy to the system partition (the rest of it) starts as the files are expanded from the DVD to the hard drive.

The installation will reboot your machine maybe 3 times before it's totally done, and after the 3rd reboot it'll do a system test (it'll say what it's doing) to determine your system's WinSAT "Windows Experience Score" and then some more crap, etc, then you'll be at the Desktop finally when you can actually do things. Windows Update will be set to Automatic so after a few moments (if you're connected) it'll start downloading updates but I still recommend going to get and install MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) manually first and foremost before you install all your own apps, etc.

That's it... works slightly different from previous versions, even Vista, but that's all that's required.
 
What you're experiencing is the the installer doing a quick format (as Joe already said). That about as good as a full format since any file system structure that would have been pointing to any infections is destroyed. You get a clean filesystem that has no idea what used to be on the drive without having to take the time to actually clear everything off the drive. As time goes by the old data will be over written with new data.

That said, if you would feel better, you can go through after installing and wipe all the free space with a variety of tools that can do it. But that would be overkill unless there was sensitive data in there that you needed to wipe out.
 
Congratulations to your successfully install.
I think all the problems you carried out can be solved by free partition manager as you wish. Wipe your hard drive permanently and much easier.
 
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