Window7 install on dodgy PC

[Bramblestick]

Hi,
My daughter's BF has installed a non-genuine version of Windows 7
Ultimate on her laptop. I've bought a genuine version of Home Premium.
I'm thinking of wiping her hard-drive & installing the genuine article
(not entirely sure how to do this..). Are there things that I should
watch out for? I've never installed win 7 on a bare drive...
Cheers,
Bramblestick

 

[Big Steel]

Hi,
My daughter's BF has installed a non-genuine version of Windows 7
Ultimate on her laptop. I've bought a genuine version of Home Premium.
I'm thinking of wiping her hard-drive & installing the genuine article
(not entirely sure how to do this..). Are there things that I should
watch out for? I've never installed win 7 on a bare drive...
Cheers,
Bramblestick

If you have an upgrade version of the O/S, I don't know what is going to
happen as you have to have the O/S already on the machine running in
order to do the upgrade. If you have a non-upgrade version, then you can
boot off of it, delete the partion, and install the version you have on
the machine.

There is nothing you really have to watch out for, since the other
version made it to the machine and installed successfully.

 

[Bramblestick]

If you have an upgrade version of the O/S, I don't know what is going to
happen as you have to have the O/S already on the machine running in
order to do the upgrade. If you have a non-upgrade version, then you can
boot off of it, delete the partion, and install the version you have on
the machine.

There is nothing you really have to watch out for, since the other
version made it to the machine and installed successfully.

Thanks for that - It's a new "Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Full
Version (PC DVD), 1 User" version. One bit that I wasn't sure about was
how it would handle what was already on there. If an option is to delete
the partition, then that sounds fine. That should wipe the (very
probably dodgy stuff) that she has accumulated.

Cheers, Bramblestick

 

[Big Steel]

Thanks for that - It's a new "Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Full
Version (PC DVD), 1 User" version. One bit that I wasn't sure about was
how it would handle what was already on there. If an option is to delete
the partition, then that sounds fine. That should wipe the (very
probably dodgy stuff) that she has accumulated.

All I did was boot off the Win 7 dvd, deleted the partion and installed
Win 7 to replace Vista on my laptop. It really made a differnce as Vista
took longer to do just about every thing.

 

[Wolf K]

Hi,
My daughter's BF has installed a non-genuine version of Windows 7
Ultimate on her laptop. I've bought a genuine version of Home Premium.
I'm thinking of wiping her hard-drive & installing the genuine article
(not entirely sure how to do this..). Are there things that I should
watch out for? I've never installed win 7 on a bare drive...
Cheers,
Bramblestick

I'm assuming you've saved all useful, wanna-keep data to an external
drive and/or burned it all to DVDs.

Wipe and install will work fine. Set Boot Options in BIOS to boot from
the optical drive, and restart the machine. When the new install
dialogue comes up, you should be informed that a version of Windows
already exists, and you should be offered a variety of choices. Make
sure the legit version will replace the existing version.

If the above doesn't work, download a bootable or "live CD" version of
Linux, burn it to disk. Boot from it, and look for the HDD. Open it.
Linux should see everything, including hidden and system files. Do Edit

Select All > Delete. That will wipe the drive. When it's done (it

will take some time), remove the Linux disk, replace it with the new
Windows install disk, and restart the machine. Standard install should
now be possible. It may want to reformat the HDD, that's fine.

HTH,
Wolf K.

 

[pjp]

All I did was boot off the Win 7 dvd, deleted the partion and installed
Win 7 to replace Vista on my laptop. It really made a differnce as Vista
took longer to do just about every thing.

Are you stating Win7 seems faster than Vista. Asking cause I have that
option and am weighing upgrade aginst incompatability problems.

 

[Bramblestick]

All I did was boot off the Win 7 dvd, deleted the partion and installed
Win 7 to replace Vista on my laptop. It really made a differnce as Vista
took longer to do just about every thing.

Indeed - I think that was the reason for the dodgy upgrade - Vista was
pants! Unfortunately the non-genuine version meant no updates, and any
number of exploits... No doubt running worse than Vista.

Thanks again.
Bramblestick

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Thanks for that - It's a new "Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Full Version
(PC DVD), 1 User" version. One bit that I wasn't sure about was how it would
handle what was already on there. If an option is to delete the partition,
then that sounds fine. That should wipe the (very probably dodgy stuff) that
she has accumulated.

Cheers, Bramblestick

IIRC, when you boot from the Windows CD & run the installer, it will
offer to format the drive, but again IIRC, you have to be rather
careful not to miss that offer

You could also format the drive before trying the installation, but
normally, if you boot from the Windows hard drive, you cannot format
the C: drive (OK, the system drive). Windows protects you against that.
But booting from the CD allows that.

If you are paranoid enough (I sometimes am) you can download a program
such as WipeDrive that lets you create a bootable CD that has tools to
not merely format, but overwrite the entire drive (OS, software, data,
everything) with 0's or other non-data to eliminate any chance of
recovering the 'dodgy stuff'.

With a quick search, I found these links:
http://www.whitecanyon.com/wipedrive-erase-hard-drive.php (not free)
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml
http://www.dban.org/

And as I browsed, I was reminded of the possibility of removing the
drive from your daughter's computer and connecting to another computer
so you can format it there (because then it wouldn't be the drive
you're booting from, if you are careful).

 

[Big Steel]

Are you stating Win7 seems faster than Vista. Asking cause I have that
option and am weighing upgrade aginst incompatability problems.

Yes Win 7 is faster than Vista. I noticed it right out the gate when
executing applications on the machine.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354433,00.asp

 

[Char Jackson]

If you have an upgrade version of the O/S, I don't know what is going to
happen as you have to have the O/S already on the machine running in
order to do the upgrade.

There are a couple of well-documented methods of using the Upgrade
version to install onto a bare drive. A previous OS isn't required.

 

[Bramblestick]

I'm assuming you've saved all useful, wanna-keep data to an external
drive and/or burned it all to DVDs.

Wipe and install will work fine. Set Boot Options in BIOS to boot from
the optical drive, and restart the machine. When the new install
dialogue comes up, you should be informed that a version of Windows
already exists, and you should be offered a variety of choices. Make
sure the legit version will replace the existing version.

If the above doesn't work, download a bootable or "live CD" version of
Linux, burn it to disk. Boot from it, and look for the HDD. Open it.
Linux should see everything, including hidden and system files. Do Edit
will take some time), remove the Linux disk, replace it with the new
Windows install disk, and restart the machine. Standard install should
now be possible. It may want to reformat the HDD, that's fine.

HTH,
Wolf K.

Hi, I'm being deliberately harsh on this (have backed up, but don't tell
her I've got a (new) Ubuntu dist on USB, so I think that I'll do
what you suggest - belt & braces

Cheers, Bramblestick

 

[Dominique]

Big Steel <[email protected]> écrivait

On 12/2/2011 3:31 PM, Bramblestick wrote:

If you have an upgrade version of the O/S, I don't know what is going to
happen as you have to have the O/S already on the machine running in
order to do the upgrade. If you have a non-upgrade version, then you can
boot off of it, delete the partion, and install the version you have on
the machine.

<snip>

You can do a clean install with upgrade DVDs. You install it once without
entering the key and then you "upgrade" this new installation with the same
DVD, but this time, you enter the key.

My experience tells me to remove internet access for the first installation
because "install" will get updates on the net and the "upgrade" process
won't upgrade a newer version. The way I've found to be good, is to do a
clean install with my SP0 upgrade DVD without the key and then upgrade it
with my slipstreamed SP1 DVD (retail-upgrade) but this time using the key
of my upgrade package.

 

[Bramblestick]

IIRC, when you boot from the Windows CD & run the installer, it will
offer to format the drive, but again IIRC, you have to be rather careful
not to miss that offer

You could also format the drive before trying the installation, but
normally, if you boot from the Windows hard drive, you cannot format the
C: drive (OK, the system drive). Windows protects you against that. But
booting from the CD allows that.

If you are paranoid enough (I sometimes am) you can download a program
such as WipeDrive that lets you create a bootable CD that has tools to
not merely format, but overwrite the entire drive (OS, software, data,
everything) with 0's or other non-data to eliminate any chance of
recovering the 'dodgy stuff'.

With a quick search, I found these links:
http://www.whitecanyon.com/wipedrive-erase-hard-drive.php (not free)
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml
http://www.dban.org/

And as I browsed, I was reminded of the possibility of removing the
drive from your daughter's computer and connecting to another computer
so you can format it there (because then it wouldn't be the drive you're
booting from, if you are careful).

Many thanks for that - I'd not gone into how to wipe the system drive in
detail, but I see that it is a problem under win7. I'll probably try the
Linux approach as I won't have to open the box. but thanks - that may be
a good stand-by option.
Cheers, Bramble stick

 

[Muad'Dib]

Hi, I'm being deliberately harsh on this (have backed up, but don't tell
her I've got a (new) Ubuntu dist on USB, so I think that I'll do
what you suggest - belt & braces

Cheers, Bramblestick

It is not hard to do the partition deleting and recreating from the Win
7 install disk. There is plenty of documentation if you Google it. If
you choose to boot a live copy of Linux, just choosing to Delete stuff
off the drive does not "wipe it." To wipe a drive one would use a
utility to "Zero" it or similar. I find that a bit anal unless I'm
selling an old computer or hard drive. While booted to Linux use
Partimage to delete the partition, then recreate it, reboot to the Win 7
installation and point it to the empty partition. But really that is a
lot of unnecessary work when you can do the same thing with just booting
to the Win 7 install disk.

G'day

 

[Paul]

IIRC, when you boot from the Windows CD & run the installer, it will
offer to format the drive, but again IIRC, you have to be rather careful
not to miss that offer

You could also format the drive before trying the installation, but
normally, if you boot from the Windows hard drive, you cannot format the
C: drive (OK, the system drive). Windows protects you against that. But
booting from the CD allows that.

If you are paranoid enough (I sometimes am) you can download a program
such as WipeDrive that lets you create a bootable CD that has tools to
not merely format, but overwrite the entire drive (OS, software, data,
everything) with 0's or other non-data to eliminate any chance of
recovering the 'dodgy stuff'.

With a quick search, I found these links:
http://www.whitecanyon.com/wipedrive-erase-hard-drive.php (not free)
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml
http://www.dban.org/

And as I browsed, I was reminded of the possibility of removing the
drive from your daughter's computer and connecting to another computer
so you can format it there (because then it wouldn't be the drive you're
booting from, if you are careful).

I'd be a little careful with that advice.

My experience is, some installers do not like to see an all-zeros MBR
(sector 0). If the OP chooses to have the Windows installer format
the hard drive, the installer will see the previous, perfectly
valid MBR. And then it can wipe the drive, and away we go.

Throwing in a third party eraser, slightly increases the odds
of more steps being needed.

I've been caught on that in the past, and had to use a Linux LiveCD
(or BartPE would likely have worked as well), to do triage and
fix the MBR so it was "acceptable". Even a utility off Seagate or
Western Digital sites might work. But all of those steps, will
require a second computer to prepare the boot media for the tool.

I've also had occasional problems with Windows over Linux or Linux
over Windows installs.

In general, installers are too damn picky.

And if you think that sucks, you should try installing
Darwin or MacOSX in PearPC, which is this weeks experiment.
OMG...

*******

My advice would be to use the built-in partitioning/formatting
options offered by the installer disc.

Paul

 

[Wolf K]

Are you stating Win7 seems faster than Vista. Asking cause I have that
option and am weighing upgrade aginst incompatability problems.

It's faster than XP.

Wolf K.

 

[Char Jackson]

Many thanks for that - I'd not gone into how to wipe the system drive in
detail, but I see that it is a problem under win7.

You may have misunderstood. It shouldn't be any problem at all. Like
Gene said, just pay attention so you don't miss the opportunity. It's
pretty obvious, but some people get in a hurry.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I'd be a little careful with that advice.

My experience is, some installers do not like to see an all-zeros MBR
(sector 0). If the OP chooses to have the Windows installer format
the hard drive, the installer will see the previous, perfectly
valid MBR. And then it can wipe the drive, and away we go.

Throwing in a third party eraser, slightly increases the odds
of more steps being needed.

I've been caught on that in the past, and had to use a Linux LiveCD
(or BartPE would likely have worked as well), to do triage and
fix the MBR so it was "acceptable". Even a utility off Seagate or
Western Digital sites might work. But all of those steps, will
require a second computer to prepare the boot media for the tool.

I've also had occasional problems with Windows over Linux or Linux
over Windows installs.

In general, installers are too damn picky.

And if you think that sucks, you should try installing
Darwin or MacOSX in PearPC, which is this weeks experiment.
OMG...

My advice would be to use the built-in partitioning/formatting
options offered by the installer disc.

Paul

I was talking about *wiping* the drive...specifically for paranoid
types.

If writing stuff to the MBR breaks the scheme and if the disk wiping
programs do that, than my idea is not so good. Of course, one might
expect the programmers to do the right thing, but it is worth being
aware of.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I was talking about *wiping* the drive...specifically for paranoid types.

If writing stuff to the MBR breaks the scheme and if the disk wiping programs
do that, than my idea is not so good. Of course, one might expect the
programmers to do the right thing, but it is worth being aware of.

But your comment leads to an obvious question. Does a brand new drive
come with a Windows MBR? I have certainly installed Windows - including
7 - on brand new drives with no difficulties...

So for the moment I find myself skeptical.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Bramblestick.

Your thread has wandered off into several non-productive sub-thread. But
Big Steel gave you the right advice, after confirming that you have the
"Full" retail version of Win7. And you said, "If an option is to delete the
partition, then that sounds fine." That's exactly what you should do. If
BF admittedly "installed a non-genuine version of Windows 7", who knows what
else he may have added?

Just insert the genuine Win7 DVD and BOOT from that DVD drive. Let Setup
Autorun and just "follow your nose" and it will guide you through the steps
of reformatting the existing partition and installing the full genuine Win7
there. Then you can re-install all your known-good software for your
daughter.

No OS will obey your command to commit suicide, which means you can't boot
into Windows on Drive C: and ask it to format Drive C:. But if you boot
from some other source, such as directly from the DVD, then it will happily
do whatever you ask, including formatting Drive C: on your hard disk.

Millions of new users handle this kind of installation; I'm sure you can,
too. If you get stuck there will be toll-free phone numbers on your screen
to tell you how to get FREE installation support from Microsoft. Newsgroups
are great and I love them. But why depend on advice from people you don't
know (like myself) when free support is available from Microsoft?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2011 (Build 15.4.3538.0513) in Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1


"Bramblestick" wrote in message

If you have an upgrade version of the O/S, I don't know what is going to
happen as you have to have the O/S already on the machine running in
order to do the upgrade. If you have a non-upgrade version, then you can
boot off of it, delete the partion, and install the version you have on
the machine.

There is nothing you really have to watch out for, since the other
version made it to the machine and installed successfully.

Thanks for that - It's a new "Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Full
Version (PC DVD), 1 User" version. One bit that I wasn't sure about was
how it would handle what was already on there. If an option is to delete
the partition, then that sounds fine. That should wipe the (very
probably dodgy stuff) that she has accumulated.

Cheers, Bramblestick