Need to re-install Windows 7.

[dmendenjr]

My hard drive is getting a little over run and I fear it's time to do some spring cleaning...

When I first build my computer, I partition my hard drive into 3 equal partitions and installed Vista on the C: partition. Then Windows 7 came out and I installed that (from the "free upgrade" disc) on the D: partition to allow for dual booting... then I installed Ubuntu on the remaining space. Well, I never use Ubuntu nor Vista anymore and would love to recover the redundant hard drive space... but also want to get 7 onto the C: partition. I've read up on uninstalling GRUB and Linux, so that should not be a problem... But on the windows side, I think that purging and re-installing will probably be my best bet.

The question I have is this... my Windows 7 disc was an upgrade disc. Will I need to reinstall Vista on the purged hard drive, or can I just install 7 straight from the upgrade disc. (also, am I nuts for thinking about doing this?)

Thanks for the help!

//ed: and if I do go to reinstall Windows 7, I'll likely just reformat the entire hard drive... .will that rid me of my need to uninstall grub if I remove all the partitions and reinstall the OS?

 

[osu1991]

I use Easeus Partition Magic to change, create and delete partitions. I think you can use it to delete the other partitions and make Win 7 the primary but I am not positive since your Win 7 is not the primary.

As to doing a clean install, if it is an upgrade it should prompt that it needs to verify an upgradeable product and you can put the Vista disc in to verify and then it will continue with a clean install. But I am not sure as I went from XP to 7 on my laptop and it required a clean install. Vista doesn't actually require a clean install to go to 7

 

[avg1joe]

Can you can use your Ubuntu install cd to delete two of the partitions and resize the Win 7 one to cover the whole drive? Getting it to boot after might be challenging. Maybe just run the Win 7 system repair utility.

I think it has been mentioned elsewhere in this forum that you can do a clean install with an upgrade disk (in case you don't have your vista disk). You basically install twice with Windows 7 and the second time it recognizes Windows 7 as a previously installed windows program and you "upgrade" that.

 

[mike123abc]

You could probably just delete the extra partitions on your drive from the "disk management" type it in the search box on the start button. Once deleted you can expand your C: to fill as much of the disk as you want.

 

[Dr. Pepper 6044]

I did a clean install of Win7 upgrade. I did not need the Vista disc. I only formated the C: partition and left the D: partition that the oem, HP had put there. I had Microsoft support on the phone as I did it. It worked well. I don't know enough to advise about opening the whole drive up to be used as C:

 

[Ilya]

It's very easy to reclaim your third partition in Windows 7. You can do it without reinstalling anything. But I am not sure how easy it will be to reclaim your first partition. Perhaps you can just reformat it and use it for data storage.

Clean install takes a lot of time and effort, especially if you have a ton of software to re-install.

 

[Dr. Pepper 6044]

Yes, the reinstallation of programs takes some time. I hated Vista so much, I wanted it GONE!. In the future, a reinstall won't take so much time. Even with a 'clean' install, Win7 checks hardware, etc. and automatically installs the drivers. The 'Easy Transfer' also saves a truck load of stuff.

I did the second clean install last night. It went even faster. Norton took the most work. They don't have the re-install download link obvious on their web page. The first is an HP with HP printer. Win7 automatically loaded basic print drivers. The second is Dell, and Win7 had nothing for the dell printer.

Win7 ins't rid of ALL the vista quirks, but SOOOOOO much better.

 

[mdram]

buy a new hd, install it, disconnect old hd

install on new hd
hook old hd up, import data, format


you now have a clean install, and a backup hd
you can take it out and use it as an external if you like