How To Format Your Hardrive (Clean Install)

During my time here at MyFrag I have noticed a bunch of people aren't sure what exactly a “reformat” is. A reformat is essentially wiping the hardrive clean and installing a fresh Operating System, For this example we will be using windows 7, which goes through a very similar install to windows vista.

You can upgrade the operating system assuming you are already on windows vista by inserting the windows 7 disk whilst the system is running, but we are doing a 'clean install' so we need to shutdown the system, and boot from the DVD. Most computers are set to either boot from the floppy drive or optical first, and then the hardrive, but you might have a system that boots from the hardrive before the optical drive (I believe ASUS motherboards are in this category), which means when the boot screen comes up, you either have to look for the button to choose a boot device (gigabyte I think has one) or change the CMOS setting to boot to your Optical Drive before HDD.

Once you have done that, boot into the windows 7 disk. When you turn on your PC, it should come up with the “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD” screen. So when you do that you will be confronted with the 'Windows is loading files' screen. Leave it for a bit while it gets ready to install your shiny new operating system. Soon the following screen will appear. You are about to begin the format process!!

You will then be plagued by a never ending wall of text, some users call this the “EULA”, me? I call it a nuisance, but have a quick geeze through that, and click the “I accept” checkbox, and continue with the installation, banishing that wall of text to a invisible dimension where the evil EULA’s are all tortured with red flame covered 1’s and 0’s

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please make sure you have backed up all necessary data from your hardrive as you will not be able to recover it once you reach the partitioner.

So obviously, we click next now, and it windows goes and loads some more files. The next window will ask us do we want to do a 'Custom Install' or an 'Upgrade'. We are doing a custom install, which is arguably better than an upgrade. Upgrades carry over all compatible programs and all your files, and formats wipe your hardrive and start again from scratch, so it is up to you to install all you programs and back up your files.

Select custom install and the partitioner pops up. We want to find the current file system, usually it will say which drive has the operating system on, so on the bottom-right, click advanced options. Now click on the drive with your current file system and click delete. All your files will be deleted so there is no turning back from this point forward!

The blank partition we will be installing windows 7 to.

You should now see your drive with a label that says 'Unpartitioned Space', click on that and select new. (On a side note, I usually keep a partition of roughly 30gb to keep all my drivers and install files on, so if you want one of those minus 30720 from your total, and make another partition.) Enter your desired amount of space, and click ok. Then select the drive and click ok, a window will pop up about a 100mb partition, just click ok, it is for windows to protect essential files I think, I never really bothered with it.

So click next, the install process has started, nothing to do now but wait until it finished or watch the numbers go up. It will first go through the expansion of the files, it will start loading the files onto the hardrive, this may take a while, but on a machine with a gig of ram and a decent hardrive, and a decent processor, it will take about an hour tops.

It may restart a few times during installation, and the screen will flash a little towards the end as well, but nothing to worry about, it is just fixing up resolutions and that! It will warn you before it does that though, with this nice little number:

When it finishes loading all the files onto your hardrive, it will restart, and prepare you computer for first use with a flashy animation. Then it gets to the bit everyone is waiting for, and starts up windows 7. First thing is first though, Enter your name and password:

Now you should be up to the product screen, my advice is don’t enter one until windows is set up properly. That way you don’t waste one of your activations, you only get three so you have to be careful. You should just be able to click next, but sometimes you can’t. Only do it if you have to!

From here, go on to select your settings for windows update, I personally like to check what updates are being installed on my PC, seeing as I don’t use internet explorer I hide all those updates, so I picked choose later, but if you like just making windows do it, click install recommended updates.

So pick the right time zone on the next screen, and then that is it! You have done a successful “format” Enjoy your new operating system!

Other notes:

Drivers:Windows 7 comes with heaps of drivers standard, But it isn't up to me to find them for you. It is your job to find the right drivers for your hardware, I can point you in the right direction though.

ATI Graphics cards:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
Nvidia Graphics Cards:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
Realtek Audio:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/
Asus Drivers:
http://support.asus.com/download/

Gigabyte Drivers:
http://www.gigabyte.us/Support/Default.aspx
Asrock Drivers:
http://www.asrock.com/support/download.asp
These are very common drivers that may be needed, its up to you to find the rest of your driver software.

Useful Programs that may come in handy:

ImgBurn: Here

Smart Defrag: Here

Paint.net: Here

If you have any more suggestions, please feel free to PM me.