Windows 7 Ultimate Fresh Install

[Oreth]

Hey All,

Sorry for anothe thread seeking advice... -.-

Recently got Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (7600 Build). Prior to that the PC was still on the BETA for Windows 7 (7100 Build).

So i put in the disk and boot from it and go through the motions. When i get to the screen where it asks where i want to install i only see the one partition. It informs me it will retain all the old information as 'Windows.old' where the information will be accessible but wont be able to boot from it.

I really wanted to do a complete reformat but didnt see the option to do so like im acustom to seeing on an XP boot disk.

I went through the install and everything was going fine. Started installing programs / transferring files from external HD etc. Then i noticed the HD seem to be struggling doing installs or copying files across. I initially thought the External HD was failing but no its definately the HD. So i decided to do a defrag and thought it would help but it doesnt. I really dont think its the HD failing because its only a few months old and it was working fine with the BETA build.

Getting to the point - Id like to do a complete reformat of the HD and do a brand new fresh install of Windows 7. Is there some menu i must go to first in order to do a complete reformat first. I dont recall seeing the options when going through the install first time around. Sorry for the long post but what should i be looking for ?

Thanks

[Icari]

When you start the install do an "advanced" install which should reformat your hard drive, but if you think it may be dying, it might just be easier to buy a new hard drive and install on that one and use the current as a backup until it dies.

[Oreth]

Well im inclined to think that its just a bad windows install?

for example i was trying to transfer large amounts of info (5gb+) from external HD to the PC HD and it would start fine then just randomly slow down really badly. I thought it was the external HD failing but then when i tried installing FFXI it would happen halfway through the install. Be flying along and then just slow down to a complete halt.

Do you think that sounds like it failing or just a bad windows install? I guess if i do a complete reinstall and its still happening then i know the drive is failing.

[Dmitry]

Were you running the installer from within Windows or did you boot to the disc?

[Oreth]

I used a boot disc but did t format anything so maybe it just did an upgrade

[Dmitry]

Well for my recent install I had just added an HD, and wanted to reformat my original drive as well as format the new one. When I put the disc in while in Windows it didn't give me the option to format the new drive and I don't think it gave me the option to do anything with my current partitions either.

Try going into your BIOS and setting the boot devices to optical drive first with the Windows DVD in and let us know. If this is what you were doing already then I apologize for misunderstanding.

[Oreth]

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA2

that's the HDD if it makes any diff

[Oreth]

No I got it to boot and install fine first time around. Only thing I didn't do was reformat the drive. I had windows 7 beta on there previously and fid install from boot but it retained all old files from the beta.

[Oreth]

When you start the install do an "advanced" install which should reformat your hard drive, but if you think it may be dying, it might just be easier to buy a new hard drive and install on that one and use the current as a backup until it dies.

Ok so I just chose the format option but it was done in about 3 seconds. There was 220GB of info on there that doesn't seem right

[Kaisha]

Was it a full format or quick? Quick just removes the headers to the files on the HD rather than zero'ing everything, and is, as named, quick.

[Oreth]

Well it was just labeled as Format

I did this option after booting from the Windows 7 disk, prior to the install as directed in the advice given above. This format was not done while within windows.

http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...&sid=3&lang=en

I downloaded this diagnostic tool from WD website. Results are below


Internal HD

Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WDC WD5000AAKS-00M9A0
Unit Serial Number: WD-WMAVC0339574
Firmware Number: 05.01D05
Capacity: 500.11 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 17:04:19, July 25, 2010

External HD

Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WD 2500JB External
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCANK6024009
Firmware Number: 0107
Capacity: 250.06 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 17:11:19, July 25, 2010

Everything seems fine with it. Its only when im transferring large amounts of info from one drive to the other. Its very annoying. Apart from this Windows runs and boots fine.

I started a 6gb transfer there over and hour ago and it stalled up halfway through and just came back to check and it hadnt finished. The transfer rate had slowed to 600 kb/s.

Yet the exact same data transfered across just fine on the windows 7 beta same pc 2 days ago.

What im trying to transfer is the FFXIV data btw. Im going to try transfer 40gb of music as that also went through fine two days ago. If that doesnt stall up i can put it down to bad files within the FFXIV folder on the external HD.