[Golbeze]

...that when you do a clean install of Windows 7, you gotta completely wipe the hard drive? I can understand wiping the HDD if it has a virus that won't go away otherwise, but other than that? I never had to completely wipe the HDD when I installed Win7 on my family's three computers.

I just did a custom install and when I selected the drive the old version of windows was on, it simply moved it, the Users (or Documents and Settings in xp) folder, and the Program Files folder into Windows.old, like Vista did back when I first got that. From there, did a clean install, and I was able to recover all personal files from the Windows.old folder. Heck, even other folders that weren't moved into Windows.old (like a folder I made specifically for downloaded installers) were still there, and I had a fresh installation of 7 ready to go, ready for me to reinstall all my programs again.

So, why are all these articles making it sound like a custom install will completely reformat your drive? My experience tells me otherwise, and I've had no ill side effects from not reformatting.

[OldBuzzard]

What they really mean is the partition, but there are a lot of people that only have one partition on their HDD, and others, that even if they do have more than one, don't understand the differences between a drive and a partition.

They are just trying to keep it simple for the non-geek types out there, who outnumber the geeks by a wide margine.

[Judas]

I think you getting a little bit confused, and some articles are getting confusing as well.


The overall BEST installation is a 100% clean installation, meaning a low level format to the hardrive and a fresh clean install meaning no garbage files floating around or data being seen as "deleted" or partial on the drive.

This gives the best result as the drive/software/os itself doesn't have to jump around writing data and jump around reading it, EVEN if you defrag, it's generally not 100% as good as a clean install like that.

I mean you can clean up and wash and do whatever to your older vehicle and it'll be great, but it's never as good as "new car smell" if you want to put it in lamemens terms.

Sure the performance or otherwise other nitigrity things aren't going to be 100% noteable over just slaping a new system on a previous hardrive.

Thats where just a "clean" install in terms of not upgrade or the refresh/skingraph install is.

Upgrades are nasty, and the refresh/skingraph style installs are terrible (repair installs, where the OS is already present and your just installing again into the same os keeping for the most part, some of the programs and file intact...)

Personally i prefer the delete Partition, create partition install, with the occasional Low Level format EVEN if there is no virus or anything of the sort.

[Golbeze]

Originally Posted by OldBuzzard

What they really mean is the partition, but there are a lot of people that only have one partition on their HDD, and others, that even if they do have more than one, don't understand the differences between a drive and a partition.

They are just trying to keep it simple for the non-geek types out there, who outnumber the geeks by a wide margine.

Oh doh, yah, I tend to mix up drive and partition myself. Well, whether it's the entire drive or just the partition, why reformat unless you got a virus, when the old Windows installation can be moved to Windows.old and all personal files can be retrieved from there after Win7 is installed? Makes more sense to me just to tell them how to recover stuff from there than move everything to and from external drive so you can reformat.

Edit: and Judas posted while I was.

I agree with you on Upgrade installs. There's always so many chances of something going wrong, or just ending up with bad performance. An upgrade install is something I'll never do. But personally I've never had any ill effects from not reformatting and just letting everything be moved to Windows.old, though I can understand reformatting due to damaged sectors or if there's files that can't be deleted. Forgot about those scenarios. I'd do a reformat in those cases just to avoid the headache.