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    Format Before Recovery Required?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by darklich, Oct 13, 2009.

  1. darklich

    darklich Notebook Consultant

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    I need some advice. I'm going to be taking a Western Digital 2.5 inch hard drive out of an external case and install in a notebook. Can I just install it as is and start the recovery CD or do I need to delete the partition and format it before installing it in the notebook?

    Also, I'm upgrading it to Win7 Home from Vista Home. If I create two partitions, can I upgrade to Win7 on the C drive without affecting the D drive?

    Thanks
     
    darklich, Oct 13, 2009
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  2. DetlevCM

    DetlevCM Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    In theory your recovery CDs will allow you to repartition your drive if you so want, and will format the system partition.
    If you repartion your drive, anything you don't assign to a partition will show up as unallocated space.
     
    DetlevCM, Oct 13, 2009
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  3. deeastman

    deeastman Notebook Deity

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    Yes. As a matter of fact, W7 doesn't format or do anything to your HD unless you want it to. It simply installs on your C: partition. I started with a freshly formated 500GB drive and I don't remember it ever asking if I wanted to format the drive as some previous Windows OS have.
     
    deeastman, Oct 13, 2009
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  4. darklich

    darklich Notebook Consultant

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    I'm going to just stick the drive in the notebook and run the recovery cd and see what happens.

    Maybe the recovery will take away any Western Digital cooties.
     
    darklich, Oct 13, 2009
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  5. DetlevCM

    DetlevCM Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    That is the theory, and I think it worked well with an XP update disc, a WIn7 disc...

    But recently I managed to wipe out my D partition usinga Vaio recovery disc - it was formatted along with the C drive...

    So while it is possible to instal on C and leave D in peace, I suggest an external backup that cannot be accessed during the installation.

    e.g. CD/DVDs external HDD
     
    DetlevCM, Oct 13, 2009
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  6. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    The Windows 7 installer is exactly like the Vista installer. First it asks you if you want an upgrade install or a custom (clean) install. If you choose custom install, it asks you what partition you want to install it on. At that screen, you can also go into advanced options and repartition your drives. Then it formats the selected drive and installs Windows.
     
    Lithus, Oct 13, 2009
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