BIOS Update/Recovery Partition

Hey everyone,
I didn't know where to post this new thread but I decided to post it here,

1)Recently I downloaded my HP's BIOS update from hp.com to fix the problem of plugging the AC adaptor and the battery don't charge, after updating now everything is good and running just fine, but I bought a Windows 7 Professional x64 and I will replace it soon with my old one, should I update my BIOS again after installing the new windows?? and where can I know what version of BIOS I'm using now ??

2)Now I got a new windows and I don't need HP's Recovery Partition(12GB). Should I delete it while installing Windows 7 Professional or wait till the setup finish and removed it and merge it with another drive with the new Partition Magic ??

thanks

 

Lots of ways. Here is one: Start>Run enter 'msinfo32' (no quotes), under System Summary you can find 'Bios Version/Date'.

I would do the deed at the beginning of the Windows 7 install. You can do it within the advanced menu of the install.

 

From a command prompt, you can type: wmic bios get smbiosbiosversion

It will output (mine's a Dell, BIOS A06):

SMBIOSBIOSVersion
A06

I agree with deeastman, delete it while installing Win7.

 

and merge the extra space to the D: drive while installing win7 too, i don't want to lose my data ???

 

What? Describe what you want to do fully, your original post didn't say anything about saving data. If you delete the partition you won't have a D: drive. What exactly do you want to accomplish?

 

I'll demonstrate, Now I have three drives ( C,D,E ), the C: Drive have Windows 7 Home Premium installed on, D: Drive have all my data stored in, E: drive a 12GB recovery partition made by HP ( because they don't give you the original CD )


Now I bought a new windows 7 Professional and I want to replace the home premium with this (not upgrade just complete replacement) after that I won't need the 12GB recovery partition ( E: Drive ). So my question is should I delete the E: Drive during the windows installation (where it ask you which partition you want to install windows on) and merge ( Add ) the extra 12 GB to D: Drive ?? Or just delete the E: Drive during the installing and use the new Partition Magic to do this job because I don't want to lose my data. Thanks for replying mate

 

OK, this makes a difference on how to proceed, you never mentioned a data partition in your original post.

You can accomplish this several ways, the choice is up to you. Since you aleady have Windows 7 Home Prem installed, I personally from within Administrative Tools would delete the E: partition and then merge the unallocated space with D:.

No data should be lost and this is a normal merge since the E: partition was to the right of the D: partition but I would still make a copy of the data on the D: partition before I began to an external source.

If for some reason Windows 7 has a problem with the merge (it shouldn’t) then use Partition Magic. It’s really six of one half dozen of the other (so to speak). Now you are ready to install W7 Pro.

When you install Windows 7 Pro just perform a Quick format of the C: drive only in the advanced options and let the D: partition alone. You should be good to go.

 

thanks . Last Question: Which is safer for doing this job, From administrative tools or with partition magic because I can only backup the important files, I don't have enough space to back all of them.

 

Whenever you perform operations such as you are doing on partitions you always stand a risk of things going awry. What you want to do is basic and I trust in Windows 7 to handle the task using the Administrative Tools software. That would be my first choice for this procedure.