How would i go about total reformatting of a laptop.

Hey all, quite self explanitory really,

I have put windows 7 64 along side my vista 32 bit install in a dual boot configuration, now basically its been in repairs and ive got it back (at long last) But to be on the safe side i want to fully reinstall stock everything.

In this case would i collapse all the partitions with partitionsplitter (the same tool i used to create the aditional partitions?)

I want to totally wipe the hdd like new, and just reinstall windows (i dont mind deleting the recovery partition either or is that risky?)

Thanks all
Catacylsm

 

Go to your BIOS setting.
Reformat your computer using the Windows Installation DVD. It will show you some options, such as clean 1 driver or 2 drivers and all blah blah.

Or you can use this software(FREE) named Darik's Boot And Nuke(BDAN), http://redirectingat.com/?id=525X832&url=http://www.dban.org/

There is plenty of methods.
Command prompt can do this as well by "/format (driver alphabet)".

 

As soon as a the recovery partition is deleted, you will no longer be able to restore the laptop using the recovery partition. Nowadays, many laptops don't come with any recovery discs, and instead only offer the option to return to the initial state using a recovery partition. If your laptop came with have a recovery disc / recovery discs that contain(s) everything that can be found on the recovery partition (see below), you don't need the recovery partition.

The recovery partition contains a copy of: the operating system, drivers for particular hardware of your laptop and also additional software that came with your laptop initially. If you have all these yourself, you theoretically don't need any recovery things at all, and can do it all yourself.

It seems that you installed Windows 7 yourself. The difference in installing between Windows 7 and Vista is that for Vista, you often need to install more drivers manually, whereas Windows 7 installs more drivers on its own using Windows update.

To make Windows delete all the contents of your disc, you use the partition editor within the Windows setup and just delete all partitions. Once you deleted every partition, just click "next". Windows will then automatically use the entire drive for itself, deleting everything on it prior to installing. Again, delete the recovery partition ONLY if you are sure that you how to get your computer up and running by installing everything manually, as it was done with Windows 7 on your laptop (I don't know if you did that yourself).



Edit:

You only need to use this if you want to for example sell your drive. It wipes out the drive, the difference between using DBAN (or something similar) and using the Windows setup to delete the HDDs contents is that the Windows setup (which does a simple format of the drive) does not ensure that you can't restore any of the files that had previously been on the HDD using special restoring software/hardware. The Windows Setup routine also deletes all content on the HDD, but does not make sure that the no files can be restored using special techniques.

 

Thanks very much guys, appreciate it, i will delete the un-needed partitions and reinstall using the recovery disks (self burnt)

 

Unless the recovery partition is taking up an inordinate amount of space on your hard drive, and you're so broke you can't afford US$100 or so for a new drive, I really don't see the point of wiping out a perfectly good recovery partition - think of it as a pair of suspenders to go along with the recovery disks - the belt - you burned and now rely on to hold up your OS pants.