In the Spotlight: Your Special Tip - berryracer's guide to a Clean Install of Windows 7

[#1]

Check out this clean Windows 7 installation guide compiled by berryracer, who did so shortly after getting his IdeaPad Y570 laptop . The lifestyle manager, a self-professed ‘PC Tweaker’ who just loves exploring ways to improve the performance of his systems, joined the community a mere month ago and is already off to a great start with this great tip.

To berryracer and thousands of others - thank you for helping us grow this community, whether you are here with a question, or helping everyone and anyone by sharing the knowledge and tips you have, or have encountered in your travels around the web.

Have a good idea or tip?  I’d like to hear about it – leave comments, or shoot me a PM!

Who knows, someone else like me out there will be forever indebted to you (someone like my IT guy, who has since been removed from my speed dial after eight excruciatingly painful months for.. him.)

Best regards

Serene Siew
Lenovo Community Advocate Program Manager

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berryracer shared:

Step 1:

Ensure that you have backed-up all the files you need. This is because you are performing a ‘Clean’ or ‘Custom’ installation, and this wipes out everything from your system.  Do keep these files in an external HDD or burn these on a CD/ DVD.

Step 2:

Download the official versions of Windows 7 ISO.  If you have an existing Windows 7 CD load this. If you don’t, the following link is a compilation of sites you can go to get the ISOs. Once you have identified your system, click on the relevant link and burn it to a DVD using programs such as ImgBurn.

Note that users who have the purchase key (look for the Windows license key sticker at the bottom of your laptop) can key this in when the system prompts you for it. For users who do not have a valid license or key, you may be prompted for one at the end of the 30-day trial, which commences the day you downloaded and set up Windows 7.

Extra tip: Do switch off your Windows Updates until you have completed installation as to prevent the machine from automatically downloading drivers. Just remember to reactivate this once you are done.

Step 3

Insert the DVD you had prepped in Step 2 or your Windows Installation disk and restart your computer. Get into the BIOs by pressing the ESC key button during POST to get into your BIOS set-up, until you get a choice of boot options available, then select BD- ROM driver as your boot source. Alternatively you can get there by pressing F2 at Start.

Once you have done so, you will be prompted by the ‘Press any key to start’ message. Just click on any key on your keyboard. The Windows 7 basic set-up files will then be loaded and the set-up process initialized.

Restart your machine. After this, accept the license agreement, then proceed.

Step 4

The system will now prompt you to select the installation partition. Choose the partition that previously contained your Windows files, click on Advanced, then Format.

After this, restart or reboot your system.

For a more detailed guide, click here.

Have an awesome tip or trick and can’t wait to share this with the rest of the world? Send me a message by private messaging me!

 

[#2]

Great write up. This will be my goto for pointing users that need advice on installing Windows.

Also a tip not too many know about, besides installing from a USB Drive you can speed up any Windows install by hitting Shift>F10, which in Windows installation brings up command prompt, type in "taskmgr". Then once task mananger loads you can force the Windows install to run on High.

I've done this on XP and Win7 and it really works. Pair that with a USB install and you can install Win7 in about 15mins like I did.