Formatting windows 7 from hard drive

deanlewis

deanlewis

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,807
Name
Dean
Edit My Images
No
My Novatech pc is just over a year old and over the past few months it has started to take an age to be functional when first starting up, it takes about 15-25 minutes before its useable, after that its absolutely fine. I am thinking its a software issue, I have tried to re-install windows 7 from the hard drive by continually pressing f8 at start up, I get the boot menu but when I choose boot from hard drive it just starts windows as normal??
One other thing I have just purchased a new pc for my son which actually came with a windows disc, is it still a no no to use this disc with my serial number ??

Dean
 
You can't reinstall windows without the disc or a copy of the disc contents somewhere that can be booted from. Did it not come with one? Is there a hidden partition on the hard drive with the install files on it?

If the disc you have is for the same version of windows then it should work with your serial number.

I'd get a new hard drive and do the new install on that instead. Any problems and you have the option to put the old drive back in and be back where you are now. If you can stretch to a SSD drive it will be a big upgrade and make it feel like a new faster PC.
 
Hi Robert, yes it has supposed to have got a partition with windows on it, thats wher I was hoping to install from. Instructions from novatech are pressing the f8 key quickly at power up should go to the boot menu with option to re-install from there. ??
 
Was this PC windows 7 from the off? not a vista with free upgrade sort of thing? The upgrade would probably have removed the links to the recovery partition and may even have removed the partition.

Start>control panel>administrative tools>computer management then down to storage and click on disc management. Any hidden partitions there?
 
Did you do the highlighted bit too?

Turn the PC/notebook on
2) Immediately start tapping the F8 key once per second (no faster than this - and don't hold it down). Continue to do so until the Advanced menu appears. You may possibly be asked to select a boot device instead. If so then select the hard drive (or STRIPE if you have a RAID), press ENTER and immediately start tapping the F8 once more to get the Advanced menu.
 
Mikesphotaes said:
Did you do the highlighted bit too?

Turn the PC/notebook on
2) Immediately start tapping the F8 key once per second (no faster than this - and don't hold it down). Continue to do so until the Advanced menu appears. You may possibly be asked to select a boot device instead. If so then select the hard drive (or STRIPE if you have a RAID), press ENTER and immediately start tapping the F8 once more to get the Advanced menu.
Click to expand...

that bit isn't on the instructions that novatech sent me, I will give that a try, if it works I may be ofline for quite a while lol !!!
 
Just make sure you have a backup of everything you want to keep before you proceed.
Some branded systems contain restore partitions that are basically copies of the M$ install disk, with options for repair etc. Others are just an installable disk image of the out-of-the-box configuration, and will overwrite everything that wasn't on there when you bought it.
 
You don't need to reformat. Try the following:

  • Click the Start icon
  • In the box type msconfig <return>
  • Goto the Startup tab and check that all the things that are starting are as expected. If there are things there you don't expect (typically software installs can add a lot of crud here) try unticking them
  • Reboot

See if that helps. You might also want to check in the services tab, but this is more complex to know what to enable/disable - I'd leave those alone unless you know what you're doing.

A long startup normally means something is being started that is causing memory to be used up so causing the system to page to disk. How much memory do you have in the system?

As to disks... yes, you can use the disk assuming it is the SAME OS (e.g. if your PC is Win 7 64bit Home Premium the disk also needs to be Win 7 64bit Home Premium). The serial number is NOT on the disk.
 
Thanks guys, formatted from the partition and all is rosey again, just plodding through the re-install of my files, time consuming but at least it prompted me to back all my data up :thumbs:
 
Just watch what you load back on, especially in the way of internet security.

As Andy said, it was more likely something loading at startup, using up all your RAM.
 
deanlewis said:
4Gig, its very very fast again now, I am in the process of ordering another 4 gig while its pretty cheap.
Click to expand...

Windows 7 64bit version I assume or the extra RAM will be unseen..........

Paul.
 
deanlewis said:
Yes it is the 64 bit version, are you saying that any ram upgrade is not worthwile if its not running this version of 7. ?????
Click to expand...
Yes. Any 32 bit windows operating system can only "see" ~3.2G of memory. If you put 16G in, it will still only see 3.2G. The 64bit versions are fine though.
 
More or less what he said.

Any 32bit os can only adresss 4gb memory, do the maths if you fancy a bit of adding up and you know a little about binary!
Once essential system address's are used, hardware addressing, video etc then the remainder is available for the OS, we have kit onsite that has 4gb installed with less than 3gb available for the OS!

A 64bit OS is far better for photoshop if you stick loads of memory in the machine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top