Windows 7 could use some help please

[lewisleg]

hi,
first i'd just like to say i dont know much about this part of computers so if you can help please exaplain clearly.

so, my laptop is getting fuller,slower and i would like to return it to how it was when i bought it.
so i thought i'd reinstall windows.

i put in the disk and boot up my laptop.
select my language and keyboard language
then it gives me the option to install windows from 4 different partitions;disk 0 partitions 1-4.

but each of them say "windows cannot be installed on to disk 0 partition x."

"windows cannot be installed to this disk. the selected disk has a MBR partition table. on EFI systems,windows can only be installed to GPT disks.

please , i'd be very grateful if anyone could help me get out of this situation.
im sorry for bothering you , im sure this seems very simple to you but im clueless.


thankyou in advance

lewis

 

[patcooke]

What is the make and model of your laptop? Laptops normally have a bootable partition on the hard drive from which you can run a very simple recovery set up specifically for your system and its hardware.

 

[lewisleg]

it is a samsung notebook
S3250-A01
hope that helps

 

[Saltgrass]

If you have a UEFI system, it may be set to boot the Install DVD as UEFI, mine is not, but it probably depends on the bios.

During boot, try hitting F8 to get a boot menu. If you see the DVD listed twice, and you want to install as MRB, you can select the non-UEFI version.

GPT drivers are required for UEFI (Boot drive only) and MRB drives for a MRB (Boot drives only) install.

You system doesn't have a restore utility you can start during boot?

 

[patcooke]

I guess the disks you are trying to boot from are actually Windows install disks rather that Samsung disks. You should have received some recovery disks with your Samsung or you should have a recovery partition to boot from as I described earlier. You should be using one of these resources for recovery as they will include all the drivers and setup required for your machine which a Windows install disk probably won't.

 

[lewisleg]

thanks to all that helped. i tried the way of pressing f4 and recovaring the original version so now its completely clean! thaks.
there only one problem , its just my D: drive is nearly full
so ,i open it up and its got:
25a303......(enter long number here) folder
lewis-pc
windows image backup folder
mediaID.bin

so even thought i thought i wiped my laptop its local disk d only has 59 gb free of 267.

i was wondering why this has happened and is there anything i can do to empty disk d without harming my laptop.

 

[patcooke]

Having got your system drive back to factory settings this might be a good time time to clean everything else and set up some things to help you keep your system organised and more easily recoverable (you don't want to running a full system recovery too often!). It would be useful to see initially what partitions you have on your drive. If you goto control panel, administrative tools, computer management, storage, disk management it will show what partitions you have and what is used on each of them. You should also look to see what is stored on each. It looks like one thing on your D drive is a backup image which, provided there was nothing oyu nee to recover from your C drive before you wiped it, you could remove. Feel free to list or describe anything which you are unsure of and we can help you make decisions on them if necessary.

 

[Drew]

To confirm what has been said & maybe add a wee bit...

Some laptops come w/ a Recovery Disc OR you are to burn them @ the onset OR there is a Recovery Partition.

As stated these are the sources that set a laptop back to Factory.

When doing a Recovery there are 2 routes available. One option offers to keep personal data, the other wipes everything... the latter must be selected. Any wanted data being saved beforehand. Programs & software, over & above the OS, must be reinstalled.

Finally, IF, it is going to be a Full Recovery, inherently wiping the drive, just save data & proceed.

IF, an arbitray OS disc is used, all the M/B drivers/software have to be added after the OS is live. Really, this approach is not/should not part of the discussion & not to be considered an option.

Here are some things that speak to freeing up space on a drive:

1. Things need to be stored/saved on another drive.
2. A disc clean-up should be done via cmd, as Admin, using, %SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c Cleanmgr
/sageset:65535 & Cleanmgr /sagerun:65535
3. Run CCleaner & Internet Options, Delete, Delete.
4. Remove any unused or unneeded data.
5. Via Programs & Features, remove any unsed, unneeded or 'bad' programs.

Regards,
Drew

 

[lewisleg]

thanks drew and patcooke ill try them now !

 

[lewisleg]

sorry double post..ill keep the latter one

 

[lewisleg]

@patcooke.
i got into computer management look at drive 4 (there were 4 partitions in total) and it is labeled a 267.37 GB NTFS healthy logical drive. therenothing esl written about it that i could see. so i go into my d drive and have a look inside the folder names 25a.....etc and its full of other folders ,all with titles of 4 digits , then some other things . graphics, header, splashscreen etc. what is this file? is it needed?can i get rid of it?
then theres the windows image backup folder (in d drive) and tha contain a folder called lewis-pc which contains backup "insert date", catalog etc...this sound like a back up folder? can i delete it?

then the other folder which is called SPPMeyadataCache? any info on this?

im just confused on how only 3folders can take up 80% of my drive?

thanks for your help so far , be glad if you could help again

thanks