Windows 7 How many partitions for W7 Pro reinstall?

dhair

New Member
I have a 6 month old Samsung ultraportable that has developed Windows problems and I am trying to re-install Windows 7 Pro. The history is that Windows 7 Home Premium came pre-installed, and I upgraded to 7 Pro right after I bought it, with no problems. Everything has been great until the last 2 weeks when the laptop would not start. After trying multiple times to recover, including the Windows recovery disc and Samsung's internal recovery options, I have given up and am now attempting a clean, fresh re-install. I have already done this once (yesterday) and I am having the same non-start problems.

In an attempt to do this in a truly clean way, I want to wipe out everything that might be leftover. My question is how to do this, particularly regarding the partitions that are already setup on the laptop. Here are the partitions that setup is finding:

Disk 0 Partition 1, 10.6 GB/0.0 MB free; "Primary"
Disk 0 Partition 1, 4.3 GB/4.3 GB free; "OEM (Reserved)"
Disk 1 Partition 1, 100 MB/70 MB free; "System"
Disk 1 Partition 2, 446 GB/393 GB free; "Primary"
Disk 1 Partition 3, 19.7 GB/959 MB free; "OEM (Reserved)" - this one is also named "SAMSUNG_REC"

Questions:
1. Should I leave all these partitions intact, or delete them and start over?
2. If I should leave them intact, into which partition should I install the fresh version of Windows 7 Pro?
3. What is your advice on whether other partitions should be set up for A) programs, and B) data (documents, photos, music, etc)?

Thanks in advance.
 
What you want to wipe is up to you... If you wipe out the recovery partition, can you use your Windows 7 Pro Install DVD to replace the system? Will you need to recover the system, then upgrade to Pro again?

Do you have media that will allow you to install from scratch in either Home Premium or Pro? Do you have a Pro License key (or OEM) key that would allow you to download a Windows 7 Pro DVD and use it to install?

You show two drives. Do you have a Hybrid drive, or an SSD and HDD installed?

But Windows 7 Pro will need at least 20 GB for a minimum install. This eliminates Disk 0 from being used for that.

Let us know what your options are as far as the above points.
 
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