Windows 7 Installing Window 7

Hello Shamiam, welcome to Windows 7 Forums.

It's always best practice to format a drive when installing an OS.

Hope this helps

Don
 
Adam didnt quite answer that..

No, you do not NEED to but it will help performance and its just good to start fresh.
be sure to back up EVERYTHING you need!
 
Adam didnt quite answer that..

No, you do not NEED to but it will help performance and its just good to start fresh.
be sure to back up EVERYTHING you need!

Sorry Static, but I'm pretty sure I did answer his question.
The OP is wanting a clean/fresh installation, so there would be no need to back anything up.

Regards,

Don
 
But even with a fresh install. There is always things you need to save. Photos, music, documents etc. all gone when you format. So yes make a backup of anything you want to keep. :)
 
If you predefine a primary active partition for the OS, then you do not get the extra 100MB active partition. That is one advantage of preformatting.
 
That's why Adam's answer was correct to begin with. The partition has to be formatted for the install. If it's done beforehand, then Windows 7/8 CP will go on & install. If not, and the user has to format with the install disk, whs's answer applies. 100MB for W7, 350MB for W8.

Unless the user plans on using BitLocker, that 100/350MB partition is not needed or necessary. It's only taking away 1 of the 3 primaries allowed. Actually, it's 4 allowed, but in that case, no data partition can be made.

And speaking of BitLocker, it's not the best app that MS has produced. It can be buggy at times. TrueCrypt is a far superior app for encryption, and can be used on many OS's, not just Windows 7/Vista/8 CP Ultimate. And I've never had trouble opening a TrueCrypt volume. Can't say that for BitLocker.

Cat
 
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