Windows 7 Should I dban and start over?

[Rick Adams]

Read some threads trying to find my solution ... and I'm sure it's here so sorry for probably asking a redundant question, but all I've discovered is that this site is way way over my head.

I was able to reinstall Win7 Ultimate on my Dell laptop, Precision M6300 from a WIN7 disc I made following your site’s instructions. However, I noticed that 67 gigs was already in use and I know Win7 is not that large. Tried again and this time I did get the drive options, but NEW was grayed out. I tried using format and that would not work. There are 2 partitions. One is 2.1 gig and the other is 230.2. No idea what the 2.1 partition is, certainly too small for Win7.

I would not be doing this except my computer was in an endless updates fail, cancel updates every time I turned it on. I uninstalled all my programs and deleted everything I had not moved to an external hard drive. I’m tempted to dban the hard drive, but that’s probably not a good idea. Yes, I also saved the drivers to a jump drive.

Suggestions?

 

[patcooke]

The 2.1gb drive will be the recovery partition from which you can run a full system recovery of the original Dell system and this is the best way forward for you as it will be fully configured with all the correct drivers for you system. To run the recovery:

Power down your computer and turn it back on. As soon as the Dell logo appears press F8.
Select “Advance Boot Options” then select “Repair Your Computer” and press Enter.
Press “Next”, then select “Dell Factory Image Recovery and DataSafe Options.”
Follow the prompts which follow to run the recovery.

 

[Rick Adams]

Thanks. I will try that now. I just tried this - SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation - Windows 7 Forums
but I got the message Virtual disk service error: Clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot, system, pagefle, crash dump or hibernation volume.

 

[Rick Adams]

There is no Advance Boot options.
My choices are:
Safe Mode, with options, with command prompt
Enable Boot Logging
Enable low resolution
Last known good configuration
Directory Services Restore Mode
Debugging mode
Disable automatic restart on system failure
Disable driver signature enforcement
and
Start windows normally

 

[Rick Adams]

Sorry. OK, got to the screen and my options are:
Startup Repair
System Restore
System Image Recovery
Windows Memory Diagnostic
Command Prompt

 

[patcooke]

You don't need that -the recovery process will do all you need in terms of wiping your system drive clean and restoring all to factory settings.