An easy question abou clean installing win 7 & Vista

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texastone

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Hey everyone I have done clean re-installs of Vista and 7 both now. I am pretty sure they are clean cause I do the custom deal and I have deleated the partitions, re-created, and formatted the drives. The weird thing is, the drives are like around 350GB and where it used to take XP about a half hour to an hour to format these drives, windows 7 formats in a few seconds, and they DO show they have 347GB or 350GB so it looks legit. Its just hard for me to believe. Now whats even more confusing to me, is that everytime I do this, the drivers never get lost for the computer. They are all still there and we have sound, video card, printer drivers, Network, ect. So IS IT A CLEAN re install?? Lol. With XP you had to reinstall all drivers ya know? Anyway thanks guys and sorry for wasting your time with probably a stupid question!!:)
 
You should understand how disk formatting and partitioning works. If the 'drivers' are still on the drive you have not formatted it, you also need to understand how a 'quick format' and a 'full format' change the contents of the disk.

This is very basic stuff that you should understand before working on systems for paying customers, you will end up in no end of problems with the level of knowledge you currently have.

Edit: Ah I see what the OP is saying now, the drivers are not still on the disk after he's formatted it, he means he doesn't have to install drivers for each pieces of hardware as was the case with XP. I guess he's also not bothered to read up on the operating systems he's installing.
 
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The format it performs is called a "quick format". It's just that, very quick!

As far as drivers are concerned, welcome to Windows 7! It's driver database is huge and for most newer hardware devices it will find it on its own. And if for some reason it does not, often getting online (need network driver obviously :)) is all you need to do for it to find the proper driver.

Adam
 
texastone, that's one of the good things about Windows 7, that so many drivers are installed during the OS installation. However, you should always check for updated drivers from the manufacturer website, or even via Windows update.

Early on with Windows XP I ran into so many problems installing driver updates via Windows Update that I avoided it completely. I've performed a few dozen Windows 7 installations and haven't run into a single problem (yet ;)) installing driver updates via Windows update.

As the previous posters have stated, Windows 7 performs a "Quick Format" as opposed to a "Full Format" during installation. This option is available during an XP installation also, but the default is to perform a Full format.
 
ok yeah thats what I thought and was figuring. Thanks for the answers! I havent tried my printer yet but yeah ill go to my motherboard manufactures website and make sure I have the up to date drivers. Windows automatically saw I needed my nVidea drivers and is downloading them as we speak. How do you do a Full Format with Windows 7 is that possible? Do you right click on format and select full or something?? Thanks guys!! Like the first angry guy said, I need to know all about this before I go helping customers which I don't do anyway!! lol. So anyway thanks again!!
 
Ok guys nevermind I found out the answers!! lol. Thanks for your help and guiding me this far and Iptech dude YOU need to read this too buddy:) so yeah with the exception of "iptech's" answer you guys were right on.

In Windows XP installation, you get 2 options, Format(ntfs) and Format(ntfs)(quick) . In both cases you get all the available space and a full format is not necessary and you shouldn't do this often. A quick format is not actually a format, it justs "marks" the drive empty, and marks all the used space as available.

In Windows 7 installation (and Vista), quick format is enabled by default. That's the only difference, cause you don't need to perform a FULL format in order to empty the drive. I think it's a smart choice from M$, makes things quicker even for beginners.

In any case, either you choose full format or quick format, you still get all the drive space. No differences can occur during installation, no previous files will still "exist" , concerning the system.
 
OK 'dude' I get the message LOL.

Whatever happened to professionalism? Don't you think you should have found the answer before agreeing to take on paid work? It's pretty basic stuff and I'd be embarrassed if I publicly admitted to knowing so little about the job I get paid to do.

I can't wait for your next lesson. :rolleyes:
 
Your alright Iptech and im not working on a customers computer at all. I am working on my own because I just installed windows 64 bit. I always do everything on my own before I ever offer to work on someone else's. Truth is I work on other people's computer for free for the last couple years. Maybe some day in the future ill charge. But yeah windows 95-98-2000-XP I know everything. I have a little more work and research on Vista and 7. But MAN 7 blows my mind on how it automatically will find drivers and install them I mean its like a tech's dream!!!!:) Im just glad I have this site to learn from the true pros like you!
 
Some bad information floating around here, so let me clear a few things up:

Quick Format: Formats the partition
Full Format: Checks the hard disk for bad sectors, then formats the partition.

In BOTH instances, the actual file information isn't deleted. This is why data can be recovered from a drive, despite the fact that the partition was deleted.

A low-level format the process from actually removing data from the drive, rather than simply marking it as available.

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302686
 
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ATTech said:
Some bad information floating around here, so let me clear a few things up:

Quick Format: Formats the partition
Full Format: Checks the hard disk for bad sectors, then formats the partition.

In BOTH instances, the actual file information isn't deleted. This is why data can be recovery from a drive, despite the fact that the partition was deleted.

A low-level format the process from actually removing data from the drive, rather than simply marking it as available.

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302686
Click to expand...

Doesnt the quick just blow out the MFT ?. I got a bad feeling you are giving even more bad info. :p
 
I pretty much always wipe the drive two passes of 1's 0's before reinstalling Windows.
This is a solid reliable method that avoids many potential problems caused by superficial Windows reinstallations.
 
d3v said:
I pretty much always wipe the drive two passes of 1's 0's before reinstalling Windows.
This is a solid reliable method that avoids many potential problems caused by superficial Windows reinstallations.
Click to expand...
Well, thanks for digging up a thread from just over a year ago.

Zero wiping a drive has no benefit other than giving your floor wax time to dry. Are you suggesting that a new install will be affected by 'ghosts' of the previous install?
 
eHousecalls.ca said:
Well, thanks for digging up a thread from just over a year ago.

Zero wiping a drive has no benefit other than giving your floor wax time to dry. Are you suggesting that a new install will be affected by 'ghosts' of the previous install?
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I once had a virus survive TWO quick formats before I was advised to wipe the harddrive (early tech days).
 
d3v said:
Absolutely. I once had a virus survive TWO quick formats before I was advised to wipe the harddrive (early tech days).
Click to expand...
Formatting due to a virus is different from just formatting. The thread had not been discussing infections but the benefits of quick vs. full formats.

Obviously, if your MBR is infected, you take other actions.
 
d3v said:
Absolutely. I once had a virus survive TWO quick formats before I was advised to wipe the harddrive (early tech days).
Click to expand...
So you encountered malware that survived a format once, a while ago, and now you spend a few extra hours on most repairs for the .1% of them that get by the format? Sorry, I can't see how this would be beneficial.
 
ATTech said:
So you encountered malware that survived a format once, a while ago, and now you spend a few extra hours on most repairs for the .1% of them that get by the format? Sorry, I can't see how this would be beneficial.
Click to expand...

In my experience, a wipe/s before a reformat rejuvinates the harddrive and I do notice the differences post OS-installation.
Put it this way, if a client had a heavily used five year old XP machine but was non the less capable of running Windows 7, would you go ahead and install Windows 7 without first wiping the drive a couple of passes?

...I don't know about you guys but it just wouldn't feel right to paint Windows 7 straight over such a heavily used old harddrive.
 
d3v said:
In my experience, a wipe/s before a reformat rejuvinates the harddrive and I do notice the differences post OS-installation.
Put it this way, if a client had a heavily used five year old XP machine but was non the less capable of running Windows 7, would you go ahead and install Windows 7 without first wiping the drive a couple of passes?

...I don't know about you guys but it just wouldn't feel right to paint Windows 7 straight over such a heavily used old harddrive.
Click to expand...
Can you quantify or scientifically explain "rejuvenates?"

How does arranging the magnetic strips to represent every bit as 0 (multiple times) help the hard drive rearrange those magnetic strips to represent a specified binary sequence?

Nothing with how a hard drive works, and how an operating system handles the storage data gives any indication that zeroing a drive helps the hard drive's performance. If I'm mistaken, please let me know with a logical deduction based on empirical, rather than anecdotal evidence.

If I encountered the scenario as described, the only difference would be that I utilize the full format to ensure hard drive integrity.
 
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