W7 Full format on install?

[Todd]

Hi All,

XP Pro gave me the option of doing a full format when
installing. I am not seeing this with w7 pro. Am
I missing something? Is there a way to do a full format
before writing all that data over bad sectors? I
know I can do a "chkdsk d: /r" after the fact, but
that is a little too late to do much good.

Many thanks,
-T

 

[Gordon]

Hi All,

XP Pro gave me the option of doing a full format when
installing. I am not seeing this with w7 pro. Am
I missing something? Is there a way to do a full format
before writing all that data over bad sectors? I
know I can do a "chkdsk d: /r" after the fact, but
that is a little too late to do much good.

Many thanks,
-T

Choose CUSTOM install....

 

[Todd]

Choose CUSTOM install....

I wondered what that was. Thank you!

-T

 

[Jolly polly]

I wondered what that was. Thank you!

Bad sectors? maybe it's time for a hard drive replacement, use the
manufactures drive fitness tools to check out the drive before you go to the
trouble of a reinstall

 

[relic]

Bad sectors? maybe it's time for a hard drive replacement, use the
manufactures drive fitness tools to check out the drive before you go to
the trouble of a reinstall

I think he was wanting to be sure he DIDN'T have bad sectors.

 

[Joe Morris]

On 01/04/2011 17:22, Todd wrote:

Choose CUSTOM install....

....and when the setup program displays the choices of where to install
Windows (and shows a link to "Drive Options (_advanced)") you can press
SHIFT+F10 to open a command window from which you can invoke DISKPART, which
replaces the old DOS utilities FDISK and FORMAT. Using DISKPART you can
structure your disk partitions; using it instead of the "Drive Options" link
also allows you to avoid the default creation of the 100 MB hidden
partition. (I'm not sure if this hidden partition is automatically created
by Starter or Home...anyone?)

A warning about DISKPART: Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, did not see fit
to insert an "are you SURE you want to do this?" warning into the
destructive commands, and there's no "OOPS" button. Stop and think about
what you're telling DISKPART to do before you press ENTER. (Suggestion:
experiment with a drive that doesn't have any data you want.)

Here are the DISKPART subcommands I use for my master images:

SELECT DISK 0
DETAIL DISK <-- lets me see the existing partitions to
verify that I've got the disk I want
CLEAN <-- deletes all partitions
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
<-- allocates the entire disk to a partition
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL=WIN7_c QUICK
ACTIVE <-- makes the just-created partition bootable
EXIT

Joe Morris

 

[Gordon]

...and when the setup program displays the choices of where to install
Windows (and shows a link to "Drive Options (_advanced)") you can press
SHIFT+F10 to open a command window from which you can invoke DISKPART,

However if you continue to the Advanced drive function (can't remember
what it's called exactly) you get a GUI so you can SEE what you are
doing.....