Windowes 7 Upgrade – The Clean Install How-To

Posted on 10. Dec, 2009 by Toad in Technology, Windows

OK, I will be the first one to admit that when it comes to spending money on software I can be a little cheap.  Until Windows 7 was released I had never bought an operating system.  If it wasn’t for finding a great deal on a Windows 7 upgrade I wouldn’t have bought it.  As a college student, or anyone with a .edu email address, you can buy a windows 7 upgrade for $29 by going to http://www.win741.com.  The only issue is that unless you want to pay extra for media you only get a download.  This wouldn’t be bad if it were an ISO file, which is what I thought it would be, but it is simply a file download that extracts it’s self into an installer.  As with any good IT guy I didn’t plan on doing an upgrade without doing a clean install.  I had to jump through a few more hoops but below you will find out how I was able to make it work.

Creating a Bootable Flash Drive

Requirements:

*USB Flash Drive (Minimum 4GB)

*Windows 7 installation files.

Follow the below steps to create bootable Windows 7/Vista USB drive using which you can install Windows 7/Vista easily.

1. Ensure that you use an empty thumb drive or that all of your data is backed up.  This process requires formatting your thumb drive which will erase all data on the disk.

2. Open Command Prompt with admin rights. Use any of the below methods to open Command Prompt with admin rights.

*Type cmd in Start menu search box and hit Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter.

Or

*Go to Start menu > All programs > Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

3. You need to know about the USB drive a little bit. Type in the following commands in the command prompt:

First type DISKPART and hit enter.  This will enter the diskpart utility as seen below.

Next type LIST DISK command and note down the Disk number (ex: Disk 1) of your USB flash drive. In the below screenshot my Flash Drive Disk no is Disk 2.

4. Next type all the below commands one by one. Here I assume that your disk drive no is “Disk 2”.If you have Disk 1 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 1.Refer the above step to confirm it.

So below are the commands you need to type and execute one by one:

SELECT DISK 2

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

(Format process may take few seconds)

ASSIGN

EXIT

Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.

5. Next you will need to browse to the files that you extracted from the Windows & download. I have copied these files to my C drive into a directory called “Windows 7″ for easier access.  The location of your files may be different but you can copy them to the C drive by opening “My Computer” and draggin the files over your C drive.  Below I am assuming that your thumb drive is drive H.  If you are unsure what drive letter to you you can check by looking in “My Computer”.  These directions can also be modified to work with an install DVD as well.  Instead of locating the installer file on your C drive you simply locate them on your installation DVD.

6. Maximize the minimized Command Prompt in the 4th step.Type  the following command now:

CD \ and hit enter to navigate to the root o your C drive.

CD “Windows 7″ and hit enter to navigate to the directory containing your Windows 7 installer files.

CD boot and hit enter to navigate to the boot directory.

7. Type another command given below to update the USB drive with BOOTMGR compatible code.

BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:

Where “H” is your USB drive letter. Once you enter the above command you will see the below message.

8. Copy your Windows 7 installer files to the thumb drive.

9. Your thumb drive is now ready to install Windows 7.  You will need to verify the boot priority in the BIOS before booting to your new install media.  You can also use a boot menu and select your USB media there.

If your media download happens to come as an ISO file, Windows has released a tool that can be used to make a bootable thumb drive.  You can get that HERE.

A Clean Install with Upgrade Media

Once you are able to boot to your new USB media you can begin installing Windows 7 just as you would any other operating system.  The only thing you will need to do differently during this install is ensure that you do not enter the Windows product key.  Instead just continue with the install and we will enter the key later.

Once the install is complete you will need to activate your machine.  To do this you will need to make windows think that you performed an upgrade instead of a clean install.  To do that you will need to edit your registry.

Open regedit with Start Menu Search and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

Change MediaBootInstall from “1″ to “0″. You can do this by double clicking on the MediaBootInstall item and then change the value in the window that opens.

Close RegEdit.

Open Command Prompt with admin rights. Use any of the below methods to open Command Prompt with admin rights.

*Type cmd in Start menu search box and hit Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter.

Or

*Go to Start menu > All programs > Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

In the command line window enter the following command: slmgr /rearm

Then hit ENTER and you will eventually see a  ”Command completed successfully” message.

You now need to reboot your computer.  Once it has rebooted you will need to activate it by typing activate in the start menu search box.  Follow the prompts, enter your windows key, and you should be able to activate windows successfully.

This won’t be the answer for everyone but these are the steps I completed to do a clean install.  There are other options out there to do the same thing I have just described here.  If this seems like a little more than you want to tackle I would suggest finding another guide or locating a friend with some computer skills to help out.   Good luck and Happy Installing!

Tags: Windows 7