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In other words, it's the "erase everything and start from scratch" process for Windows 7, a procedure referred to as a "clean install" or sometimes as a "custom install. A clean install is often the best way to solve very serious Windows 7 problems, like a virus infection you can't get rid of completely or maybe some kind of Windows issue that you can't seem to solve with normal troubleshooting.
As of January , Microsoft is no longer supporting Windows 7. We recommend upgrading to Windows 10 to continue receiving security updates and technical support. Performing a clean install of Windows 7 is also usually a better idea than upgrading from an older version of Windows.
Since a clean install is a true start over from scratch, you don't risk inheriting any buggy situations from your previous installation.
To be percent clear, this is the right procedure to follow if:. This guide is broken into a total of 34 steps and will walk you through every part of the Windows 7 clean install process. Let's get started The steps and screenshots shown in these steps refer specifically to Windows 7 Ultimate edition but will also serve perfectly well as a guide to reinstalling any Windows 7 edition you may have, including Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Home Premium.
Microsoft has changed the clean install process for every new Windows release. If you're using Windows 10, 8, Vista, etc. The most important thing to realize before performing a clean install of Windows 7 is that all of the information on the drive that your current operating system is installed on probably your C: drive will be destroyed during this process.
That means that if there's anything you want to keep, you should back it up to a disc or another drive prior to beginning this process. One quick way to back up the list of programs you have on your computer is with the CCleaner tool. It doesn't back up the actual program data but simply a list of what's installed so that you don't have to remember every program name.
You should also locate the Windows 7 product key , a digit alphanumeric code unique to your copy of Windows 7. If you can't locate it, there are tools you can use to dig it up, but this must be done before you reinstall Windows 7. If Windows originally came preinstalled on your computer i. This is the product key you should use when installing Windows 7.
When you're absolutely sure sure that everything from your computer that you want to keep is backed up, proceed to the next step. Keep in mind that once you delete all of the information from this drive as we'll do in a future step , the action is not reversible! If your existing Windows installation begins to boot or you see a "No Operating System Found" or " NTLDR is Missing " error here instead of the screen above, the most probable reason is that your computer is not set up to boot first from the correct source.
It's perfectly fine if, instead of the screen above, the Windows 7 setup process begins automatically see the next step. If this happens, consider this step complete and move on! You don't need to do anything at this point but wait for Windows 7 to finish loading files in preparation for the setup process.
No changes are being made to your computer at this time. Windows 7 is just temporarily "loading files" into memory for the setup process. You'll be removing everything on your computer as part of the Windows 7 clean install in a future step. After the Windows 7 install files are loaded into memory, you'll see the Windows 7 splash screen, indicating that the setup process is about to begin. You don't need to do anything at this point either.
Choose the Language to install , Time and currency format , and Keyboard or input method that you'd like to use in your new Windows 7 installation. Select Next. Select Install now in the center of the screen, under the Windows 7 logo. This will officially begin the Windows 7 clean install process. Do not select the Repair your computer link at the bottom of the window even if you're completing this clean install of Windows 7 as part of some larger repair project for your computer.
The Repair your computer link is used to start a Windows 7 Startup Repair or perform another recovery or repair task from System Recovery Options. If you're performing a clean install of Windows 7 as a solution to a major problem but have not yet tried a Startup Repair, do that first. It could save you the trouble of completing this clean install process.
The Windows 7 setup process is now beginning. No need to press any keys here—everything is automatic. The next screen that appears is a textbox containing the Windows 7 Software License.
Read through the agreement, check the I accept the license terms checkbox under the agreement text, and then select Next to confirm that you agree with the terms. You should always read "small print" especially when it comes to operating systems and other software. Most programs, Windows 7 included, have legally binding limits on how many computers the application can be installed on, among other limitations.
You are not breaking any laws or contracts by reinstalling Windows 7 via this clean install. As long as this particular copy of Windows 7 is only being operated on one computer, you're OK. In the Which type of installation do you want? Select Custom advanced. Even if you are upgrading from a previous operating system to Windows 7, I highly recommend that you do not follow the Upgrade installation. You'll get better performance with less chance of issues if you follow these clean install steps.
In this screen, you'll see each partition that Windows 7 recognizes. Since a clean install involves the removal of all operating system related partitions, if they exist, we'll do this now.
If, and only if, you're installing Windows 7 on a new hard drive, which of course does not have an operating system on it to remove, you can skip directly to Step 15! Windows 7 setup considers partition management as an advanced task, so you'll need to select the Drive options advanced link to make those options available. In the next few steps, you'll delete the partitions containing the operating system you're replacing with Windows 7, be it Windows Vista, Windows XP, a previous installation of Windows 7, etc.
Now that all available drive options are listed, you can delete any operating system related partitions from your existing hard drive s. Before continuing, please be aware that deleting a partition will permanently erase all data from that drive.
By all data I mean the operating system that's installed, all programs, all data saved by those programs, all music, all video, all documents, etc. Highlight the partition you want to delete and then select the Delete link. Your list of partitions may differ considerably from mine shown above. On my computer, I am performing a clean install of Windows 7 on a computer with a small 30 GB hard drive that has previously had Windows 7 installed. Many people, for example, have second hard drives or partitions that act as backup drives.
That's certainly not a drive you want to be deleting. After deleting the partition, Windows 7 setup will prompt you to confirm the deletion. The message says "The partition might contain recovery files, system files, or important software from your computer manufacturer.
If you delete this partition, any data stored on it will be lost. Choose OK. As I spelled out in the last step, please be aware that all the data stored on that drive will be lost. If you have not backed up everything you want to keep, select Cancel , end the Windows 7 clean install process, restart your computer to boot back into whatever operating system you have installed, and back up everything you want to keep. To be clear: This is the point of no return! There's no reason to be scared, I just want it to be very clear that you can't undo the deletion of the drive you selected after you choose this OK button.
If there are any other partitions that need to be deleted, you can do so at this time. For example, the Windows 7 installation I had on my PC previously created this special MB very small partition to store system data in. This is most definitely related to the operating system that I'm trying to completely remove from my computer, so I'll delete this as well. Highlight the partition and select the Delete link.
As you can see, the partition we deleted in the last step is gone. It may appear like it's still there but if you look closely, you'll see that that same Just as in Step 12, Windows 7 setup will prompt you to confirm the deletion of this partition. Select OK to confirm. As you can now see, all the space on the installed hard drive is unallocated. No partitions exist on this computer. The number of partitions displayed and whether those partitions are unallocated portions of a hard drive, previously partitioned spaces, or previously formatted and blank partitions, will depend on your specific system and which partitions you deleted in the last several steps.
If you're installing Windows 7 on a computer with a single hard drive on which you've just deleted all the partitions from, your screen should look like the one above, aside from your hard drive being a different size. Choose the appropriate unallocated space to install Windows 7 on and then select Next. You do not need to manually create a new partition nor are you required to manually format a new partition. Windows 7 Setup will do this automatically.
Windows 7 Setup will now install a clean copy of Windows 7 to the location you chose in the previous step. You don't need to do anything here but wait. This is the most time consuming of any of the 34 steps.
Depending on the speed of your computer, this process could take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes. Now that the Windows 7 clean install process is nearly complete, you need to restart your computer. If you do nothing, your computer will reset automatically after 10 seconds or so.
If you'd rather not wait, you can select Restart now at the bottom of the Windows needs to restart to continue screen. The Windows 7 clean install is now continuing. You don't need to do anything here. There are a few more automatic Windows 7 setup steps to come. Windows 7 Setup is now updating registry settings in preparation for the final stages of the operating system clean install. Wait while Windows 7 Setup starts various necessary services.
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