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Advice on clean-installing Windows 7 and deleting partitions
My laptop is running very slow and I cant figure out why. Im not a genius on computers but I have a Dell Latitude D530 and Windows 7. I have 3 partitions on my Hard Drive:
(1) OEM Partition (Healthy) (86MB)
(2) Systems Reserved (System, Active, Primary Partition) (100MB NTFS ; Healthy)
(3) (C:) (Boot, Page Dump, Crash Dump, Primary Partition) (74.35GB NTFS ; Healthy)
I did a Clean-Install of Windows 7 a month and a half ago and wiped out everything on the C:/ harddrive. I deleted/cleared the big 75GB (C:) partition, and left the other 2 partitions because I was afraid to delete anything else. I have run virus scans/malware.
I am about to clean install windows again and start fresh again, but is there something I should do to the other partitions as well? I feel like there may be a bug or something on one of them since its acting so slow..could this be a possibility? Any help and steps to diagnose this would be greatly appreciated everyone! I just need to know if its ok to delete the OEM partition and Reserve. My laptop came with windows XP so is it ok to delete the OEM since I no longer use XP? Thank you
Mooly01
133 Posts
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July 9th, 2012 01:00
I doubt your problems are anything to do with the partition structure of the HDD or bugs, more likely driver/software issues.
If you are clean installing W7 from a retail DVD then you can use the "advanced" options on the DVD to format the C partition which really does wipe all previous installations. Make sure you have all the required drivers available first. This can be an issue with older hardware and can cause major problems as sometimes such things as graphics drivers are OEM only and the hardware will not allow you to install what are seemingly the correct new drivers.
WARNING... make sure you understand the implications of what you are doing.
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[For a really clean install (and you must go into this fully aware of what you are doing) you can use Windows "diskpart" commands to delete any hidden "xp" recovery partition and make that into a new simple volume on the HDD. Then using a Linux disc to install something such as Ubunto you can format and merge all partitions into one that will then become your new C drive. This partition will then be as big as the HDD capacity. (The two small partitions you mention are to small to be an XP recovery one. Maybe you have already deleted that somehow.)
Having done that, reinstall W7 using the advanced options to format the HDD. If you then want to you can use the HDD management console to divide remaining free space on the C partition as you wish forming extra new partitions.]
DELL-Royan S
3.8K Posts
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July 9th, 2012 01:00
Hi,
Welcome to the Community. If you do not use XP anymore then I suggest you format the recovery partition, as the recovery partition will have windows XP, its an image of how you got the system from the factory. You can use that space to store your files. Use the below links for help.
support.dell.com/.../document
en.community.dell.com/.../1434.1-1-a-clean-install-of-windows-7-on-dell-systems.aspx
Thank you.