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How do I do a clean install of Windows 7 on my Studio XPS 435T/9000?
I'm currently running Vista 64 bit
8 GB Ram
Two 500 gb hardrives
I want to completely reformat drives, install Win 7 on primary drive and use 2nd drive as data backup only, I need to reformat both because of the previous RAID1 configuration I have some old Vista files I can't seem to get off of the backup drive.
How do I reformat drives so I can put in Win 7 Ultimate disk and go? I will copy all associative drivers to a DVD off of Dell site in preparation
Do you know if there are written instructions anywhere for this ,i.e., Google, MS ?
Or should I pay the $100 bucks and have my friendly tech guy do it? I have read that an improper install could fry the mother board, I would have a hard time believing this except I have experienced this first hand, my mother board was fried twice with automatic Vista 64 bit updates from MS. So I'm a little gun shy.
RChris
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December 4th, 2009 07:00
When you say "the previous RAID 1 configuration," I'm assuming you are no longer running a RAID setup. If that's the case, just boot from the Win 7 disk and choose the "Custom Installation" option. That will give you the option to format the disk you're going to install Win 7 on. I can't remember if it also allows you to format your second drive, but you can do that after the installation using the Computer Management area of the Control Panel.
See this site for lots of good Win 7 installation help: http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/