What precautions must be taken for reinstalling OS?

Fuquen

Active Member
Desktop machine with 2 hard dives.
Hard drive 1, original, partitioned into C D and E.
Hard drive 2, added on, partitioned into F and G.
Partition C Windows Vista 32b.
Partition D Windows 7 64b.
Partition F Windows XP Pro. 32b.


Partition D will be reinstalled with the same OS.


What precautions must be taken to assure the system of trouble free bootings.


Thanks.
 
I would reinstall it while logged into Vista (C:smile:. That way drive letters etc. will be retained. That's the way I always do it here.

Is this going to be a repair install or a format and complete reinstall?

If you are using EasyBCD which you should have installed in C: then after it's finished installing you can edit the boot menu there.

I would also install iReboot on all your systems to facilitate booting from one to the other.

This is mine (Click to enlarge):
 

Attachments

  • Capture.JPG
    Capture.JPG
    128.2 KB · Views: 6
"Is this going to be a repair install or a format and complete reinstall?"
It is going to be a format and complete reinstall.


Addendum

In Disk Management, which of those partitions is marked "active" and "system" ?

Partition C of the original HD.
 
When you boot W7, does it call itself C or D, and do you want it to stay the same way ?
 
When you boot W7, does it call itself C or D, and do you want it to stay the same way ?

Yes. Partition D becomes C if Windows 7 is selected to boot.
The OS selected to boot, that partition where the booting OS is becomes C .

Do I want it to stay the same way?
It is not that I "want" it this way. It becomes this way all by itself.
In other words, I really do not know how to arrange it any other way.
So, please help if there is a better way to apply EasyBCD.

Thank you!
 
That's fine. Whilst Windows is happy to run as something other than C, it can cause problems to 3rd party software if the OS it's running on can also see another OS called C. A lot of 3rd party apps are stupid enough to put some of their data on C, even when it's another OS. That causes problems when the same software is also installed on the OS which calls itself C, as both copies use some of the same files and different copies of others, which can cause unpredictable behaviour of one or both OSs.
If you want both OSs to be C when booted, then don't follow Peter's advice in post #2.
Just boot the W7 DVD and install a clean copy in the present W7 partition.
The setup program will automatically dual boot the new copy of W7, putting an entry into the BCD which is already on your "system" partition. You shouldn't need to take any further action. All of the previous multi-boot entries will still be there.
 
Back
Top