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djf711
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Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Thu Jan 03, 2013 11:16 am

I have a Gateway desktop that I want to give to my Father. It is running Windows 7 Home Pre. 64bit. My thought is to format the HD and reinstall windows 7 using the Lic. Number which is for this computer (Gateway). The Desktop did not come with a Windows 7 disc. I have a few OEM Discs (Windows 7 Home Pre) from system builds. Can I install Windows 7 using a OEM disc and the Lic. Number from the Gateway Desktop?? What is the best way to completely wipe a desktop clean and set up for a new person?? Thanks in advance!!! David
 
Flying Fox
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Re: Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Sat Jan 05, 2013 10:23 am

Does the desktop allow you to boot to some recovery mode? If so you already can restore to factory condition OS wise.
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Starscream
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Re: Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Sat Jan 05, 2013 2:44 pm

djf711 wrote:
I have a Gateway desktop that I want to give to my Father. It is running Windows 7 Home Pre. 64bit. My thought is to format the HD and reinstall windows 7 using the Lic. Number which is for this computer (Gateway). The Desktop did not come with a Windows 7 disc. I have a few OEM Discs (Windows 7 Home Pre) from system builds. Can I install Windows 7 using a OEM disc and the Lic. Number from the Gateway Desktop?? What is the best way to completely wipe a desktop clean and set up for a new person?? Thanks in advance!!! David


Yes if you have an OEM Windows 7 Home Premium disk and the product key sticker from the machine you can reload Windows that way. Obviously you have to use a Home Premium disk with a Home Premium key and a Pro disk with a Pro key, etc.

IMO a fresh load of Windows that way is the best way to wipe a machine and set it up for a new person. Also the bonus of loading from Windows from a Windows disk instead of a restore partition or recovery disks is you don't have to spend hours un-installing all the junk the system builder put on the computer.
 
MadManOriginal
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Re: Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Sat Jan 05, 2013 4:30 pm

I thought with Windows 7 MS began having only one install disk for all versions, and the features which get activated depend on which version you choose when installing. The version you choose during install is then cross-referenced to the key upon activation.
 
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Re: Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Sat Jan 05, 2013 5:55 pm

Flying Fox wrote:
Does the desktop allow you to boot to some recovery mode? If so you already can restore to factory condition OS wise.

Do this if you can. There may be a special recovery boot menu that you have to enable in the BIOS in order to see the option. The reason is that OEM systems have routinely used hidden disk partitions to store critical system information including OS recovery, specialty drivers, etc. Unfortunately this may also bring back some bloatware you previously removed, so you may have to remove it again.

If you can't find a recovery option, then go to a bare reinstall.
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Re: Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Sat Jan 05, 2013 10:04 pm

If the previous user/owner of the system had any sensitive data on it you should consider doing a wipe (write zeros to the entire drive) as the first step, since even a reformat and scratch OS install can leave traces of the previous hard drive contents which can be easily recovered. The hard drive manufacturer's diagnostics should contain a tool to do this (or there are ways to do it using a Linux live CD if you happen to have one handy).
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Psygnosis
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Re: Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Sun Jan 06, 2013 1:21 am

If you dont have a windows disk you can access the hidden recovery partition from either in windows via the eRecoveryManagement program which should be in a folder in the start menu named gateway. you can also access it from boot by holding alt and clicking F11 on start up.
 
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Re: Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Sun Jan 06, 2013 1:28 am

Psygnosis wrote:
If you dont have a windows disk you can access the hidden recovery partition from either in windows via the eRecoveryManagement program which should be in a folder in the start menu named gateway. you can also access it from boot by holding alt and clicking F11 on start up.

OP already stated that (s)he has Windows install media.
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Ryu Connor
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Re: Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Sun Jan 06, 2013 2:44 am

Windows can write zeros across the drive via the diskpart command. Including during pre-boot environments.

diskpart
list disk
select disk #
clean all
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Re: Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Sun Jan 06, 2013 2:54 am

Ryu Connor wrote:
Windows can write zeros across the drive via the diskpart command. Including during pre-boot environments.

diskpart
list disk
select disk #
clean all

Ahh, thanks -- that's good to know. Didn't realize MS included that functionality now.
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Flying Fox
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Re: Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Sun Jan 06, 2013 4:10 pm

just brew it! wrote:
Ryu Connor wrote:
Windows can write zeros across the drive via the diskpart command. Including during pre-boot environments.

diskpart
list disk
select disk #
clean all

Ahh, thanks -- that's good to know. Didn't realize MS included that functionality now.

Granted it is not DBAN's DoD compliant multiple passes, but it does writes zeros one time I guess.
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Re: Reinstall windows 7 on Gateway Desktop??

Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:30 am

Flying Fox wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
Ahh, thanks -- that's good to know. Didn't realize MS included that functionality now.

Granted it is not DBAN's DoD compliant multiple passes, but it does writes zeros one time I guess.

As an aside, the meaning of a multi-pass wipe gets really fuzzy when you're dealing with a device that does wear leveling (SSDs). Probably better off just using the device's "secure erase" function in that case.
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