Clean install Win7 x64

[kduniverse]

Hello,

I'm having issues with Vista Business on my T400 almost since the day I received my laptop. Finally, I think I'm ready to get rid of it and upgrade to Win 7 x64....mainly because I just found out my Core 2 Duo can run it, and I already have x64 running on another machine.

What I'd like to know is other than backing up things I need and want to keep, what do I need in order to perform a clean install? What about the Service partition? Do I need to keep that? Transfer it over? How? Anything else that will help is appreciated. I am a novice at this type of thing.

Thanks in advance.

[kduniverse]

Can anyone offer any help? Am I just supposed to do a clean install with no other partitions? I am planning on using all ThinkVantage software, including Rescue and Recovery. Is there anything special I should know or do? If I don't make a small partition, will I have the option later?

Anyone? Thank you,

[topmahof]

are you running vista 64 bit now? are you planning the upgrade option? what version of 7 are you getting? if you don't already have vista restore discs, i would burn a set, you might need them later. if you are going from 32 to 64 then you would have to do a clean install. that will take out the service partition which would be 32 bit anyway so you wouldn't really need it. none of my ibm's ever came with an OS on them so i've never had a service partition, so i'm not too sure on that one. i've always installed OS's on the whole drive in one partition but you could set it up so that you could make a few partitions. it'll be easier to do before you install the os on it. it's actually real easy to install 7. it will install most of your drivers for you and then you could use thinkvantage system update to install the rest of the thinkvantage programs and any drivers that 7 missed. i don't remember whether there is an option in 7 to partition the drive. i always have an extra hard drive that i put in an external caddy and i use apricorn to format it and there are options in there for partitioning. there are free programs available on a 30 day trial that you could use for partitioning. i've just never used them. and then i just switch drives and install the os. then i can use the first drive for the next machine. it would be nice to know if you are planning the upgrade or the clean install.

[topmahof]

you'll like 7, it's like vista but faster and less of a resource hogger. and it doesn't take up as much space on the drive.

[kduniverse]

No, only 32bit. Planning on doing a clean install. Have win7 x64 Ultimate ready to go. I'm just concerned with the other partitions, just confusing for a novice on what and how to do it. Normally it's always been with disks provided from Lenovo/IBM so partitions and the like were not a thought. I just installed and that was that. Starting with OEM disks is tricky.

[topmahof]

i always used the upgrade versions and did the custom install. that gave me a clean version. windows just installed over the old os, i don't think it even gave me the option on what partition it was going to put it on. it just did it. i'm fairly sure that your full version will give you the option on which partition to install it on. it should still keep all your old partitions. what are on your partitions? i'm almost sure a clean install will wipe the drive, but it should keep the partitions. i'm not absolutely sure though.

[topmahof]

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operating ... part-1.htm


here's step by step instructions for installing 7 ultimate. hope this helps.

[kduniverse]

This is what I'm trying to find out. I know the clean install will erase all partitions. But since I use R&R, do I need these partitions? The service partition is only 1.5gb and has recovery, bootsect, etc. The other partition, Lenovo Q has factory recovery and swtools. Do I need this?

Also, about making recovery disks in Vista. I was only able to make a start up disk in ThinkVantage. Why am I not able to make the whole series of disks like I was able to in XP?

[topmahof]

control panel, backup and restore center, there is an option to create a windows complete pc backup and restore image of your entire computer.

[topmahof]

page 11 on that link says that 7 will only delete the partition that you choose to install windows on. i guess if you ever wanted to take your machine back to factory specs, you probably wouldn't want to delete those other two partitions. but if you burn copies of the OS, and you're using R&R i don't know why you would even need those. they should remain intact through the installation. those recovery partitions get corrupted over time, according to what i've been reading, they might not even work right.

[TTY]

Also, about making recovery disks in Vista. I was only able to make a start up disk in ThinkVantage. Why am I not able to make the whole series of disks like I was able to in XP?

It could be that your Rescue and Recovery Installation is somewhat incomplete. After i had restored my ThinkPad to factory state from the recovery partition, i had the same problem. No way to create recovery media. I then re-installed Rescue and Recovery. The result was that in the ThinkVantage menu, there was a new item called Create Recovery Media. With this, i burned restore disks. It might even be that you have the install file for Rescue and Recovery on your computer already. On my notebook, i believe it is in
c:\swtools\apps\rnr<version id>. The install file is also available on Lenovo's support site.

[TTY]

control panel, backup and restore center, there is an option to create a windows complete pc backup and restore image of your entire computer.

The OP's Vista installation has problems, so i assume it's botched in one way or other. To me, it doesn't make sense to back-up a botched OS installation and to use such a back-up in order to restore the operating system in the future.

[topmahof]

yeh, you're probably right, he should probably just delete all partitions and install 7 on a clean drive. that's always how i did it.

[ashleys]

Agreed on a clean install.
During the install process you will get the opportunity to partition the drive to your liking.

I see no reason to have the ThinkPad recovery partition and have never used it on any of mine.
Furthermore, Rescue & Recovery is far too slow to use as a backup tool.

Windows 7 Backup is pretty good for creating and maintaining a system image. I've tested it by restoring my system system a few times and it's fine. For other full system backups, I use Paragon Backup (free).
Acronis True Image used to highly recommended but the last two releases 2010 and 2011 have been pretty poor, if various web reports are to be believed. The "constant backup" feature seems to be the problem.

[kduniverse]

Ok, finally had some time to do this. Clean install on my T400. Went smoothly, figured out my partitions, etc. Once I was up and running, I followed the page on Lenovo's site for OEM install and installed all my drivers and misc. software. No more Software Update? Everything is manual now? Also, when installing my own software, printing, Adobe, etc. I noticed I have an issue with desktop icons. Some of them have changed to this generic looking icon. Mainly Office and iTunes. Any idea why and how to fix this? I've read up and saw deleting the iconcache is supposed to fix this, but it hasn't.

Thank you,

[ashleys]

System Update 4.0 is what you need to download and install the Lenovo drivers.

Link here,
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-73695

[kduniverse]

But if you don't use a win7 disk with lenovo software on it to do the install, do you use System Update? Or just manually download the updates? It seems that SU creates another folder called SW... where as installing manually creates a folder called Drivers.

[kduniverse]

Ugh!

Ended up having to do a repair for a few issues. Mainly I couldn't access the Event Viewer. I was getting errors with other misc. items as well. I don't know why, after a clean install too. Now, the issue seems to be with Bluetooth. While using my BT travel mouse, it just stopped working. I can't for the life of me figure out how to get it going again. The discovery does nothing also. Any ideas?

Also, I never had to do a repair before, let alone on Win7. I don't want to have unnecessary files left over from the repair. Other than running a disk cleanup, is there anything else I can do or should do? I'd like to have just what I need and not left over files or stuff that I don't need.

Thank you,

[topmahof]

how i always did it was, load 7, windows would load almost every driver, then i would do windows update from the control panel, get all the updates, check the optional updates get everything i thought i needed from windows update. then install lenovo system update 4.0. download and install everything i thought i needed from there. i don't use access connections, power manager or toolbox. the only things i use from lenovo are hotkeys, power manager driver, and system update. at the most, my systems have 62 processes running. after all that i go into control panel, power options, and change the settings to high performance. then i go into devices and right click the wireless adapter and choose properties and uncheck "allow windows to turn this device off to save power. then i load my applications and programs and make sure everything is running okay.
your bluetooth could be because of a power setting. do you have hotkeys installed? fn f5, does it say bluetooth on or off. is it listed in your devices?
yes, i would do a disc cleanup. i would also get a registry cleaner, like CCleaner and run it.
sorry you had to do a repair, i never had to do a repair and i put windows 7 on 8 machines so far.

i've never put 64 bit on though.

[Merc]

Hello,

I'm having issues with Vista Business on my T400 almost since the day I received my laptop. Finally, I think I'm ready to get rid of it and upgrade to Win 7 x64....mainly because I just found out my Core 2 Duo can run it, and I already have x64 running on another machine.

What I'd like to know is other than backing up things I need and want to keep, what do I need in order to perform a clean install? What about the Service partition? Do I need to keep that? Transfer it over? How? Anything else that will help is appreciated. I am a novice at this type of thing.

Thanks in advance.

I would always do a clean install when moving to a new OS. FrankneOSes can be hit and miss at best. Hopefully you have more than 3GB of memory for 64 bit Win 7 but your T400 should easily run the OS. You should always flash to the latest BIOS before upgrading to a new OS. Just be aware that if using the Lenovo windows based flash utility you should flash from Vista, not 7, as you can run into problems. After flashing, set the BIOS to default settings and do one of the below:

1. If you have a full up copy of Win 7 then follow these directions http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/16 ... s-7-a.html and yes, do delete the service partition as you now have a licensed copy of a better OS and will only use that, not the service partition, to install after a catastrophic failure.

2. If you purchased upgrade media then still do a clean install but follow these instructions http://www.winsupersite.com/article/win ... media.aspx

The only question here is if your system is 7 capable and since it was running Vista it is.