Hints

Handy for when you replace you hard disk in your netbook or Laptop and rather than cloning your old driveyou simply want a fresh install of windows. You’ll obviously need to get yourself a copy of Windows 7, either on a DVD or an ISO of the setup files and a 4GB or 8GB USB pen drive. We’re going to wipe the pen drive (or at least flag the data for deletion), create a primary partition, format the drive, mount the pen drive before copying across our windows 7 set-up files from a DVD.

1// open start > type ‘diskpart‘ > execute diskpart.exe > click ‘yes’ to the User account control window prompt

2// When diskpart is running in cmd window, type ‘list disk‘ >

3// Identify the your USB drive by the size of the disk – in this case it’s a 4GB (3700MB) drive – and type ‘select disk #‘ (where # is the number of your disk – in my case it was disk 6). Type ‘clean’ and press enter.

4// Type ‘create partition primary‘ and press enter. Type ‘active‘ and press enter. Type ‘format fs=fat32 quick’ or if the USB key is over 4GB type ‘format fs=ntfs quick‘

5// Type ‘assign‘ and windows will map a drive letter to the drive. Click ‘Open folder to view files and copy your windows set-up files across from your DVD to your USB drive. Use your USB pen to install your copy of windows to your netbook.