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#61
Ok, just to be clear - you will be flashing the BIOS from the mfgr (HP).
$0.09 / GB good deal
I usually use Diskpart clean (not clean all) - it's quick because it wipes the 1st and last 100 mb from the disk. That's where disks contain information about what's on the disk (partitions, file system format, files, etc).
See: Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command - Windows 7 Help Forums
DO NOT follow Step 9 - that's the long wipe.
The clean install tutorials also address this in a fashion where it instructs you to modify the disk during the install process.
See: Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
Step 8 (1st bullet in Note box - delete partitions until all unallocated)
I have data partitions that I want to keep, so I create unallocated space for a Windows install. The 100 MB System Reserved partition gets created by the install process. The key distinction is all unallocated space or a only a portion of the drive is unallocated. If the 100 MB partition exists I don't think another Reserved part will be created. Hmmm never tried that scenario, maybe next time I install. Anyway, I commonly delete the Windows and System Reserve partitions (the unallocated space I will use to install) when, leaving my data partitions intact.
To make this work, my user profiles are not on the C: drive, and my data is scattered across a number of partitions and external drives. It only took me 20 years to come up with a schema that made me happy
I'll wait for your post saying you got the drive, installed Win7, and you have updated the firmware. You've done it before, so you know how easy and fast it will be.
You might want to boot into BIOS and reset to defaults, save and exit. Then launch the F.49 flash before launching anything on Windows. It's not required though, just squeaky clean.
Bill
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