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formatting hard drive to reload windows 7

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peterdee

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Posted March 6, 2013 at 11:03AM

hi i recently tired loading windows 7 onto my computer and i may have accidentally deleted a partition or the hard drive drivers as when windows failed to load i found it wouldnt load and when windows asked if i wanted to format hard drive disk c and i said yes it told me windows could not format drive as drive was read only and to check up on how to alter it back to write what i would like to know is there any programs that will allow me to format disk ready for loading of windows o.s. or how to make it writeable again rather than having to take it into a shop to get it done yours in anticipation peter denman.

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted March 6, 2013 at 11:17AM

Assuming your trying to do this from the W7 DVD? as windows will not format a drive it is installed on.

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peterdee

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Posted March 6, 2013 at 1:25PM

yes i did and i went for a clean install not an upgrade and i think by mistake i deleted a wrong folder or partition and since i have been told i need to format drive c to be a clean drive to prepare it for a new win 7 installation how to achieve this i would appreciate help with if possible without having to take it into a repair dept. so i would appreciate any help and be extremely thankful .

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Chronos the 2nd

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Posted March 6, 2013 at 1:29PM

Are you booting from the Windows 7 DVD? As you most certainly can format the hard-drive before reinstalling Windows.

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted March 6, 2013 at 1:31PM

What op system do you have on it now and can you still boot into the computer?

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lotvic

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Posted March 6, 2013 at 1:39PM

Have you changed the boot order to CD/DVD in the BIOS setup? then you need to put your DVD in the tray and leave it there, and boot up pc with the W7 DVD in. Most pcs need you to watch for 'press any key to boot from CD' then you press the space bar (or any other key) to begin the process.

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lotvic

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Posted March 6, 2013 at 1:42PM

Make sure you have the 25 alphanumeric product key for W7 written down on a piece of paper if you don't have any printed paperwork (might have been a downloaded version and email product key from microsoft)

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted March 6, 2013 at 1:57PM

lotvic

I think he is Okay with this, its the fact that the HDD is being seen as read only and will not format from the W7 DVD

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lotvic

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Posted March 6, 2013 at 8:40PM

I suggest you follow the reinstall guides on http://windows7.windowsreinstall.com/indexreinstallguides.htm as you are wanting to install W7 and format C: that has a previous op sys on it. On the link see the 'Reinstalls of Win 7' versions that are on the lefthandside. (the guides have step by step screenshots)

"A reinstall guide is the replacement of an already present operating system. So if you wish to format your hard drive and put Windows 7 onto this drive then the reinstall guide is for you. Same as a clean install but with the removal all traces of the previous operating system. You can use this guide also for replacing an older Windows with new. Lets say you have XP , and now wish to replace this with Windows 7 using the same hard drive, then these guides are for you"

Now if you look at the guides you will see that Formatting the C: is part of the install of W7, it comes after the Licence Agreement page and after you have chosen "Type of installation" "Custom (Advanced) and then chosen the hard drive partition.

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peterdee

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Posted March 7, 2013 at 1:23PM

hi when i try to format drive c it keeps coming up that it cannot find drive c and that drive c is read only please change drive to be able to write any help appreciated i am at present using my spare comp. pentium 4 my other main one is hewlett packard amd dual core.

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Fruit Bat /\0/\

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Posted March 7, 2013 at 1:29PM

it keeps coming up that it cannot find drive c and that drive c is read only

this now sound like it thinks your DVD drive is the C drive because it cannot find the HDD.

Boot to BIOS and check that you PC is detecting your hard drive.

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