Complete clean Windows installation without CD?

chivs688

chivs688

chivs688

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27 Nov 2010
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706
So I lost my Windows 7 CD box a while ago, which had the CD and my serial/product code for activating Windows in. I now want to do a completely fresh installation of Windows, clearing out all my files in the process, as over the years I've accumulated so many random files, changed many settings around so much a lot of them are now wrong and causing some issues etc.

Is there I way I can do a completely fresh installation of Windows, wiping my HDD to what it was like when I first installed Windows onto the blank drive?

From what I can see, would the method be downloading the Windows 7 installation disk from somewhere, finding the product key via a program (already done), then using the 'Reinstall Windows (requires Windows installation disk)' and entering the Product Key to activate Windows when prompted?

Or would this not work for some reason? Does this method wipe my hard drive for me? Would this be advisable to do to give me back nice orderly folders and files, and only the ones I need (as I'm sure I have thousands of unnecessary ones at the moment)?

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
If you have found the product code for your current installation then you could download
a copy of Windows from some where and then use your current product code, and burn
the installation to a disk.

You will have to make sure that you get the same copy of Windows as you currently
have.
 
Shadz said:
If you have found the product code for your current installation then you could download
a copy of Windows from some where and then use your current product code, and burn
the installation to a disk.

You will have to make sure that you get the same copy of Windows as you currently
have.
Click to expand...

Yep, I've used ProduKey which has given me my Product Key, and I know that I have Home Premium x64, so I would download it from the link provided in this article: http://www.pcworld.com/article/248995/how_to_install_windows_7_without_the_disc.html and create a bootable USB from that.

So this method would do exactly what I want? A completely blank hard drive with a fresh install of Windows?

And I could make a backup of what I have now on a portable hard drive which would keep me safe in case anything did go wrong?
 
chivs688 said:
Yep, I've used ProduKey which has given me my Product Key, and I know that I have Home Premium x64, so I would download it from the link provided in this article: http://www.pcworld.com/article/248995/how_to_install_windows_7_without_the_disc.html and create a bootable USB from that.

So this method would do exactly what I want? A completely blank hard drive with a fresh install of Windows?

And I could make a backup of what I have now on a portable hard drive which would keep me safe in case anything did go wrong?
Click to expand...

Yeh this would work if you put the install on a USB drive no problem.

Yeh you can do a fresh install as when you come to install Windows again
it will give you the option to format your drive so do that and then it will
install the fresh OS on the formatted drive.
 
If you have the key you can download the disk image and use Microsofts own tool to create a bootable USB drive.
Create the drive and install, add your key in and done.
 
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