Reinstalling windows

Hi all. I know there are several threads on this already, but I've read them and have got no definitive answers! So apologies for that...

I am about to leave school where I have my laptop hooked up to their network. The thing is, they install loads of stuff on your machine and fiddle with loads of administative settings and stuff, and in the end this greatly reduces performance. I want to reinstall windows so I can get back to a clean slate! I have an OEM copy of Vista Ultimate x64 which I will use to reinstall. My questions are as follows:

1) Can I simply boot from this disc and install windows, or should I make an effort to remove the existing OS/reformat or whatever?

2) I currently have only the one partition (i.e. my HD is not partitioned!) on my HD...What are the advantages of having your OS on a seperate partition? I have a 200GB 7200rpm toshiba or hitachi i think: what partition size would you reccommend for Vista, or is that entirely dependant on the size of "programme files".

Thanks!

 

Backup all your stuff first

Boot into windows and format the whole drive. When thats done create two partitions to your size preference. The advantage of partitions is if one partition is corrupted from the OS, the other is untouched and can still be accessed independently.

 

Thanks - sorry to be dumb but how do you boot into windows and format the drive?

 

Make sure your CD rom drive is set to the first boot priority on your BIOS. So it will load from the disc instead of your HD.

To format/partition the drive is all in the Vista installation, the part where it asks you where you wanna install it. Im sure you will figure out.

 

What Filpfire meant to say, was boot with the Vista installation disk, and format/partition with that.

As for sizes of partition sizes, that's a tough one for other people to answer, because it entirely depends on what and how many applications you are planning on installing. To get a general idea, I would add the sizes of your windows and program files directories and then add about 20-30GB on to that, and go from there.

For me, personally, I think (not at that PC right now) that I am using about 50-60GB of space for my programs and OS.

And remember, it's better to give the primary partition (the one where your OS will go) too much space, than not enough.

Hope this helps.

 

you could make your Vista partition smaller than 40gb if you move the %userdata% folder. Otherwise, I'd just stick with one partition. Two partitions IMO is not worth the effort unless you are formatting more than twice a year. For one, you can just remake your user profile and that wipes most if not all your user settings. So if you ever decide you want to start with a clean registry, you can try that method.