Do i need to delete Win7 on my HDD to install Win 8.1?

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ERIC J

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Jan 14, 2014
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I am not 100% sure of what to do here, never installed windows before?
i bought a really good 1TB HDD from my friend for a really good price and it has win 7 home premium 64 bit on it now but is not activated. He is reusing the key for his new SSD.
I needed more space for all my games and 500g is not cutting it so i bought his old one.
If i buy a win 8.1 64 bit dvd do i have to first delete the win 7 on the HDD now or can i run the win 8 dvd and it will take care of it for me?
Also wanted to ask since i am buying win 8.1 so close to the release of windows 10 will i be able to upgrade when it is released? will it be inexpensive?
 
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A clean install is best you don't want to do an upgrade. You will have issues popping up over and over until you finally reformat the drive and do a fresh install anyway. Might as well do it at the beginning.
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littleleo

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May 8, 2009
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You can't use the Windows 7 since he is reusing the key. Format the partition the windows 7 is in and do a fresh instal of the Windows 8.1 that is best. The windows 8.1 installation disk should ask you during the install process if you want to do this, or you can do it ahead of time to be safe.
 
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ERIC J

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Jan 14, 2014
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Right i did not want to use the win 7 on it now so it will be a custom install from the disc right?
I am buying the OEM win 8.1 disc from either amazon,best buy( or whoever has it the cheapest)
and since the HDD is not a fresh clean drive just wanted to make sure i will be able to install the win 8.1
without having to delete the win7 beforehand.
 
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ERIC J

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Jan 14, 2014
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Well unfortunately for me i am not real familiar with formatting drives(never did one before)
so you are saying i should wipe this drive first?
How do i do that?
I agree it is best to start with a fresh HDD and i wish my friend would not have left a unactivated Win7 on it.
 
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ERIC J

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Jan 14, 2014
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Right now all it has on it is a unactivated WIN 7 home premium 64 bit sp1
he left it on the HDD for me because at first i was going to buy a key and use it, but win 7 is losing it's support from MS in another month. so i wont be able to keep things up to date for gaming.
Thats why i am getting win 8.

 
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ERIC J

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I read and watched as many things about installing windows 8.1 that i could find
and from it i gather that i will need to go into the bios and set it to boot from optical drive for the win8 cd.
Then do a custom install and delete the old win 7 in the partitions and that will allow me to do a clean install and win 8 will do the rest?
Being that this is my first install of a OS i think having win 7 on the hdd is making this more confusing that it needs to be.
 
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littleleo

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So the system you are adding this to has no O/S? Okay, yes what you described is the correct procedure.
 
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ERIC J

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Jan 14, 2014
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Yes it has a unactivated WIN 7 home premium 64 bit installed on the HDD.
I found several great reads about installing WIN 8.1 over a existing WIN 7 OS here
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/ss/windows-8-clean-install-part-1_2.htm#step-heading
and here
http://event.msi.com/us/win8-1/clean_install.html
and from what i read on both this install will be a piece of cake and could not be easier.
WIN 8.1 will partition and format for me, all i have to do is boot from the CD and follow the instructions and make sure not to boot from the CD the second time.
I thought this was going to be hard but it is not at all.
I ordered a OEM WIN 8.1 with disc and key for $92 from walmart, they had it the cheapest of the ones selling it i could trust.
 
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