How do I format a new HD with Win 7 without dual booting?

[Shyfe]

I currently have a 1 TB HD with Win 7 on it (WD Green Drive) and my Spinpoint F3 is coming in tomorrow so I want to format Windows 7 on the Spinpoint F3 and use the 1 WD as my storage drive. How would I do this? I don't want to format the drive cause it's full and I want to use stuff on it.

 

[jamesgoddard]

Firstly - I would disconnect the old drive completely when you reinstall the OS onto the new disk - don't want to do what I have in the past and format the wrong disk!!!

Then connect the new disk to SATA port 1 and install W7, check everything is OK...

Power down, connect old disk to SATA port 2 (or higher), and boot. Windows will see the disk as a new drive and assign a different drive letter. If the system does boot on the wrong disk, then you need to check the boot order in BIOS.

 

[knotknut]

Unplug your WD from the motherboard.
Plug your new drive into your motherboad, Set as First boot device,
Install Windows7 on to your new drive.
When finished plug your old drive back in. All your files will still be there and accessible.
If you ever wish to Boot from the Old drive restart your PC go into Bios and change the boot priority. Make the Old drive 1st boot.
Change back to boot to your New drive.

 

[Shyfe]

Sounds great, thanks guys.

 

[azmtbkr81]

You could also take an image of your current drive using a program like Acronis and move it to your new drive if you don't feel like reinstalling all of your applications etc.