Formating Harddrive

[bbqdude]

I just finished building my first computer and I am installing windows and the harddrive is not being read. Windows is not allowing me the option to format the drive. I spoke with Wester Digital support and they told me that since the hard drive is showing up in BIOS it just needs to be formated and partitioned for installation of Windows 7. They advised me I could use Acronis to create a bootable CD but I am not able to because neither of my laptops have a WD hard drive in them. Anyone else know of a bootable program I can use to format my HD? I am downloading Linux right now since I was told that could be a possiblity.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Uh, what? acronis has nothing to do with WD so I don't see why you'd need a comp with one of those drives to burn it.

Use the "custom install" option, I've only ever used that one and it always allows me to do whatever I want with a hard drive. Including usually just deleting all partitions and then just clicking next and letting it decide what to partition how.

 

[bbqdude]

I ended up figuring it all out and now all is good.

 

[windows7guy]

Hello bbqdude,

You can perform a clean install from a Windows 7 upgrade version. However, you will have to have a valid previous copy of Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Vista installed to validate the upgrade and activate the product key. Please note that when migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 you will not have an "in place upgrade" option. You will however have the option to select "custom" install when prompted. The Windows 7 install process will then copy all of your data in "My Documents" over to a Windows.old folder within Windows 7 itself. All applications and documents stored in other locations will have to be reinstalled / transferred manually.
For more information on the Windows 7 Upgrade, please go here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Installing-and-reinstalling-Windows-7

For additional assistance with the migration of Windows XP to Windows 7, please go here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ee150430.aspx

Thanks again,
John M
Microsoft Windows Client Team

 

[jsc]

Uh, what? acronis has nothing to do with WD so I don't see why you'd need a comp with one of those drives to burn it.

WD has a free version of Acronis apparently tailored to their drives on their website.
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp