Formatting Question

[krimzon6]

I am about to format due to the amount of cluster and crap I have now, I will backup my music ect.

The question is, will I have to reinstall every single driver for every single device again like PCIe, graphics, motherboard, ethernet ect?


Thanks, best answer will be picked

 

[krimzon6]

Basically, I don't care about my stuff that I have now (music, games ect) as they can be easily redownloaded, saved, installed ect. It is the hardware I care about. I want to get a clean slate install, for example

Windows 7 x64 from x32 and Windows 7 only. As well as the device drivers.

I don't want none of my *** on it, my hard drive is 1TB and I am getting a 1.5TB one to do backups and stuff from. So I would just like Windows 7 hard install with no extra programs or my files.

Would formatting the HDD, restarting with my Windows 7 64 disc in and going from there achieve this?

 

[mcnumpty23]

yes you will need to re-install everything--though if you restore it from a hidden recovery partition or a back up image rather than a windows disc then the drivers would be installed--though newer ones would probably be available

most important is to make sure you have at least the drivers for ethernet or wireless before starting to allow internet access to do all the other updates

 

[krimzon6]

I have to explain these things to myself because it makes it easier, sorry if it looks like I'm putting you down, i'm not

Say I have

1 Windows disc (64 bit, upgrading from 32)
1 external HD (has GFX drivers, and "Atheros AR8121" LAN + router driver)

I would

1 - Install Windows (erase total HDD)
2 - boot into windows, install GFX, LAN then router driver

From then on, what other drivers/ect would I need like motherboard, hard drives ect?

 

[Pyree]

Window 7 pretty much covers every driver apart from gpu and usb 3.0. Don't worry too much if you run into driver problem, just find the device causing the problem from device manager and we in tom's hardware will try our best to find a driver for you.

 

[4745454b]

Correct. Windows will install a lot of stuff for you. But make sure you have your LAN driver handy or else its a PITA to get started.

 

[fancarolina]

More the likely once you get the machine up you'll have to install network drivers (wired or wireless) then let Windows Update do the rest of the work. Additionally you may have to install USB3.0, the latest video drivers for your card, and any RAID drivers or Motherboard utilities you may want.

 

[krimzon6]

Best answer selected by krimzon6.