Reinstall Win 7

[PMS]

On my pc I have intalled win7 and LL2.0.
In intalação LL2.0 I let him pick up the partition.
Now wanted to reinstall Win7 without touching the LL2.0. Is it possible? How?
Thanks for the help.
Pedro

[N4RPS]

Hello!

While I'm thinking about it, let me welcome you to Linux Lite. There are many experts here, and their solutions may be better, but here's mine:

If your Windows system is just S-L-O-W, THAT can be fixed short of reinstalling Windows. You simply remove the mess that slowed it down in the first place, as opposed to reinstalling 7, then downloading and installing Service Pack 1, 150+ post-SP1 updates, AND your previous Windows drivers and applications.

In the past, I have covered some of this in the forums, but if you PM me, I'll tell you what utilities I use to do this. However, if you have had viruses, adware, or malware trash the registry to the point where Windows Update will not install updates and/or pukes in the process, you will most likely need to reinstall Windows. Otherwise, cleaning a PC up fixes 'em 90 to 95 percent of the time.

Windows 7's installer does not recognize Linux partitions. It will just ignore them, asking whether or not you want to reinstall into the same partitions the old system used.

THAT is the EASY part. The HARD part is that Windows will rewrite the GRUB bootloader, making your Linux partitions inaccessible. You will then either have to boot from and run a boot-repair LiveCD/USB, or boot into a Linux Lite LiveCD, add the boot-repair PPA, then install and run boot-repair to restore GRUB. Boot-repair will ALMOST always fix GRUB-related errors.

One can Google 'boot-repair' for more details...

73 DE N4RPS
Rob

[shengchieh]

I am NOT an expert, just a long linux user.  Sorry, no help on dual-boot.  My opinion ...

I discourage dual-boot.  I've seen so much problems throughout the years concerning dual-boot.  If you have an old computer lying around, let the newer computer be window-only and
let the old computer be linux-only.  Alternatively, buy a new window computer and let your current machine be linux-only.

If money is tight, hunt around on freecycle, ebay, friends who want to upgrade, etc, and get an used old computer.  There are tons of very lightweight linux distros (crunchbang, antix, puppy, etc).

Sheng-Chieh

[bitsnpcs]

I am NOT an expert, just a long linux user.  Sorry, no help on dual-boot.  My opinion ...

I discourage dual-boot.  I've seen so much problems throughout the years concerning dual-boot.  If you have an old computer lying around, let the newer computer be window-only and
let the old computer be linux-only.  Alternatively, buy a new window computer and let your current machine be linux-only.

If money is tight, hunt around on freecycle, ebay, friends who want to upgrade, etc, and get an used old computer.  There are tons of very lightweight linux distros (crunchbang, antix, puppy, etc).

Sheng-Chieh

I am not an expert either, and also I am not even a long term user of Linux.
I definitely agree with your opinion Sheng-Chieh.
I first tried Linux dual boot Ubuntu it was a total nightmare, never worked after the first updates, took the technician over a month to fix the hard drive, and I kept away from Linux afterwards for a few years until LL this year.
This time I done exactly as per your instructions, and one I changed from windows to Linux Lite, I have not had any problems, just newbie based ones, and have found the change to Linux Lite enjoyable.

[gold_finger]

On my pc I have intalled win7 and LL2.0.
In intalação LL2.0 I let him pick up the partition.
Now wanted to reinstall Win7 without touching the LL2.0. Is it possible? How?
Thanks for the help.
Pedro

PMS,

Don't know if you're still here or not.  Post back again if you still need help.

Yes, you should be able to reinstall Windows, but it will destroy ability to boot LL after it's done.  That's not a major problem though because it can be fixed with a few commands from your LL installation disk later.

Dual-booting is not a big deal as long as you understand partitioning basics and direct installations to their proper locations.  But, it's always a good idea to have backup copies of anything important just in case something goes wrong or a mistake is made.

P.s.  If you do post back for help, include the output from this command from a terminal using either your installed LL or the live DVD:

Code:

sudo parted -l

(That is a lowercase letter "L" at the end, not the number 1.)

That command will show us what your hard drive partitions look like right now.

[Monkeyman]

I have LL 2.0 on my desktop and Win7 on my laptop only because everything still works on the laptop.  If/when Win7 goes south, that'll have LL on it, too.  VERY few things Linux can't do that Windows can.  There's almost always a Linux based/open source prog/app that will work.