Trying to do a clean install

baby and crumble

Hey guys,

Apologies if this should be in laptops, I thought it best here.

I have an Asus U33jc (Windows 7 preinstalled) that I bought about 3 years ago. It's starting to get really sluggish and I want to do a clean install. I've backed all my data up, created a bootable USB disk with the legit iso file from the microsoft links, so I'm ready to go. My issue is I can't seem to boot from the USB disk to start the process.

When I get into the BIOS, there's no option to add an option for booting from USB. I've gone into every menu I can find to no avail. On my last computer when I installed Linux it was super easy, but I can't figure it out.

I then thought maybe I can install from the setup on the disk while running windows but there's no option to create fresh partitions or format the hdd that i can see- without booting from the usb which I can't seem to do.



Anyone have any ideas? I really just want to start from scratch with this laptop as it's a good machine. Cheers.

Zombienosh

Do you have a boot menu, usually F12 to bring it up. I'm not too sure about Asus bios but there should be a boot priority menu with USB option?

PropJoe10

If you have Windows 7 on a USB, can you create a bootable CD in Windows and just boot from CD? Or on the initial boot screen, check for a hotkey to select boot device. It could be F12, F11 or Del. If the laptop is any way new, there should definitely be an option to boot from USB.

Capt'n Midnight

If you have your data backed up and don't mind the drive being wiped then look at this - recovery image, there may also be an option to make DVD's

run decrapifier afterwards to remove crud
and you'll be spending a good while installing patches

http://support.asus.com/Troubleshooting/detail.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=U33Jc&p=3&s=252&os=&hashedid=aMCVqkGz1jReppcv&no=1775

Using the Recovery Partition(on selected models)
1. Press < F9 > during bootup.
2. Press [Enter] to select Windows Setup [EMS Enabled].
3. Select the language you want to recover and click Next.
4. Read the ASUS Preload Wizard messages and click Next.
5. Select a partition option and click Next. Partition options:

Recover Windows to first partition only.
This option deletes only the first partition and allows you to keep other partitions, and to create a new system partition as drive "C".
Recover Windows to entire HD.
This option deletes all partitions from your hard disk drive and creates a new system partition as drive "C".
Recover Windows to entire HD with two partitions.
This option deletes all partitions from your hard drive and creates two new partitions "C" (25%) and "D" (75%).
6. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the recovery process.

baby and crumble

Zombienosh wrote: »

Do you have a boot menu, usually F12 to bring it up. I'm not too sure about Asus bios but there should be a boot priority menu with USB option?

I'll check that. What I did was go straight into the BIOS menu and then into Boot from there. I was able to do it easy enough on my last computer (whichwas a DELL running XP...)

PropJoe10 wrote: »

If you have Windows 7 on a USB, can you create a bootable CD in Windows and just boot from CD? Or on the initial boot screen, check for a hotkey to select boot device. It could be F12, F11 or Del. If the laptop is any way new, there should definitely be an option to boot from USB.

There's no optical drive on my laptop, hence needing to boot from USB.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

If you have your data backed up and don't mind the drive being wiped then look at this - recovery image, there may also be an option to make DVD's

run decrapifier afterwards to remove crud
and you'll be spending a good while installing patches

Cool thanks. I'll have a look at all those options. Ideally I want to completely wipe everything and start from scratch.

Torqay

Some manufacturer disable the F12 boot selection menu in the BIOS by default.

As for preparing a bootable USB installation medium, Rufus from Donegal is your friend.

PropJoe10

Torqay wrote: »

Some manufacturer disable the F12 boot selection menu in the BIOS by default.

As for preparing a bootable USB installation medium, Rufus from Donegal is your friend.

Is he really from Donegal? Great tool, use that one myself

Torqay

PropJoe10 wrote: »

Is he really from Donegal? Great tool, use that one myself

According to his website:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Akeo Consulting is a Software Development and Consulting company, established in the North-West of Ireland, in beautiful County Donegal.[/FONT]

baby and crumble

Thanks guys. I went into the recovery utility and it all seemed to work until I restarted at the end and now it won't get past the "starting windows" page. I'm getting a windows boot manager page telling me to insert my install disks which I don't have and any I don't have a DVD drive in the computer.

Gah!!!!!

baby and crumble

I actually figured it out! There was a second option in the boot menu called "o" which apparently is the option to boot from usb.

Capt'n Midnight

when the image is complete you can use sdelete from sysinternals / microsoft to zero out free space to clean things a bit more

Torqay

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

when the image is complete

I thought the point here is a clean installation from scratch rather than restoring a factory image with all the cr@pware that goes with it.

baby and crumble

Torqay wrote: »

I thought the point here is a clean installation from scratch rather than restoring a factory image with all the cr@pware that goes with it.

Maybe I should have clarified, I was attempting a clean install, then tried the restore which didn't work, but then I got the clean install working, without all the crapware, so I don't need to do this.

Capt'n Midnight

Torqay wrote: »

I thought the point here is a clean installation from scratch rather than restoring a factory image with all the cr@pware that goes with it.

factory image is clickety-click and away you go then http://pcdecrapifier.com/ and close enough


life can be too short to go through a manual install especially if there is a chance you're missing something like a network driver or HDD controller one

Torqay

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

factory image is clickety-click and away you go then http://pcdecrapifier.com/ and close enough

On this I would not agree with you.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

life can be too short to go through a manual install especially if there is a chance you're missing something like a network driver or HDD controller one

I just had a Toshiba notebook here, restoring the Windows 7 factory default image took like 6 hours, I kid you not... OK, since the process didn't require my attendance, I could have gone fishing.

Seriously, installing Windows from scratch takes 20 minutes and most manufacturers do have decent support websites. So unless you're dealing with some fly-by-night company, drivers should be no problem at all.

BillG

Torqay wrote: »

I just had a Toshiba notebook here, restoring the Windows 7 factory default image took like 6 hours, I kid you not... OK, since the process didn't require my attendance, I could have gone fishing

Crikey, I think I would check the disk.

Capt'n Midnight

Torqay wrote: »

I just had a Toshiba notebook here, restoring the Windows 7 factory default image took like 6 hours, I kid you not... OK, since the process didn't require my attendance, I could have gone fishing.

That's the point , clickety-click

Seriously, installing Windows from scratch takes 20 minutes and most manufacturers do have decent support websites. So unless you're dealing with some fly-by-night company, drivers should be no problem at all.

20 minutes on a three year old laptop ?

it's the hassle, and knowing that if there is a problem with drivers it's just going to be a time sink

Torqay

BillG wrote: »

Crikey, I think I would check the disk.

Nope... disk is just fine. Laptop went through a gazillion of restarts after each driver or piece of software was installed. Their recovery routine just suxx.

Torqay

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

20 minutes on a three year old laptop ?

It's got a Core i3 processor and DDR3 memory, 20 minutes should be a realistic estimate.

BillG

Torqay wrote: »

Nope... disk is just fine. Laptop went through a gazillion of restarts after each driver or piece of software was installed. Their recovery routine just suxx.

I think six hours must be some sort of record! I agree about crapware, why cannot manufacturers just install the o/s and leave it at that and Tosh do seem to be one of the worst offenders.

Overheal

Even on older machines my install times (to get to desktop) were within 20 minutes, aye.

Running your updates batch really depends on your internet connection. In most cases I can get those all done and my initial batch of programs installed within 90 minutes or so.

Torqay

Overheal wrote: »

Even on older machines my install times (to get to desktop) were within 20 minutes, aye.

Running your updates batch really depends on your internet connection. In most cases I can get those all done and my initial batch of programs installed within 90 minutes or so.

Plenty updates available after you restore a 3 year old factory image... so that doesn't count!

baby and crumble

If anyone's interested, I'd say once I actually started to process (after figuring out how to make it boot from USB!) I'd say I was ready to start installing drivers etc. in about 35-40 minutes (probably less, actually). Core i5, 4G DDR3 memory.

Once I went to the ASUS site I downloaded all my drivers for everything on the motherboard and i'm all good.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

Torqay

baby and crumble wrote: »

If anyone's interested, I'd say once I actually started to process (after figuring out how to make it boot from USB!) I'd say I was ready to start installing drivers etc. in about 35-40 minutes (probably less, actually)

I forgot your laptop doesn't have a DVD drive, installation via USB 2.0 takes a bit longer alright.