Installing a new hard drive!?

[Ultima]

Am I in the right forum!?

What all do I need to do? Format etc.....

I'm using an an existing hard drive that I Wiped with CCleaner. Is that drive considered formated now and ready to load an OS onto?

I'm going to try and put Win 7 on...is NTSF the correct format?

Any feedback or pointers in the right direction will be appreciated!

I'm learning as I go....Trial and error!

[12TimesOver]

I'm using an an existing hard drive that I Wiped with CCleaner. Is that drive considered formated now and ready to load an OS onto?

Usually the OS installation will offer you the opportunity to format the drive, I don't think CCleaner is the same as formatting.

I'm going to try and put Win 7 on...is NTSF the correct format?

NTFS

You can do it!!

X

[Masscre]

12x is correct on the above two questions CCleaner is not what you will need to do an actual true format. If you are installing a new OS for a CD it will havea utility for formating the drive if you boot from the CD and NT File system is what format the new windows 7 will be using.

[TrailMyx]

I recently bought this utility for cloning hard drives.  Works great!

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/index.html

I used their free utility for migration.  It worked so well, I bought the full product.

They have several good utilities.

[Ultima]

I successfully installed Windows 7! Hooray! BIOS was giving me a little trouble not reading the CD-ROM to load windows but I worked it out.

What should I be installing first. I'm going for AVG, CCLeaner and Malewarebytes and google chrome.

Anything else that makes the top priority list or any other advice from the Guru's here before I load the EC Client and surf the web?

What am I forgetting? Remember I'm broke and a soon to be starving student.

[TrailMyx]

Really just AVG.  The other ones are for when things have already gone wrong and you are trying to recover.  If you have a fresh install, then you are pretty much golden.

I'm still a Firefox fan, so although Google Chrome is becoming more of a possible favorite.

[Ultima]

Thanks TM! I'll leave off the other two for now (CCleaner and Malwarebytes)

Video Drivers and direct X then off to patch for the EC Client.

What about the BIOS...should I search for the latest?

And what was the verdict on Windows 7 or do I need to sift through those threads?

[TrailMyx]

The typical rule of thumb for BIOS, is "if it's working, then don't patch" I've killed my MB by patching.  Only when you have weird function should you patch your BIOS.

Otherwise, you are right on with the priority.  Video drivers and DirectX.  Make sure Windows is patched fully first.

[UOMaddog]

First off, congratulations!

Second, go to www.ninite.com and it will have the latest versions of all the free software you need! Only pick what you want to install and it will create an easy to use installer that will silently install ALL of those programs!

Here's what I recommend:
Chrome (browser)
VLC (media player)
Flash/FlashIE
Java
DO NOT DO .NET (let Microsoft install it as part of windows updates)
Paint.NET (if you want a good photo/image editor)
Adobe Reader
CutePDF (for generating PDF's of anything you want to print instead of wasting paper)
Microsoft Essentials
AVG
Dropbox (if you want, I can send you a referral so we both get more space! this is for storing all your important files and having them auto-backed up)
ImgBurn (if you ever need to burn ISO files of DVDs or such, many people won't need this)
CDBurnerXP (if you want to burn data and/or music CD's)
7zip OR WinRAR (either one works, I use WinRAR)


Make sure you run all of your Windows Updates as well (there will probably be tons of them!)

[gimlet]

But First make sure you have all the patches from Microsoft

[gimlet]

Also


hide the taskbar with win 7

i found this which is really sweet.

http://www.aviassin.com/taskbareliminator


i hit control t  and the taskbar goes away completely. I hit control t again it iy comes back!

Fabulous for Windows 7 users!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[UOMaddog]

Also


hide the taskbar with win 7

i found this which is really sweet.

http://www.aviassin.com/taskbareliminator


i hit control t  and the taskbar goes away completely. I hit control t again it iy comes back!

Fabulous for Windows 7 users!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ugh! I can't stand not having it on my screen! Just get more screens so it's out of your way!!!   

[gimlet]

Ugh! I can't stand not having it on my screen! Just get more screens so it's out of your way!!!   

hehehehehehe - you and Bill Gates!

[Endless Night]

Welll if your broke and student .. our probably going to need an office equiv.... www.openoffice.org is decent.  ALthough i still use office 2000

[12TimesOver]

If you're a student you can actually get MS Office for next to nothing but I can vouch for OpenOffice, even though it's owned by Oracle now, it is an excellent productivity suite with MS Office file compatibility. Some people are unhappy with the whole Oracle thing though and many are hopping onto LibreOffice which I hear great things about but have not yet had a chance to download and use.

Browser - I can't get on the Chrome bandwagon, I just can't do it. Firefox here although I have no bad feelings for IE and use it a lot still.
Image Editing - Gimp, hands down. The clear leader with an extremely extensive list of add-ons also freely available (see how many Gim posts Cerv has made in Cool Links)
Multimedia player - VLC for sure
Archiving/Compression - you MUST use 7zip!
Text editor - Notepad++ with no question

Although I own Office 97, 2000, 2003, and 2007 I don't even have it installed on my new PC anymore. I'm straight opensource now other than the very few games I play. It's kind of neat to be able to do so much for so little!

X