How to reformat upgraded Windows 7

This is an archive of the mabination.com forums which were active from 2010 to 2018. You can not register, post or otherwise interact with the site other than browsing the content for historical purposes. The content is provided as-is, from the moment of the last backup taken of the database in 2019. Image and video embeds are disabled on purpose and represented textually since most of those links are dead.

To view other archive projects go to https://archives.mabination.com

Excalibuurr wrote on 2011-11-24 05:06

Would anyone happen to know how to reformat a computer with an OS that has been upgraded? I have a Windows 7 reformat disk and I am wondering if I can reformat with it. If not, is there another way to reformat my computer?
Yoorah wrote on 2011-11-24 07:06

If you format the drive using the Windows installer (custom option), the upgrade version will take note that you had an activated OS there before and will let you reactivate after you reinstall it. By contrast, you can't install onto a drive that has been formatted before.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Installing-and-reinstalling-Windows-7
See "Using the Custom installation option and formatting the hard disk"
Excalibuurr wrote on 2011-11-24 17:28

Quote from Yoorah;669996:
If you format the drive using the Windows installer (custom option), the upgrade version will take note that you had an activated OS there before and will let you reactivate after you reinstall it. By contrast, you can't install onto a drive that has been formatted before.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Installing-and-reinstalling-Windows-7
See "Using the Custom installation option and formatting the hard disk"

Well, that didn't help, but I managed to reformat it by doing this simple reg hack that allows me to re-install Windows 7