How to remove old Windows correctly

The situation turns out to be funny: on the one hand, developers from Microsoft assure that since the transition of all Windows operating systems to the NT kernel, the stability of the system has increased tens of times. It is claimed that one can forget about the constant "blue screens of death", more commonly known as BSOD; Hangs of the entire computer because of one "hung" running process; And many other "goodies", promising the user a long-term stable operation of the system.

But on the other hand, everything looks a little different: Microsoft's promises of new mechanisms for working with memory are fully implemented, but reliability, although it is higher than that of the Windows 9x lineup, is still not enough. This is indirectly evidenced by the frequently asked question on the Internet "how to remove the old Windows". The operating system still has to be reinstalled periodically. It "lives" for years only for those users who are limited to working in office applications, listening to and viewing multimedia files and using a small number of other programs. Usually these are beginners who will not even start an update once again. In contrast, experienced users who are not afraid to experiment with new programs, sometimes have to understand how to remove the old Windows.

Removing the old Windows system is required in two main cases: transition to the Linux operating system; The need to reinstall because of the inability to boot or abnormal operation of applications. The question "how to remove old Windows 7" sounds much less often than for Win XP. This is due to the foresight of Microsoft, which implemented a convenient mechanism for installing a new system on top of the old one. There are three ways to remove the old system.

The first one is applicable for Win 7, but it is not suitable for Win XP. It is enough to insert into the drive a disk with the installation distro and start the installation process. At one stage, a message will appear that an old system has been detected that will be stored in the Windows.old folder. As a result, nothing important will be erased, and the old system folders and files will be moved. They have access, so to restore their documents, save games and other information is simple enough. Subsequently, the Windows.old directory can be deleted.

Despite the obvious, the question "how to remove the old Windows" is still asked. Therefore, you can use the second method. It is rather specific and is not accessible to everyone, but, nevertheless, exists. You should boot from another hard disk, then there is no problem with how to remove the old Windows, because the hard drive with the old system is visible in the Explorer, and any directory on it can be deleted. Usually, there are rarely two fixed hard drives in the computer (except for RAID), but sometimes some users install it on an external system.

The third, universal way is to boot from a CD or a flash drive (a very popular option) of a special reduced version of Windows - Windows PE. It is very truncated in functionality, for example, support for high-grade audio and video, although it is possible, but involves a number of complexities, so it is rarely implemented.

At the same time, work with the file system is possible in full. You can download LiveCD from torrent trackers. There are many of its assemblies made by enthusiasts based on Win PE. The structure often includes programs for working with hard disk partitions, tests of hardware components of the computer and some other applications. After downloading the prepared disk (stick) LiveCD it is recommended to erase the old Windows. Sometimes the hard drive may not be displayed in the PE system. To solve this, the BIOS should change the mode of the disk subsystem from AHCI to IDE. If you can not erase due to access rights, you can change them (Folder Options - Security - Advanced).

If the user does not know how to remove the old Windows 7 activator, then this is the easiest and correct way to do it in the activator's installer itself. Usually all such programs have a clear graphical interface, which can be easily understood. Before doing this, do not forget to disable the software protection in the services (Control Panel-Administration-Services).