Windows 7 Installation Tutorial

Preparing the DVD from the ISO Image

Since most the people are installing Windows 7 in a real hardware, a DVD should be burned from the downloaded ISO Image. You will need a DVD burner, a DVD burning software and a blank DVD-R or DVD-RW to prepare the installation disk. I used a Sony single layer DVD-R as media and used Nero 8 as the DVD burning software. But for thise who don't have Nero installed, CD Burner XP is a free Alternative.

So using the DVD burning software of your choice burn the Windows 7 ISO image to the DVD. Make sure you choose the a very low burning speed, 4x or 8x, for better results.

Setting up your Computer & BIOS changes (If required)

New reboot your computer after popping in the all new Windows 7 DVD you just created in to the DVD Drive. In most cases if you do this you'll automatically boot in to the Windows 7 Installation DVD. But in some cases if the Boot device order is changed in the BIOS setting to get it done (More details in a different tutorial).

Booting UP and First Installation Steps

Steps from here are pretty straight forward. Read the descriptions in each pages before clicking the Next button to avoid and disasters. If there is options to chooses in tehse steps you may find them each images.

You may choose your Language options by selecting the dropdowns 'Language to Install'. Time and Currency format and 'Keyboard or input method here. I decided to leave everything to 'US' but it would be better for selecting the correct setting here for non-english users.

This screen is where the Installation wizard begins. The install now options will leads to the advanced install options. For repairing a corrupt installation the 'Repair your computer' button located at the bottom-left can be used. For fresh installs just click the Install Now button.

Tick the 'I accept the license terms' checkbox and click 'Next' to proceed.

Which type of Installation do you want?

This screen provides two, Upgrade and Costume (advanced). The upgrade options is for those who wish to upgrade an exiting installation of older version of Windows  to Windows 7. It is confirmed that Windows Vista can be upgraded to Windows 7 with out any issues, but Windows XP is still a problem.

We will opt the second option here, the Costom Install.

Where do you want to Install Windows?

Clicking on the 'Costom' button brings the Install location selection screen. In the test machine we have an un-partitioned empty disk. But in the case of a normal installation all your hard drive partitions (e.g C:\, D:\ etc.) will be listed here. Choose the drive as you like (a 15 GB size is recommended). Make sure the drive don't have any important data or the Windows 7 Installation will wipe-out the contents of that partition. You can backup the data to another partition (egg. for installing in D:\ drive move important files from there to say E:\ drive or to an external usb drive) for save keeping.

Partitioning / Creating or Modifying Partitions

Click the Drive options (advanced) for advanced partition management options options like 'Delete', 'Format', 'New', and 'Extend'. To create a new partition click the New button. But if you have list of partitions in the previous screen, choose the one where you are planning to install Windows 7 and click Format. Then click 'Next' to proceed.

The 'New' option provides a text box to enter the size of partition you wish to create in MBs. A 15GB (15*1024 = 15360 MB) is recommended. In this case i opted for teh full size of my virtual drive, i.e. 9216 MB. Click the Apply button to continue. You may be greeted with a message To ensure that all Windows features work correclty, windows might create additional partitions for system files. This is a new feature in Windows 7 to have a small boot partition for system files. Click OK to continue.

So here we are, A new primary partition of 8.8 GB is created along with a System type partition of 200 MB. Select the partition you just created and click Next to continue.

All right, we are all set. The Windows 7 installation begins, time to grab a cup of coffe for and wait 15-30 minutes for the all new OS!

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