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rabbittmaster

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 20, 2014
2
0
uk
Hi peep

I'm new here; registered special like to ask you this very important question.

I have win7 running very happily on my bootcamp partition however, it has done the thing windows does best and filled its 50GB partition with god only knows what. The files I have put on it only come to about 5BG (basically it's only got autoCAD 2D and office ATM).

soo i want to do a system restore in the windows partition to erase everything except the basic OS, is this possible? i don't care if i loose all the files in windows.

I don't want to be deleting/reinstalling partitions and such like as that's an awful lot of hassle, plus my install disk of win7 is now corrupt and i don't really know what I'm doing:confused:.

basically i want to go back to the point just after i had installed windows on my iMac and was feeling rather chuffed with myself with 50GB of free space.

i know if you do a system restore on a dedicated windows pc it will format the 'C' drive and reinstall windows from the 'D' partition without me doing anything. will it do the same thing here and format the bootcamp partition and reinstall from the 'mac' partition all by itself. (thats what I'm hoping)

I'm rambling on a bit, but i hope you get the gist!

also, 'IF' i can do all that is it possible to make another disk of the drivers for my keyboard and trackpad to install them again. if i remember correctly i had to do that the first time round with the fresh install. as no doubt they too would be deleted in the restore.

NB. i don't have any restore points. i was flapping around in my confused state and click on some stuff and it told me it had successfully deleted all restore points. I'm such a TIT :(

*** i can't stress enough that i don't want to loose windows and i can't install it again as the install disc is corrupt and i refuse to buy another ***

jeez, I hope all that makes sense!!
 

Chippy99

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2012
989
35
Rabbit, the restore process you describe is (I think) how laptops are typically set up when they don't give you a full Windows installation CD, but instead create a restore partition (typically the D: drive) from which you can restore.

The above is not a "normal" Windows setup however. Normally there is no D: drive and the Windows install files are on the installation CD.

With your Bootcamp setup, I very much doubt you have a D: drive to restore from. Without a bootable Windows CD, I don't think there's going to be anything you can do, other than just deleting and uninstalling everything you can think of.

If you "nuke" the Windows installation, it's going to end up unbootable and you'll need a Windows install CD to get it back up again... which you say you don't have?
 

rabbittmaster

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 20, 2014
2
0
uk
well then, not going to lie, that's not the answer i was hoping for but your reasoning seems to make sense.

fortunately i haven't done anything rash yet.

i'll have a look at winclone but I'm not holding my breath that i could make it work for me. i might have to just find a mate to show windows who's boss
 

Brian33

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2008
1,407
345
USA (Virginia)
Although I'm only familiar with Windows XP, I think Chippy99 is correct. Don't format or erase your bootcamp partition unless you're sure you can re-install windows from another media such as a CD or DVD! To my knowledge a Windows installation on bootcamp does NOT create a restore partition (D: drive).

I don't think WinClone will do what you want either, now, but I do think it's a very valuable app; I use it to back up my bootcamp Windows XP partition to an image file. If you had done that immediately after installing Windows the first time, you would be able now to restore the partition to that "fresh" state.
 

Chippy99

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2012
989
35
I think your best bet is to beg steal or borrow a Windows 7 CD from someone. I cannot imagine it's an infringment of any license to use a CD to reinstall software for which you are already licensed. And if it is, I cannot imagine anyone (Microsoft) being very upset about it.
 

Gloops

macrumors member
Mar 3, 2009
59
1
If you've got a product key but your disk is corrupt, just download a Windows 7 ISO (google the version you want - pro, home premium, ultimate etc.), make a bootable flash drive and do a clean install from there.

You may want a bigger partition than 50GB though. 64 bit windows 7 uses 20GB on its own.
 
Last edited:

Chippy99

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2012
989
35
If you've got a product key but your disk is corrupt, just download a Windows 7 ISO (google the version you want - pro, home premium, ultimate etc.), make a bootable flash drive and do a clean install from there.

You may want a bigger partition than 50GB though. 64 bit windows 7 uses 20GB on its own.

I didn't know you could get these other than off bittorrent, with the minor risk that they had been hacked and contain malware. It's good to know you can get official ISO images.

A quick google brought me this:

http://www.w7forums.com/threads/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads.12325/
 
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