Summary
If you bought a Netbook computer that came preinstalled Windows 7 Starter edition and need to reinstall Windows 7, here are some procedures you can use, whether you are using the recovery partition to reinstall on the same drive or you need to reinstall on a new hard disk.
Details
Windows 7 Starter is Microsoft's introductory edition of Windows 7 and is included on budget desktop and notebook form factor computers branded as Nettops and Netbooks. The article details how to reinstall Windows 7 Starter if your computer came preinstalled with this edition. Based on certain circumstances such as hard disk failure or replacement with larger or faster storage device, there will come a time you will need to reinstall Windows 7 Starter from scratch.
Reinstall Windows 7 Starter using manufacturers recovery partition:
Computers that come preinstalled with Windows 7 often have what is called a recovery partition. This is used to reinstall the operating system in the event of a system crash. To access it, you will need to boot into when you start your computer by pressing a function key. This can be either F1, F2, F9, F10, F11, F12 or even DEL or Tab key. Consult the owners manual that came with your PC for instructions about how to reinstall Windows.
This is how the recovery partition is accessed for the most popular makes:
- For Dell, press F8 on the keyboard until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears on the screen.
- For HP, press F11 directly after powering up the unit.
- For LG, press F11 directly after powering up the unit
- For Toshiba, press and hold '0' BEFORE and during the power up
- For Acer, press and hold ALT + F10 as soon as you see the logo
- For Asus, press F9 as soon as you see the Asus logo.
- For Samsung, press F4 at power up..
- For Fujitsu, press the F8 key repeatedly directly after powering up
- For Advent, restart your computer. Then Press F10 repeatedly until the message "Starting System Recovery" is displayed
- For Sony VAIO, restart and press "F8" or "F10" repeatedly until the "Advanced Boot Options" screen appears.
If you need to reinstall Windows 7 Starter from scratch on a new storage device (hard disk or solid state device), then this require that you have recovery media. Some manufacturers only provide a recovery partition as a means of reinstalling Windows 7 while some might provide recovery media on DVD even though your Netbook or Nettop might not have an optical drive.
The following steps will show you how to create your own from scratch using regular Windows 7 retail media.
Download a copy of Windows 7 32 bit use the instructions to make it bootable on a US thumb drive:
Why 32 bit Windows 7?
There is not 64 bit version of Windows 7 Starter and you can only install it from the 32 bit install media. (See below)
• Windows 7 Home Premium (x86) - 32 bit
Once one has the .iso file they may wish to use the Microsoft .iso to USB/DVD tool to create a bootable DVD or USB (requires a blank DVD or USB flash stick of at least 4 GB).
Then browse the thumb drive, open the Sources folder and delete the ei.cfg file:
Then boot from the thumb drive:
How To Load BIOS and Change Boot Configuration
Windows 7 will boot as it normally does into the setup environment, the only difference this time is, you will be given a choice to select the edition of Windows 7 you want to reinstall.
Select Windows 7 Starter and proceed with the installation as normal. I suggest that you create a backup once the installation is complete.