You Won’t Believe These Essential Pre-Installation Steps for Installing Windows 7 - Part 3 Will Blow Your Mind!

If you’re planning on installing Windows 7 on your computer soon, you might want to hold off until you’ve read our essential pre-installation steps. In this article, we’ll outline some of the most important things you should do before installing Windows 7 to ensure a smooth and hassle-free installation.

In parts one and two of this series, we covered topics such as backing up your data, checking your hardware compatibility, and creating a bootable USB drive. In part three, we’re going to take things to the next level and provide some advanced tips for installing Windows 7.

Step 1: Update your BIOS

One of the most important things you can do before installing Windows 7 is to update your BIOS. The BIOS is a program that controls the hardware of your computer and is responsible for initializing and testing it during the boot process.

Updating your BIOS can provide a number of benefits, including improved performance, better compatibility with newer hardware, and bug fixes. To update your BIOS, you’ll need to download the latest version from your motherboard manufacturer’s website and follow the instructions provided.

Step 2: Disable unnecessary hardware devices

When installing Windows 7, it’s a good idea to disable any hardware devices that you’re not using. This can help prevent driver conflicts and can improve system performance by reducing the number of devices that Windows has to manage.

To disable hardware devices, open the Device Manager (press the Windows key + X and select Device Manager) and look for any devices that you don’t use. Right-click on the device and select Disable to turn it off.

Step 3: Enable AHCI mode

For best performance, it is recommended to enable AHCI mode in your BIOS. AHCI is a newer interface standard for storage devices that offers a number of advantages over legacy IDE mode.

AHCI mode supports hot-swapping of SATA devices, Native Command Queuing (NCQ), and other advanced features that can improve system responsiveness and reduce power consumption.

To enable AHCI mode, you’ll need to enter your BIOS setup and look for a SATA configuration option. Set the mode to AHCI and save your changes before exiting.

Step 4: Check your partition alignment

Finally, it’s essential to check your partition alignment before installing Windows 7. This is especially important if you’re using a solid-state drive (SSD) as your primary storage device.

Partition alignment refers to the way in which partitions are laid out on your hard drive. If they are not aligned correctly, it can result in slower performance and reduced lifespan of your SSD.

To check your partition alignment, download and run the SSD Alignment Tool. This free utility will analyze your hard drive and ensure that your partitions are properly aligned.

With these advanced pre-installation steps, your Windows 7 installation should go smoothly and efficiently. We hope this series has been helpful to you and wish you the best of luck in your upgrade process!

How to install Windows 7 — What to do before start: how to choose a version of Windows, 32-bit vs. 64-bit, custom or upgrade, etc. Alight, in part 2, you’ve learned how to protect your data in case the installation of Windows 7 doesn’t go as expected or you just want to rollback to a previous version of Windows. Now in part 3 there are some decisions you need to make before continue.

The installation of Windows 7 is based in the same process that was introduced with Windows Vista, which is totally different from Windows XP. The new process was designed with the goal in mind to run very quickly, and with minimum prompts, requiring less attention from you. In the following section, I’ll walk you through the most common scenarios that you may encounter when performing a dual-boot, clean installation or upgrading Windows 7.

As part of the Windows 7 installation process, the are several simple, but at the same time important decisions that you will have to make to save time and help avoid possible problems:

  • Which edition of Windows 7 are you planning to install? In most cases the edition you have purchased will be the one you’ll install; however, the retail Windows 7 installation DVD includes all 3 main Windows editions — Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate — as well as Home Basic and Starter editions, that are not intended for the end-user to install — one thing to notice is that you can install any of these editions for up to 30 days without entering the product key or activating the copy –. While for most users Windows 7 Home Premium offers everything they need and more, if you want everything that Windows has to offer, the Ultimate version is what you want to install. The Professional version is intended for business systems — remember that Windows 7 Professional lacks some of the features that are useful for home users such as Windows 7 Media Center, but it also include others that are great for enterprises. Here is Microsoft web page that shows you a comparison between the available versions of Windows 7.
  • Which version of Windows 7 should I install: 32-bit or 64-bit? The Windows 7 installation media includes both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. In the case you download Windows 7 from the Microsoft store, you’ll have to choose either 32-bit version or 64-bit version to download. To help you decide consider the following, you need a CPU that’s capable of running 64-bit version of Windows 7. Most users will see benefits using 64-bit operating system, if they have a large amount of memory (RAM) in their system, typically 4GB or more. Because of the capabilities of a 64-bit operating system over a 32-bit version, a 64-bit machine can be more responsive when several programs are running at the same time and switching between them often.
  • Are you thinking on doing a custom Windows 7 installation or an upgrade?  If you perform a custom installation (most recommended) you are basically doing the so call “clean install”, in other words start everything from scratch. This process will wipe clean your hard drive, this mean bye-bye to all your programs, documents and any other files, including the Windows installation, before installing the operating system. Later when the installation is done, you have to re-install all your programs and restore your documents and settings, if any. In the other hand an upgrade retains all installed programs, settings and files, of course with the risk of coming across some compatibility problems.
  • Do you want to dual-boot — install Windows 7 alongside another operating system? There are various reasons why you’d want to do this like, for example, application compatibility, you need to use some other OS like Linux, or it is hard to let Windows XP go, etc. Whatever it may be the reason, if you want to set up a dual-boot environment in your system, you’ll need to understand how different start-up files work, that way you can properly manage your start-up options more effectively (Here is an example of dual-boot How to Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 step-by-step).
  • Do you need to change the layout of your hard drive? The Windows 7 installation process tool also includes a media storage management tool, where you can modify and organize your hard drive, you can use it to create, delete, format and extend (but not shrink) partitions inside of the hard drive. Having the knowledge of how to perform these tasks to properly prepare a disk to house the Windows installation files can really save you a lot headaches and time when installing Windows.

If you currently are running Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP, you can begin the installation process from Windows. But you can always start the installation from the DVD, USB drive, etc. You should keep in mind that depending on the installation option you choose, there are going to be some differences.

Running the installation from Windows

  • You can re-install Windows 7.
  • You can upgrade to another version of Windows 7.
  • You can run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from the setup screen.
  • You can install Windows 7 on the same partition as an existing Windows version.
  • You can upgrade Windows Vista, but it has to be Vista SP1 or later.
  • You cannot upgrade from Windows XP.
  • You cannot use the partition management tool.

Running the installation from the Windows 7 DVD

  • You can user the partition management tool to create, delete, and extend partitions.
  • You can install Windows 7 on the same partition as an existing Windows version.
  • You cannot upgrade an existing Windows version. You have to use the custom install option.

Wrapping up this three-parts tutorial series you’ve learned: from part 1, what are Windows 7 hardware requirements and recommendations to avoid software and hardware compatibility issues. In part 2, you’ve learned how to protect your data, from creating an inventory of all your Windows applications, backup your computer drivers, to performing a full backup of your system. And we finished with part 3, where we looked at how to choose the right version of Windows 7, what is the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit, and what you are able to do depending on the installation option you choose.

OK, this conclude the preinstallation process of Windows 7. In the next part of the tutorial there is not more preparation, now we are ready to pop that Windows 7 DVD in the computer and start the installation.

I hope this tutorial was a help, if you have any question or thought, please leave them on the comment section below.

  • How to install Windows 7 – What to do before start [Part 1]
  • How to install Windows 7 – What to do before start [Part 2]
  • How to install Windows 7 – Clean installation tutorial [Step-by-Step]