How do I reinstall windows into a partition?

Question

Is it possible to reinstall Windows 7 into an existing Windows 7 partition? I would rather not have to reinstall my Fedora 19 installation.

Answer 1

Absolutely! The only issue you will run into is maintaining your current bootloader. If you reinstall windows into the same partition, the installer will also rewrite your bootloader replacing GRUB or whatever Fedora uses.

Answer 2

Yes it is possible, provided the rest of the disk has a filesystem Windows does not understand. If you only have extN, you are good to go. If you have several NTFS/FAT partitions, the situation might be more complex because Windows might try to grab for itself all of them. Make sure you have data on these partitions backed up.

Also, Windows will grab your MBR/GPT (whatever applies to your disk), so that by the end of the installation you will be able to boot into Windows exclusively. You can restore GRUB, and include a Windows option, by means of the Installation DVD. Boot into it, select Rescue Installed Sytem, and then follow the instructions on this Web page. Notice that it may be expedient to write down the identification (/dev/sdaX) of your root partition, it will come in handy when you want to mount it as /mnt/sysimage.