Goseki wrote:
If it's new, it shouldn't have much problems looking up and downloading the necessary drivers. I updated an old laptop, deleted all old partitions including the backup drives and upgraded from vista to 7. Had 0 drives. It found almost all the drives. Only ones missing were touchpad, hp quickaccess buttons, and some minor stuff.
Nope, this is were most people make mistakes.
It's true that w7 has a lot of drivers & recognises most devices. But the windows drivers NEVER
offer the same amount of functionality/speed as when installing the full/latest drivers!
Before reinstalling w7:
Go the your laptop manufacturer's website & search for your laptop & download all the drivers
Most websites offer u the choice of which OS u are using.
Some laptops are made with different components (eg. intel wireless, ralink wireless, atheros wireless)
The easy way is to check which driver is installed BEFORE formatting. (don't forget to copy them to a USB-stick

)
Otherwise u'll have to start checking the hardware id's.
When reinstalling w7:
choose language, keyboardlayout,...
When u get to the page that asks on which partition w7 should be installed: delete ALL partitions
And then choose to install it on the entire disk or create 1 partition for windows & then another partition for downloads or such (I never create 2 partitions if the disk isn't 500gb or more)
Then let it run
Later on it will ask for a username (+ password), computername, timezone + current time & date
After reinstalling w7:
Make sure to install all drivers!
Even if a device is recognised by w7, installing the actual driver is ALWAYS better!
intel or amd chipset drivers, graka drivers (even if it's intel onboard), sound (not installing sound driver (eg realtek) will most likely cause very quite sounds/music),...
Most laptops also have onscreendisplay drivers (shows an icon when using Fn keys), touchpad drivers, sometimes fingerprint drivers or cardreader drivers, ...
When it comes to laptops: the drivers on the website should be enough especially if u aren't used to reinstalling w7 & drivers.
Otherwise, go to each manufacterer's website for the latest drivers.
Careful, I have had some problems with newer drivers on laptops because of incompatibility ><
That's pretty much it