Copying Windows 7

[#1]

Laptop has Windows 7 installed on it and a separate partition of the hard drive has a copy or recovery of windows 7 this is a legit copy pre installed that came with the laptop.
What I am wanting to do is wipe the disk, reinstall windows 7 and then install Linux to give a dual booting system. Is it possible to save the partition which has the copy of Windows 7 on it or is this a non starter ?
My thinking in wiping the disk is that Windows 7 is getting a lot slower and despite clearing as much junk as possible including defragging I would like to start again.
Any additional advice on this topic would be helpful.

[#2]

You could just back up your files and do a full factory reset.. that's worked wonders for me in the past.

[#3]

There's no point in wiping the whole disk for this, just delete the Windows partition. You probably don't even need to do that, just boot into the recovery thing. Probably the only option you get is to wipe off the current installation and install Windows and everything else it came with out of the box.

[#4]

Thanks for the responses.
Only attempted this once on a desktop and all went well but for some reason Windows kept the old files, not sure why or if it was necessary for any reason.

[#5]

I think by default it keeps windows.old. If it offers a format - take that option, then I don't think there will be a windows.old folder (which is safe to delete anyway)

[#6]

Just do what Devonian and ejs suggest.  Your old files will not be kept unless you are given that option and accept it.

[#7]

my Acer  gave me the option to create a set of recovery disc,s , cant you do this also ?

[#8]

It's a laptop so may not have a burner (don't forget some people call their netbook a laptop!).
I have XP Home on my netbook and despite the software being included to burn the disk(s) I have no burner so if my HDD fails..

[#9]

Quote from: Sprite

I have no burner so if my HDD fails..

You will have a back up from a portable HDD via USB using free programme called Clonezilla
Edit. Then again maybe not.

[#10]

Quote from: rongtw

my Acer  gave me the option to create a set of recovery disc,s , cant you do this also ?

This just duplicates the contents of the recovery partition onto disc whilst adding an extra step where things can go wrong.  The point of making recovery discs is to guard against the possibility of hard drive failure.  That's the only point.