I previously used windows xp and just went and bought a new hard drive and windows 10 usb. Im confused. I installed the hard drive along with my old master drive, using it as slave i presume. Will it auto partition the new hard drive
Best thing is to unplug the old drive and install Windows 10 with only the new drive connected. Otherwise the installer may put your boot files on the old drive.
It will create all the partitions you need automatically as part of the install process.
Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums
Hello PetenPat Welcome to the Ten Forums!
I see you haven't had much experience with installing OSs there. The guide ix07 posted there will give a good detailed set of instructions to follow. It is possible to install 10 with the other "OSed" drive plugged in but that takes having the new if the same type plugged into a port that proceeds the one the XP drive is plugged into. This is so the 10 drive will be seen by the 10 installer as being "Disk #0" with the XP drive as "Disk #1" or Disk 0 and Disk 1 as it is seen.
Generally the first drive in the order is also the first in the bios boot order and the Windows installer would create the new boot entries as well as place the boot files on that drive. With 10 however that is best left for the advanced user to experiment with and simply unplug the data cable not needing to unplug the power or other connector in order to toss a fresh copy of 10 on the new drive when booting live from the usb stick. Selecting the Custom install option as outlined in the guide will also explain how to use the Drive tools option as well to see a new primary created on the drive as well. The Windows installer will automatically tend to the rest.
Once 10 is on the retail key that came with the usb stick is what you enter into the "Enter product key now" screen where once you are at the new desktop start noticing a large change in view! The new Start button as well as the new Start menu will be seeing things arranged and named quite a bit differently. For the Control Panel and some other things like the Run command line and Command prompt, Command prompt(admin), Disk Management tool, etc. options you simply right click on the Start button itself to bring up that new menu.
And if you get stuck on anything and certainly "everything" don't hesitate to get back in here and ask away! :) Hard dirves with the exception of many of the self contained external models never come with any instruction pamplets. The manufacturers have no way of even knowing which OS will be going on for each customer! That will be upto the owner or tech working on a system to see to that.
You will still want to pay close attention to Steps #12 and #13 in the Clean install guide for understanding the Advanced drive options when going to select the Custom not Upgrade option when booting live from the 10 media. Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums
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