An important question before clean install

I'm planning on doing clean install of Windows 10 for my PC this weekend. Currently I'm also using W10. I am going to install onto the same hard drive (SSD) as it is currently installed. It will put the older version of W10 into a Windows.old folder which I'm going to back it up to an external hard drive if I ever going to need files from it. Now after that I'll launch a Disk Clean-up to remove previous Windows installations (aka Windows.old) and then I'll remove the older version of W10 from dual boot (if it will be there ofcourse). My question is: are my previously mentioned steps enough to uninstall my older version of W10 and replace it with the new one or will I still have to do something?

zablablukas said:

I'm planning on doing clean install of Windows 10 for my PC this weekend. Currently I'm also using W10. I am going to install onto the same hard drive (SSD) as it is currently installed. It will put the older version of W10 into a Windows.old folder which I'm going to back it up to an external hard drive if I ever going to need files from it. Now after that I'll launch a Disk Clean-up to remove previous Windows installations (aka Windows.old) and then I'll remove the older version of W10 from dual boot (if it will be there ofcourse). My question is: are my previously mentioned steps enough to uninstall my older version of W10 and replace it with the new one or will I still have to do something?

Windows will not "uninstall" itself. A clean install will wipe everything from the HDD so be sure to have copied anything you don't want to lose to a different drive. You may also need to save the drivers for devices if you installed any hardware after the initial install of Win10, may have them in the Downloads Folder, that's where mine are.

Berton said:

Windows will not "uninstall" itself. A clean install will wipe everything from the HDD so be sure to have copied anything you don't want to lose to a different drive. You may also need to save the drivers for devices if you installed any hardware after the initial install of Win10, may have them in the Downloads Folder, that's where mine are.

Ok I'll make sure to back those up aswell. So if a clean install wipes everything I will not need to do any other actions to make sure the old version of W10 is out of my PC after I get rid of the Windows.old folder?

Right. That's the way I do it.

Berton said:

Right. That's the way I do it.

Gotcha. Thank You for Your time!

You're welcome.

zablablukas said:

Ok I'll make sure to back those up aswell. So if a clean install wipes everything I will not need to do any other actions to make sure the old version of W10 is out of my PC after I get rid of the Windows.old folder?

Just to be clear - there won't be a Windows.old folder to get rid of. To do a clean install you erase the entire hard drive before you install Windows 10 to it.

NavyLCDR said:

Just to be clear - there won't be a Windows.old folder to get rid of. To do a clean install you erase the entire hard drive before you install Windows 10 to it.

Ok got it. But just out of curiosity. I've already had experience with this back when I was using Windows 7. Does overwritting the current version of Windows and later on deletting the Windows.old folder remove the the previous installation of Windows which you had?

zablablukas said:

Ok got it. But just out of curiosity. I've already had experience with this back when I was using Windows 7. Does overwritting the current version of Windows and later on deletting the Windows.old folder remove the the previous installation of Windows which you had?

Well, on that partition, yes. But there will likely be remnants of the old OS in other partitions, such as recovery partitions.

NavyLCDR said:

Well, on that partition, yes. But there will likely be remnants of the old OS in other partitions, such as recovery partitions.

Can these leftovers damage a PC in any way?