Thinkpad ->blank unformatted Samsung 860 EVO will go in b4 first boot?

I know that recently when I installed this same drive in the empty bay on my other notebook and booted into the other SSD I was presented with the opportunity before the drive was usable that I needed what make it a simple volume? and then format it and I was good to go and use it for say either a data drive or what I ended up doing was installing an image so that it was bootable. In this case with the new E480 I have downloaded the creation tool and wrote a fresh image to it (1803) and when I go (thinkpad has not arrived yet; will order next week) to pop out the slow HDD platter b4 first boot and put the SSD in and boot from the USB that has the install media my question is will the install media take care of all that work for me that is make the blank drive bootable and format it for me (NTFS) or do I have to format the drive before putting it in the thinkpad and then install the OS? Thanks.

1809 is now out so redo the image or it will install 1803 then download the big update. If all goes well it should find no Windows and boot USB if it doesn't go to BIOS and set USB as first boot. Windows will create partition format and install

Samuria said:

1809 is now out so redo the image or it will install 1803 then download the big update. If all goes well it should find no Windows and boot USB if it doesn't go to BIOS and set USB as first boot. Windows will create partition format and install

Thanks for the info but I do not want 1809. Heck I do not really even want 1803. I was happy with 1703 until I got forced into 1709. I now know how to block windows updates so that 1809 will not download.

Boot from the USB flash drive. Select the custom install option, pick the unallocated space to install to. The Windows installer will set it all up.

NavyLCDR said:

Boot from the USB flash drive. Select the custom install option, pick the unallocated space to install to. The Windows installer will set it all up.

Copy that. I kind of figured that and was hoping it would be that simple but since I am so used to creating simple volumes and formatting in disk management before being able to use a new drive that I just wanted to be extra sure that I was good to go. Thank you.

Be sure you only have 1 hd when you do the install or it may put files on wrong drive

Samuria said:

Be sure you only have 1 hd when you do the install or it may put files on wrong drive

Thanks. Yup, that is SOP for me.