How can I do a full reinstall of Windows on my laptop?

budmonster · 22 Mar 2016

I put the Rescue USB in along with the ext hd with the Backup Image, held down Shift & clicked on Restart. I was able go through the settings(Choose an option>Use a device>EFI USB Device). Once I clicked on EFI, Reflection started and I could also see the ext hd once Reflection opened. I just deleted that single partition and selected all 4, it's now 21.5gb. SS: https://i.imgur.com/URNzH3f.jpg

However I keep getting this error: https://i.imgur.com/7YQCvgl.jpg

I noticed when creating the Rescue disk I kept getting this popup: https://i.imgur.com/u0v0WiX.jpg

It seems it can't find that driver but I created the Rescue/PE anyways. Will that cause issues installing the others or can I simply find it from the Toshiba website if I ever need to use this Rescue disk?

If I'm all good, I now just put the Windows 10 flash drive in, instead of the Recue drive, do the shift/restart and install a fresh copy?

NavyLCDR said:

You should have imaged your whole disk, not just the OS partition. The first partition on your drive is where the boot files are. And I would boot from the Rescue USB to make sure it works.

NavyLCDR · 22 Mar 2016

You only need that driver if you are going to back up or restore from the network. Not needed since you are using a USB hard drive. You should be good to go. You might not be able to connect to your network until you go into device manager and install the network driver from the folder you exported the drivers to, just be prepared for that.

budmonster · 22 Mar 2016

NavyLCDR said:

You only need that driver if you are going to back up or restore from the network. Not needed since you are using a USB hard drive. You should be good to go. You might not be able to connect to your network until you go into device manager and install the network driver from the folder you exported the drivers to, just be prepared for that.

Im at the "Where do you want install Windows", I see 4 partitions like I previously mentioned (system, msr(reserved), primary, recovery). Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/PUT5bNE.jpg

Do I click on Format then hit the Next button with Primary selected ? I'm guessing I don't delete anything, lol. Or do I simply click Nect with the Primary partition selected? The Clean Install guide by Brink got me confused a little bit after step 11. I didn't know if I was to go with 12. If Installing Windows 10 without UEFI or 13. If Installing Windows 10 with UEFI.

NavyLCDR · 22 Mar 2016

Click on each partition and delete it. When you are left with one big unallocated space install Windows to that. You do not have to create new partitions, Windows install will do that for you.

budmonster · 07 Apr 2016

NavyLCDR said:

Click on each partition and delete it. When you are left with one big unallocated space install Windows to that. You do not have to create new partitions, Windows install will do that for you.

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, had some personal issues going on. Anyways, the install seemed to go smoothly, everything seems to be working. I just wanted to thank you again for all the help, you where very patient with me. Only issue is some PC games don't seem to be working.

Other than that I haven't ran into many issues. However, the USB drive that I put the Windows Creation Tool on is giving me some trouble. It was a 128GB drive but it seems to be stuck at 32GB now, since it was reformatted during the Creation Tool. How can I get it back to 128GB? Under Capacity it just says Unknown.

Edit: I followed this and now the USB drive wont even work. Every time I put it into my PC is asks to reformat. I clicked YES but nothing happens. Every time I insert it is just asks me to reformat again.

Screenshots:
https://i.imgur.com/yXmXqO7.png
https://i.imgur.com/r8qKul1.png

NavyLCDR · 07 Apr 2016

Install MiniTool Partition Wizard Free:
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

See what it says about the USB flash drive. See if you can right click on the icon for the drive itself in MiniTool and either initialize as MBR or convert to MBR. Then create one big NTFS primary partition on it.