New
#1
Cannot install W10 Pro (full install) - wants NEW PC
A little history. I have been a PC owner/user for over 25 years, and have built my own systems from scratch for the last 20 years. I'm currently on the fourth build in my current ATX case. I had been a W2000 user, but had to migrate to Windows 7. I was happy with W7, but upgraded to W10 when the free update was offered.
The problem: I am not happy with W10. It is packed with frills, many of which I could do without, but appears to lack what I truly value - Stability. Every day, I suffer blue screens of death and/or screen freezes, both of which require a reboot. Just recently, Windows 10 triggered a "PC reset" on my system, as a result of which I had to reinstall numerous apps.
So I have decided to take matters into my own hands. I want to install a fresh and full version of W10, and allow whatever cumulative updates are out there to be installed afterwards.
I should mention that I have TWO hard disk drives in my system. Before starting on this project, I used Paragon Software's Hard Disk Manager 15 to migrate my OS into the secondary HDD, which also copied all my data onto that disk, and thus I have two fully operational systems, and can boot from either. I adjust the BIOS settings to decide which HDD to boot from.
I bought the full installation DVD which arrived today, and was looking forward to installing W10 from it. The problem I have is that the Windows installation DVD I bought cannot be used on my system - it says it can only be installed on a "new" PC.
I was looking through this thread on this forum, and I have formed the impression that if I were to delete the partition on my target hard drive, the Windows installer might accept my PC as "new" and allow the installation to go ahead.
The Paragon software I have is able to delete a drive partition. If I simply delete the partition from my spare (target) drive, would I then be able to install this version of Windows from the DVD?
PS my current installation dates back to 2005 - no installation from flash drive possible. Other than that, it's fine.