When you select Recovery option the Reset PC it gives the option to 'Remove Everything' so Is a Fresh Install the same as using the Reset Pc function?
There is also an Advanced startup option.
I want to start completely fresh and do a clean install but really not sure which option i should use.
A reset if very, very close to a clean install. The only real difference is you do not delete all the partitions on the drive and start with a raw, unallocated drive. There are times when that is the better choice but I've done many Resets and I find it works great and leaves me with a nice, clean Windows 10 system.
Thanks for the replies!
So basically with a clean install with USB/Disc you get to wipe/partition the drive first but a Reset lets you do the clean install in the drive its already allocated too?
I had the free upgrade from Win7 so would either of these still be fine to use?
Yes, absolutely. Once you've installed and activated Windows 10 you can reinstall it as often as you want in whatever way you want.
A reset does not require a key, a clean install will ask for one but you click on Skip and it will activate at the end of the install.
Interesting link, and have two questions:
Step 12 of the installation data says:
If you want to have (recommended) the 450 MB (UEFI-GPT) or 500 MB (Legacy BIOS-MBR) System Reserved partition in addition to the Windows C: partition on a HDD or SSD after installation, then you would need to make sure that all partitions on the drive have been deleted until it is only unallocated space. Next, select the unallocated drive to install Windows on. If there are no partitions on the disk, you will get the System Reserved partition.
I thought MBR only needed 100MB. I have an old Dell T3500 that has 100MB system reserved. It started with win7 and I used the Microsoft free update to use win10. I have another T3500 a refurbished computer purchase that has 350MB System Reserved. The computers are very similar, and after some unknown malware-type issues with the first, I decided to use an image from the second to the first. It worked, but I thought 350GB was a waste of space, so used Disk Management to reduce the size. I got very close to 100MB. I found the secret was to use Disk Management, not a 3rd party program like EraseUs (which reduced, but easy to go too far).
Could you give me a link covering "reset"?
I find doing the complete reset to be the same as wiping my drive, so now I do a complete reset. It also resets my TPM along with a clean install.
Reset does not wipe the drive. It leaves the existing partitions asis, only deleting and reinstalling the OS on the OS partition.
Wiping the drive deletes all existing partitions so you start with a raw, unallocated drive.
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