Clean install without removing all drives first

I always clean install from bootable USB, never in place upgrade (There are several reasons, but that is a different conversation).

Even since Windows 7, and possibly before, when installing Windows we've had to remove all drives other than the one we want to install windows on to get the install to work and to avoid later problems.

If you have multiple drives connected at install time I've come across the following issues.

1. Windows will put the bootrec on the last physical drive. If you later remove or format that drive Windows won't boot.
2.During the setup phase Windows will refuse to install on any drive. This is often accompanied by a "Required driver file is missing" (Even on SATA HDD only systems).
3. During the OOBE phase Windows will say "Windows cannot be installed on this hardware"
4. Windows errors of various types may occur with BSODs after the final reboot.

I have to upgrade 10 PCs every year. Many of them have SSDs which are located under the graphics card, and all have at least 3 drives, some as many as 5. So every year I have to pull apart 10 PCs, remove all drives, install Windows and re connect all drives. I'm sick of it.

Drives cannot be disabled via UEFI.

Surely there is a better way to do clean installs?

Wobitancrawfodi said:

I always clean install from bootable USB, never in place upgrade (There are several reasons, but that is a different conversation).

Even since Windows 7, and possibly before, when installing Windows we've had to remove all drives other than the one we want to install windows on to get the install to work and to avoid later problems.

If you have multiple drives connected at install time I've come across the following issues.

1. Windows will put the bootrec on the last physical drive. If you later remove or format that drive Windows won't boot.
2.During the setup phase Windows will refuse to install on any drive. This is often accompanied by a "Required driver file is missing" (Even on SATA HDD only systems).
3. During the OOBE phase Windows will say "Windows cannot be installed on this hardware"
4. Windows errors of various types may occur with BSODs after the final reboot.

I have to upgrade 10 PCs every year. Many of them have SSDs which are located under the graphics card, and all have at least 3 drives, some as many as 5. So every year I have to pull apart 10 PCs, remove all drives, install Windows and re connect all drives. I'm sick of it.

Drives cannot be disabled via UEFI.

Surely there is a better way to do clean installs?

Ive never removed any other drives when clean installing and I always clean install with a bootable USB downloaded using the Media Creation Tool. I always delete all partitions on all drives too so its a full clean install of everything. My PC is a UEFI system with a standard HDD and an SSD as the system drive

Kyhi said:

the easiest way to clean install on a multi-boot system..

These are not multi boot systems (anymore - I've stopped using Windows 7 now that I've got everything that I want running on Windows 10). They just have multiple SATA and NVMe drives.

But that aside, your method sounds interesting. I want a clean installation of Windows. The Install.wim has been prepped using MSMG toolkit with drivers and latest updates as you suggested, and even has some of the bloatware applications removed.

I'll give it a try. thanks