W10 Clean Install - Detailed Steps

MWombat · 24 Oct 2019

Hello All,
At long long last I have the time to switch my desktop from W7 to W10. Am posting a list of what I think are the detailed actions I will have to take for a clean W10 install.
Would be great if everyone can have a quick look at my list and post if I have missed something out. Thanks.

Current set up : W7 Pro plenty of RAM, and Pentium I7. 3 SSds – one with just OS the other 2 for storage – all formatted in NTFS
Actions:
Download latest W10 via MCT to flash drive.
Back up everything to external drive
Change BIOS boot order to Flash drive
Disconnect all 3 SSds
Reformat OS SSd to GPT [Previously W10 wouldn’t install to my Laptop until I reformatted to GPT] - AOMI partition manager did the trick for me before for a W10 install on another laptop]
Reconnect OS SSd
Install W10 from flash drive
Reconnect 2 storage SSds.

One final question. The 2 storage SSds are NTFS. Will I have to reformat them to GPT or will they be all OK to work alongside the OS SSd which will be GPT ?

Thanks.

Ztruker · 24 Oct 2019

Change BIOS boot order to Flash drive

This should not be necessary. There should be a Fn key you can press at boot time to take you to the one time boot menu where you can select the USB flash drive as the boot device. The problem with setting the USB flash drive as the first boot device is you can end up in a boot install loop if you're not careful as the flash drive does not ask or require you to press a key to boot. it just goes ahead and does it. You need to watch and remove the flash drive when it gets to the point where it's not needed any more if it's the first boot device.

No need to format anything, just delete all partitions on the SSD then click next and let the installer create the partitions it needs. Not sure if it will take care of GPT or not. @NavyLCDR, can you answer this?

No need to mess with the other SSds, leave them as MBR.

NavyLCDR · 25 Oct 2019

Deleting all partitions on the drive and installing to the unallocated space will take care of MBR v. GPT.

Why not just follow the clean install tutorial?
Clean Install Windows 10

Why re-invent the wheel?

AddRAM · 25 Oct 2019

You do not need to change the boot order to the usb stick in the Bios, just use the one time boot menu key (usually F8) to bring up the boot menu, then just choose the usb stick. You do not have to change your storage drives from MBR to GPT, leave them alone, for now.

And pull the usb stick out on the 1st reboot, or the system may boot from the usb stick over and over again. You do not need it in anymore after the the 1st reboot.

As Navy has said, just delete your install drive down to unallocated space, and then just click next. If it gives you an issue just let us know.

zbook · 25 Oct 2019

The applicable F key may be in this link:

List of PC brands with their corresponding hot-keys

If there is no working F key then temporarily modify the BIOS boot order.

The Windows drive needs to have applicable UEFI/GPT or BIOS/MBR.
The storage drives can be either GPT or MBR.

AddRAM · 25 Oct 2019

It all depends on how YOU want it laid out, personally I use MBR for my OS drive because I only want 1 partition on my OS drive.

My storage drives are all GPT. That`s just the way I prefer it.

X299

Steve C · 25 Oct 2019

Just follow the excellent Clean Install tutorial. I recommend you download the latest drivers for your hardware in case Windows 10 doesn't find them. I recommend doing a full system backup (e.g. Macrium Reflect) as soon as you have installed Windows 10 and configured it. Also make backup as you install programs and updates and a final backup when all is configured. This will save pain and grief if something goes wrong. I always archive the first and last configuration backups.

munk1955 · 26 Oct 2019

AddRAM said:

And pull the usb stick out on the 1st reboot, or the system may boot from the usb stick over and over again. You do not need it in anymore after the the 1st reboot.

This is what got me the very first time I did a clean install many years ago....After it went through the install and wanted to reboot again I said to myself that this isn't right so I shut down my PC and took the USB stick out then did some more research and couldn't figure it out so I started up the PC again and it loaded up just fine.

Then after doing some more research I finally understood what I was doing wrong.