Follow up, best way to remove Win 10 from HD after installing SSD w/OS

Hi all,
This is a follow up to a post I made here about four weeks ago, the URL to that post is Clone Win 10 HD to SSD on New Dell PC, & why didn't Dell put OS on SSD
I posted about the Dell XPS 8940 I bought from Amazon which included a 2 terabyte hard drive and one terabyte solid state drive. Problem was, Windows 10 was on the HDD instead of the SSD. I really appreciate all the replies I got with suggestions on how to fix the problem but in the meantime, the Amazon reseller that sold the PC sent me a replacement nvme solid state drive with Windows 10 loaded.

I've seen a few videos on how to physically install the nvme s s d and it seems easy enough. My concern is, what do I do about the HDD that still ha s Windows 10 on it? How do I remove Windows 10 from the HDD to prevent the system from booting from it? The tech I was working with suggested using the Windows 10 USB key install tool, he says it has a section for removing files from a hard disk drive to make room for the new Windows 10 install. He suggested using that then installing the nvme SSD. I'll give it a try but it was wondering if anyone here has any other suggestions on using that tool or other options for wiping clean Windows 10 from a hard disk drive. Again, thanks for all your help!


Dan G.

Hi,

For the initial testing of the new NVME drive I would just remove the HDD, it would certify that the whole process is working. And In case something happens you could still be able to go back with your HDD...

Once you successfully booted your new drive, Re attach the HDD and just delete all partitions on it and create a new one for your data.

spunk said:

Or, to add to what is being said, once you remove the old HDD and successfully boot from the new NvME, then attach the HDD and press the Windows key +X and choose Disk Management. Here Delete All partitions on the old HDD including the Hidden ones with no drive letters until the whole drive is Unallocated Space. Then you can right click the space and choose to create a New Simple Volume and format it and give it a drive letter and use it for storage.

The problem with using disk management is that if the drive is GPT and has a Microsoft System Reserved (MSR) partition on it, that partition will not be shown in disk management, and thus impossible to delete using disk management. I would personally use diskpart and clean commands.

NavyLCDR said:

Or instead of creating a GPARTED USB flash drive, and booting the computer from it, and learning how to use GPARTED. Just use Windows built-in diskpart:

Code:

diskpart
list disk
select disk # <- replace # with the actual number of the disk you want to erase and reuse
clean
convert gpt
exit
exit

ALL of the partitions on the drive will not be removed and you can partition it however you like. (There might be the small 16MB MSR partition at the very front of the drive created by the convert GPT command, but at the front of the drive it won't interfere with anything.) If you want the drive to be MBR instead of GPT, simply leave out the convert gpt command.

Do you really intent to write ALL of the partitions on the drive will not be removed?

Megahertz said:

Do you really intent to write ALL of the partitions on the drive will not be removed?

Thank you. No, I did not intend to write not.