Upgrade vs Clean Install

mccririck · 30 May 2015

Clean. I had installed it over Windows 7 but I developed a major problem when I installed a wifi driver and so opted to clean install 10074.

Wynona · 30 May 2015

mccririck said:

Clean. I had installed it over Windows 7 but I developed a major problem when I installed a wifi driver and so opted to clean install 10074.

OK, when you start the install, are you going all the way back to an empty hard drive? IOW, do you delete all partitions (Recovery, etc., Windows) and then format?

mccririck · 30 May 2015

Wynona said:

OK, when you start the install, are you going all the way back to an empty hard drive? IOW, do you delete all partitions (Recovery, etc., Windows) and then format?

Yes. I deleted everything.

Wynona · 30 May 2015

mccririck said:

Yes. I deleted everything.

But did you format the hard drive?

mccririck · 30 May 2015

Wynona said:

But did you format the hard drive?

I think I didnt the first time. The second time i have but there have been problems with the installation.

alphanumeric · 30 May 2015

I don't think it matters. I delete all partitions and just leave it blank and un partitioned. Then just click next. Windows creates the partitions it needs and formats them automatically. It's never been an issue for me. Even if you create a partition and format it, windows will prompt you that it may need to add partitions and redo it all anyway. If your system is UEFI it adds two more system partitions plus another hidden one.

Wynona · 30 May 2015

alphanumeric said:

I don't think it matters. I delete all partitions and just leave it blank and un partitioned. Then just click next. Windows creates the partitions it needs and formats them automatically. It's never been an issue for me. Even if you create a partition and format it, windows will prompt you that it may need to add partitions and redo it all anyway. If your system is UEFI it adds two more system partitions plus another hidden one.

Thanks, Alpha. I'm flummoxed.

alphanumeric · 30 May 2015

mccririck said:

I think I didnt the first time. The second time i have but there have been problems with the installation.

Re download your install media, just in case you got a corrupted download.

alphanumeric · 30 May 2015

Wynona said:

Thanks, Alpha. I'm flummoxed.

Sometimes you could have a piece of hardware that Windows just doesn't like. The default driver just doesn't work correctly with it etc. Or an actual hardware issue, like a failing hard drive or bad RAM. A newer build may install just fine on the same hardware. It Microsoft would just update their ISO's already.

topgundcp · 30 May 2015

alphanumeric said:

I don't think it matters. I delete all partitions and just leave it blank and un partitioned. Then just click next. Windows creates the partitions it needs and formats them automatically. It's never been an issue for me. Even if you create a partition and format it, windows will prompt you that it may need to add partitions and redo it all anyway. If your system is UEFI it adds two more system partitions plus another hidden one.

I think it does matter when you install Windows using legacy MBR. If you format the drive first, Windows will not create the 350MB reserved partition and will silently install everything in C: drive. Without the reserved partition, you won't be able to use feature like bitlocker. If you leave it unallocated then Windows will create a 350MB partition. For UEFI installation, it won't matter.

Bottom line, it is best to leave it unallocated for both MBR/UEFI installation and let Windows manage it.

EDIT: BTW, Have you noticed that if you update from the previous build, Windows will create an extra 450MB Recovery partition after C: Drive ?