Hi guys Im a currently on 10240 and want to add an ssd and do a clean install and have it boot up from the ssd. How can I clean install iv been reading a lot of problem's regarding activation?
When reinstalling Build 10240, do not enter a Product Key at any time when asked. Skip these screens if you have previously activated Build 10240 on this device.
Assuming your Build 10240 is properly activated:
You can make a Recovery drive on a USB flash drive. You need a USB flash drive of 4GB or larger. Run recoverydrive.exe from within Windows 10 Build 10240. Check the box to include system files. This creates an OS image of Build 10240 on the bootable flash drive.
Add your new SSD as your boot drive, boot with the Recovery drive USB and do a reinstall of Windows 10. You can always disconnect your current hard disk if you are concerned about accidentally deleting it, as the recovery drive will repartition your hard disk.
My Samsung SSD recommends 10% un-partitioned space to be left at the end of the drive as "over provisioning" to optimize the performance and lifespan of the SSD. The recovery drive install will not set this up appropriately. If your SSD manufacturer also recommends over provisioning, you could edit a file called \Sources\$PBR_Diskpart.txt on the Recovery disk to create the unused space at the end of the disk if you wish. The basic steps you want the txt file script to do would be:
- create the Windows partition, as in the txt file
- shrink it by 10% of your total SSD disk space
- create a partition to fill the 10% empty space
- shrink the Windows partition by 450MB for Windows RE, as in the txt file
- create the 450MB Windows RE partition, as in the txt file (which will place it right after the Windows partition)
- select and delete the last partition to free up the 10% unused space for over provisioning
Some SSD's ship with partition management utilities to handle all of this after the fact for you too. If you are not familiar with diskpart, or editing script files, this would be a much easier method to use.
Build 10240 recovery disk $PBR_Diskpart.txt (without any over provisioning edits) for an MBR disk (UEFI partitions are different):
rem == ResetPartitions-BIOS.txt ==
convert mbr
rem == 1. System partition =========================
create partition primary size=100
format quick fs=ntfs label="System"
assign letter="S"
active
rem == 2. Windows partition ========================
rem == a. Create the Windows partition ==========
create partition primary
rem == b. Create space for the recovery tools partition ===
shrink minimum=450
rem == c. Prepare the Windows partition =========
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
assign letter="W"
rem == 3. Windows RE tools partition ===============
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows RE tools"
assign letter="T"
set id=0x27
list volume
exit