Clean Install Windows 10  

Night Hawk said:

Actually the only plug I pull is for the data cable itself since once that is unplugged any volumes on it are no longer accessible to avoid any mishap. With four drives on the first of two I used that option multiple times leaving the side panel off and reaching in while the machine is powered down while I suppose I could still hot swap since they are sata drives.

It never hurts anything simply when leaving the power cord in for this while that be the preferred option since no signals are being sent to a drive when the data cord is unplugged. If the Integrated Peripherals section in the Bios Setup shows it being set for Native IDE you would generally go with the MBR option since the GPT is generally used for drives over 2tb in size if not for server type set ups.

Having the bios set for Native IDE and not AHCI also allows you to boot from optical media when the burn to dvd option is selected on the Media Creation Tool when downloading 10. One the main build here when having switched over to the AHCI setting I found I could no longer boot from anything on cd or dvd and had some problems with usb boots as well. Once changed back to the first everything boots fine!

That will be important when not opting for the usb type media and going for broke with a dvd burn and finding you can't boot up from the disk where you may think the burn was bad if not the blank disk while the bios setting will be at fault.

Reading more about Clean Install and GPT.
thanks to all.

Thank you for this excellent tutorials!

I was upgrading from 8.1 yesterday, and did the clean install today on my desktop. No problems at all, except for a few steps where my brain took a siesta....

Night Hawk said:

You're welcome there! acmanten Hope it goes well for you. Just be sure to read through each step and you shouldn't run into any problems. The worst offender that will prevent even an upgrade install as well as a planned clean install will be having an extra drive plugged in!

Night Hark
Thanks for each of your comments and help. My system update is coming along and I am learning about it as I do the changes.
It is activatied and I have done a clean update. Now working on add a new SSD.
Thanks Cliff M.

Night Hawk said:

Good to hear!

Thanks for getting back in here to update the thread on the results. I know I got tripped on Day One when not having previously had the chance to install the 10 TP builds to a physical drive to see where the problems would come up and had to get back in here and look at this guide to see the upgrade work. Just remember that one you get your new SSD in that one of those drives if not seeing a dual boot going will need to be unplugged.

yes, and thanks. I only have one hd inside the computer of my Acer i5 5600u (Drive C:) 1TB. I have had the Acer about 3 years now and no problems at all with that desktop. I will later put the new 500GB Samsung EVO SSD in there to replace it. My another Toshiba 1TB is outside in a separate case that I connect via USB. Those are the two I have been using with minitool and Macrium. I do also have a 4tb backup drive but not using it much yet... I may re-partition some of it later when I learn more about how to do that... Thanks for all... and remember that somewhere on this website .....(I saw it but am unable to find it now) .. it says something like "the only bad questions are the ones that are not asked".... and I really appreciate.

I am sure there are several like myself... and users here.... wanting to ask . . .

Thanks so much for your time, and all the info you Cliff M.