Clean Install Windows 10  

Loo said:

...Currently I am planning towards clean installing W10 Home 20H1 onto an 11-year old Toshiba C660 laptop...

Thing is, despite all my efforts, over time, to clean up as much of the original bloatware as poss, there's still a lot of it that I'm unsure about if/how to remove, so a clean install has become a very enticing prospect.

The SSD is 500GB partitioned approx. equally, with Windows, Programs etc on one ("C drive") and a multitude of various files (typically large) on the other ("D drive"). There are also TWO recovery partitions - the original Toshiba ~500MB, and a Win 10 one, also ~500MB, created during the upgrade(s)....

Until I read your tutorial, my plan was to delete and merge the C drive and the 2 Rec Parts into one single unallocated partition, whilst leaving the D drive as is. But this apparently is not the recommended approach...
...So, if I adopted my planned approach:-
1) What are the risks to my D drive partition's contents/integrity (if I dont/cannot back it up first)?

2) What are the risks to the Windows installation integrity/outcome and would I get a single, new Recovery (System Reserved?) partition (which I'd like to have)

Toshibas of that vintage (like my L750, System One in My Computers below) were partitioned with a D: drive as the last partition, occupying half the drive, so 250GB on a 500GB disk. Unlike most other OEMs who kept their Windows 7 recovery image in a hidden partition, Toshiba put theirs in a folder named HDDRecovery on the D: drive. If you have not already done so you can delete this folder and regain 13GB of free space on D.



My Toshiba was upgraded from W7 to W10 in 2015, then had every Feature Update since, up to its current 21H1. I've tracked down and removed all unnecessary OEM bloatware, so I've not felt compelled to do a clean install. But if you wanted to, then in the W10 Custom install just delete the first three partitions, leaving D: as it is. Then install into the 250GB unallocated space created. W10 will install correctly and create all the partitions it requires (as if it were installing on a 250GB drive) leaving the D: partition intact and untouched.

Loo said:

Its fascinating that there appear to be 2 Recovery partitions (I'm sure the RHS one was added after W10 upgrade), and both are used by the OS, according to file dates at any rate...

My only remaining concern now, before proceeding with a clean install, is regarding any odd-ball (Toshiba) drivers that will not be suitably reinstated/replaced.

And of course, will the overall effort actually yield a "cleaner, better" W10 experience???

Partition 1 (400MB) is marked as Active and still required for booting, partition 3 is the current W10 recovery partition and was created by the initial upgrade from W7 to W10. The original 400MB one was too small for a W10 recovery partition, so W10 setup created a second one.

For the drivers, you can back up your current ones and reinstall them later, if required.

Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 10

elvin669 said:

Some year back I took advantage of the free windows 10 upgrade but regretfully uninstalled it as I could not get use to the interface and fell back to windows 7 again....
... Will I be able to download windows 10 as per your thread and still use my windows 7 product key to activate it?

Welcome to Ten Forums.

You won't need a key. Activation for Windows 10 is quite different from Windows 7. When you upgraded this PC from Windows 7 to Windows 10 it got a digital licence for the edition or Windows 10 you had (Home or Pro). This digital licence is stored on the Microsoft activation servers and linked to the hardware ID of your PC.

This means that you can clean install the same edition as you had before (Home or Pro) and skip entering a key when asked. As soon as it can contact the activation servers it will activate from the existing digital licence.