Clean Install Windows 10

Joanne · 12 Jul 2015

Brink said:

Joanne,

I would start from scratch making sure to delete all partitions on the drive until it's unallocated at step 11B.

Be sure that your network is active and connected to the PC during the installation. If you see the hard drive activity light blinking while it's at step 17, then it would be best to wait up to an hour to see if it may continue within that time frame. It should normally only take a minute or so at most though.

Okay, thank you Brink, I will try it again but later tonight.

Right now what I have done is that I have formatted my USB drive by un-checking the Quick format option. It took a while to format it, because it is like 32GB, and I'm not sure what this option does, but I felt like it formatted "deeply", lol...

Then I used the Windows 7 USB/DVD tool to burn the image to the stick. This one formatted the pendrive again. I will try the installation later.

And it's true that my SSD chassis light kept blinking for quite a while, while my system was on that screen. But after a couple of minutes it stopped blinking and it was just the cursor on that screen, the dotted-circle, that kept circling.

From your experience, while setup is on that screen, does it look for an internet connection only, or is it possible that it looks for other devices on my system and, somehow, it cannot recognize them?

I hope you understand me. It is the first time I encounter such an issue. Have they changed something in the ISO?

Oh! One off-topic question, please!! Is there a way to check my SSD now that it is un-allocated? To check it for bad sectors, etc? I am sure it has no problem - just asking. Also, please do you have a link with instructions to un-allocate it (again) from CMD? It is already un-allocated but I'm thinking to try again.

Brink · 12 Jul 2015

Yeah, doing a quick format on the USB will just be faster for you. Otherwise, it'll do a full format that will take much longer as you found out. :)

It is checking and doing other stuff at step 17, but it's main purpose is to check for an internet connection to determine what will happen next in setup in the note box under step 17.

It really could be anything causing it to hang up at that step.

There's no need to check the SSD. I don't think that's the issue.

The yellow tip box and screenshot under step 11 can help show you how to make the disk unallocated if it's not already. You basically just select any partitions that show for that disk, and use the Delete option until there is only one unallocated listing for the disk.

Joanne · 12 Jul 2015

All right, I finally did it! :)

I think it was the full format of my USB stick that did it.

Anyway, thank you :)

Brink · 12 Jul 2015

Great news Joanne. :)

swarfega · 27 Jul 2015

@Brink is it time to remove those keys in step 7? Just wondering.

Brink · 27 Jul 2015

Tutorial has been updated for Windows 10 RTM. :)

swarfega · 27 Jul 2015

Nice work.

Aiden Crew · 30 Jul 2015

Hi guys !

Very nice tutorial , but I have a question , what is the difference between installing W10 with or without UEFI , what does it changes? I made some searches on the net but I didn't found an answer.

System info : Acer laptop running on W8.1

Thanks in advance :)

Brink · 30 Jul 2015

Hello Aiden, and welcome to Ten Forums.

The tutorial below has some good information about the UEFI vs Legacy BIOS. Basically though, it's about which method you have your motherboard firmware supports and set to use, and how you want to install Windows. Since you have 8.1 on an OEM PC, you most likely are using UEFI.

BIOS Mode - See if Windows Boot in UEFI or Legacy Mode

Aiden Crew · 30 Jul 2015

Hi Brink ,

Thank you very much for your answer !
As you said I'm using UEFI. But when I will do the clean install , should I install w10 with UEFI then ?