Disconnecting Data HDD When Upgrading Via Clean Install
Jul 24, 2015
If I decide to do a clean install of Windows 10, can I just disconnect my Data HDD from SATA/Power during the process? This would be really ideal since I only have docs/installers/music/videos/photos and could even backup my current steam library. I don't have an external drive to back up anything with, and I don't see why it'd be needed here.
I feel like the internal drive is acting similar to how an external drive acts anyway
I've been considering shrinking my one disk (disk 0) to create another volume, a data partition, but I'm still not clear what happens in the event that I want to refresh, reset or clean install Windows 10 in the future. Would the data partition remain or, as I thought I read, Windows will format the entire disk?
While re-installing Windows 10 on my Samsung ativ book 9 (15" core i7), I had two partitions (256 gb ssd) half capacity each one, one holds the os, and the other my data.
when selecting the partition where to install windows 10, it tolds me that I cannot so i googled it, i figured out that i have to clean the partition and then convert it to gpt using diskpart.
so i did but instead of cleaning the system partition it deleted all the disk data in a second.
I have now one unallocated partition (256 gb), i created 3 partition afterwars, 500mb efi, primary for os, and third for my data. windows 10 installated successfully, but my data all gone.
I tried every single data recovery app, but all of them just recover some folders that doesn't have any value like desktop.ini. (by the way, i tried in the days after this data earthquake not to have new data to avoid overwriting the old precious data).
A year ago I bought a Lenovo Yoga 2 that came with Windows 8.
Unfortunately, I upgraded to Windows 10 several months ago. It has been such a nightmare I want Windows 8 back.
Can I just buy a new copy of Windows 8.1 and clean install it on my laptop? Someone told me once its been upgraded to Windows 10 that I can't do that, but that just doesn't seem right.
I'm not very savvy when it comes to doing a reinstall. I'm not sure what to buy and I want to make sure trying this won't brick my computer. OEM, Full, etc seems like there is so many things to consider when trying to buy just a regular old version of Windows 8.1 ...
I'm planning to upgrade my Win7 laptop to Win10 next week and I'd like to know if there is an option for clean install (Delete all files, fresh windows settings, old windows moved to "windows.old" folder) from Windows Update or do I have to download Windows 10 Media Creation tool?
I have a laptop and a desktop with a 120 gig ssd and a 64 gig SSD respectively. Both computers have conventional hard drives as drive D. I have two 250 gig SSD's on the way. What is the best strategy for moving to the new SSD's and preforming the clean install of Windows 10. The desktop is running Windows 10 insider preview 130 and the laptop is on Windows 8.1.
Upgraded to windows 10 pro via the media creation tool...its activated and going pretty well..so now i want to format my hard drive and clean install it...how can i do this safely? and will it be deactivated if i do a format?
My system install of build 10162 won't activate, as they pulled the validation from these builds. Unfortunately, I can't upgrade to 10240, which can, I was told by Windows support, be activated. This is because Windows isn't already activated!!! (Windows Update won't download it (it always stays at 0% )).
To solve this, I want to upgrade manually and thus I flashed the ISO on a blank USB stick. Can I keep all my data and app settings, etc. if I upgrade using the ISO on the stick? Or, in other words, is it possible to "upgrade" when installing an ISO, or do I have to do a clean install?
My motherboard manufacturer only has a file for the Windows 10 chipset driver but I remember in the past I was supposed to download the chipset software installation utility first if it was the first time doing a chipset driver on a new comp.
I have a windows 7pro system that I have used for about 3 years. A fairly substantial mix of software installed over time has predictably slowed down performance enough that a clean OS install is in order. I also have a SSD I would like to install as the primary C drive as well as the update to windows 10.
There are two ways to go about this, and am not sure which is the most reliable or cleanest way.
a) I can install the SSD then reinstall win7, and 3 years worth of OS patches. Wait around until Microsoft notifies me of availability of windows 10, install windows 10 and then install all the application software. b) I could upgrade to windows 10 get a license key(?). Then install the SSD, next reinstall windows 10 and finally all the application software.
I get to the advance boot menu of my windows 8 laptop, select boot from USB and go through putting in my product key and then I select UPGRADE not CUSTOM. it then proceeds to give me this message: "The computer started using the Windows installation media. Remove the installation media and restart your computer so that Windows starts normally. Then, insert the intallation media and restart the upgrade"
So following the instructions I remove the USB and click close in the bottom right of the window, and then another window flashes too fast for me to read and then takes me back to the original windows set up screen with the big install now button. I then exit out of this window and confirm I want to stop the installation. At this point the USB has been removed and the laptop restarts. Am I supposed to put the USB back in while it is restarting? When I land back on the home screen I repeat the process of holding shift and restarting and selecting the USB to boot from and the vicious cycle continues. I really don't want to have to do a fresh install of windows 10 as I don't want to lose all of the files. I can back everything up worst case scenario but I would like to just upgrade as I never received the upgrade sign in the bottom right months after windows 10 was released, so I took it upon myself to make an ISO.
I'll soon be upgrading my PC to Windows 10 pro and while doing so I also purchased a dedicated SSD for the OS as well as an SSD for games. I plan to back up the old info from my HDD to an external and just wipe the HDD to use as extra storage. Obviously this means that all the drivers I installed when I first build the machine will be gone and I'm a little intimidated by the process of searching out what drivers I'll need for this new install.
I can't be 100% sure that I'll locate my mobo's driver install disk, however I have located the mobo on the manufacturers website where I have access to it's Windows 10 dedicated drivers. Everything is a separate download there, however, compared to the disk install which was a simple click and go so I'm not sure exactly what I need, what Windows will install automatically, etc. Some of the drivers say they need to be installed via a usb boot drive which is find strange. [URL] ....
How can I clean install windows 10 on a new SSD, saving the fact that I had original windows (that was purchased built in with the laptop)? Do I need to find the CD key?I have a generic one as I upgraded to windows 10 for free (or are all windows 10 have generic CD keys?).How can I use my Windows licence on a new SSD?
I plan on upgrading my MB and CPU from amd to intel but keeping my harddrive. I don't have a install disc or anything but I do have my windows 10 product key. How would I go about doing this?
Mine was with Win 7. This was done few years back throughWin7 upgrade disk. I have this Win 7 upgrade disk and COA for it. (Bought from Amazon).... Can I revert back to Win 7.....
My laptop got stucked in boot loop so i decided to do clean install from dvd. I wonder if i can leave D: partition and delete C: and those two of 350MB and 450MB size? Will i still get that unallocated space and be able to do install on it?
I'm about to do a clean install of Windows 10 pro 64bit on to a new SSD I just received in the mail and wondering how I will be able to activate it? I originally did an upgrade from Win7 Pro to Win10 pro and then a clean install from there back when Win10 pro first became available. I read that I can use the Windows Key on the back of my laptop but I'm not sure that will work because it's a whole new SSD.
All the info I have found on a clean install has been about the Insider Preview, when the official upgrade is available at the end of July, will I be able to do a clean install?
My PC was running 8.1 French version converted to English version (Reseller screwed up).In practice a lot of the stuff was displayed sometimes in Eng sometimes in French. I have the 8.1 French CD.So instead of doing the upgrade which I thought would result in another mishmash of languages, I did a clean install of 10 Home Eng via USB key downloaded install media.Apart from a few video probs (BSOD) blinking cursor, all went well.I cannot use 8.1 product key to activate. Looks like I may have to buy new product key for W10.
I had a licensed windows 7 PC and did the in-place upgrade to windows 10. However my main hard drive (an SSD) is too small and I want to upgrade it. I understand that if I do a clean install (from an ISO/USB) then windows 10 should still recognise my PC as it was activated.
However, if I change the hard drive (or add memory, add a graphics card etc) does windows still recognise my PC or do I have to go through the stupidty of installing windows 7, installing the service pack, waiting for the inplace upgrade to windows 10, activating, and then wiping everything in order to do a clean install!?!?!
I was wondering if I do a clean install when I get the free upgrade from windows 8.1 to windows 10 if my device drivers (for my cpu, usb ports, wifi, etc) will stay.
