Best way to delete everything?

Alex Adamson · 18 Nov 2018 at 18:42

So I'm gonna get loads of new parts for my PC but I'm gonna keep my SSD and HDD as they're not even a year old. What would be the best way of moving them to a new motherboard? Should I just build it, start it up then reset the hard-drives in the new gear? Or reset them in my old PC and then build the new one?

The thing with resetting on my old PC is that bringing up reset in the settings says it will reinstall Windows, but I don't want that for old mobo.

PS. I plan on using an ISO USB to install Windows 10 on my new PC.

Jason1973 · 18 Nov 2018 at 22:58

Hi Alex.
Just move them to the new system. Boot from the USB. Remove the old partitions on the boot drive (presuming the SSD). Install and boot to Windows. Format the hard drive.

You could format the hard drive in the old system if you wanted to.

Alex Adamson · 18 Nov 2018 at 23:02

Jason1973 said:
Hi Alex.
Just move them to the new system. Boot from the USB. Remove the old partitions on the boot drive (presuming the SSD). Install and boot to Windows. Format the hard drive.

You could format the hard drive in the old system if you wanted to.

Thank you. Will formatting my hard drive be done during installation or is that something I have to do within Windows itself? If so how do I do that?

blazed · 18 Nov 2018 at 23:22

Alex Adamson said:
Thank you. Will formatting my hard drive be done during installation or is that something I have to do within Windows itself? If so how do I do that?

When you delete partition and create new one usually thats when the reformat happens. Then you install windows onto it.

blazed · 18 Nov 2018 at 23:25

When you format you delete all files and parition then you create new one and install windows onto it*

Alex Adamson · 19 Nov 2018 at 12:45

blazed said:
When you format you delete all files and parition then you create new one and install windows onto it*

That's great, thank you!

WantoN · 21 Nov 2018 at 12:10

blazed said:
When you format you delete all files and parition then you create new one and install windows onto it*

Alex Adamson said:
That's great, thank you!

This is exactly what I do with a fresh install.

VeNT · 26 Nov 2018 at 23:02

Dban tbh

EsaT · 27 Nov 2018 at 17:06

VeNT said:
Dban tbh

No need for rewriting drives with zeroes when putting them to own use.

VeNT · 27 Nov 2018 at 17:51

true that.
I'm not even sure if dban works on SSDs?

WantoN · 27 Nov 2018 at 19:20

EsaT said:
No need for rewriting drives with zeroes when putting them to own use.

Yup, why put all those additional writes on the drive unless you need to ensure data can’t be recovered.

Alex Adamson · 16 Feb 2019 at 08:32

blazed said:
When you format you delete all files and parition then you create new one and install windows onto it*

Hi, I apologise for the late reply, but I plan to install Windows 10 on my SSD. I will also have an HDD installed however. Will that also/will I have the option to wipe it as well?

WantoN · 16 Feb 2019 at 12:10

Alex Adamson said:
Hi, I apologise for the late reply, but I plan to install Windows 10 on my SSD. I will also have an HDD installed however. Will that also/will I have the option to wipe it as well?

You will only have the option to wipe the OS drive.

Formatting a second drive is incredibly easy these days. You can literally right click > Format > Quick Format

If the drive is empty, or you want to keep the contents, you needn’t even do that.

Alex Adamson · 16 Feb 2019 at 12:16

WantoN said:
You will only have the option to wipe the OS drive.

Formatting a second drive is incredibly easy these days. You can literally right click > Format > Quick Format

If the drive is empty, or you want to keep the contents, you needn’t even do that.

Thanks for your reply. So formatting wipes it? There's an option called "Allocation Unit Size" When i bring up the menu. The options are 4096 bytes; 8192 bytes; 16 kB; and then each one doubles the previous opiton up until 2048 kB. What one should I pick?

ANDARIAL · 16 Feb 2019 at 12:24

Just put your SSD in when installing W10
Then add the hdd AFTER W10 has installed
Windows can have a nasty habit of installing files to the other drive a swell as the OS drive

Alex Adamson · 16 Feb 2019 at 12:25

ANDARIAL said:
Just put your SSD in when installing W10
Then add the hdd AFTER W10 has installed
Windows can have a nasty habit of installing files to the other drive a swell as the OS drive

I had heard that was an issue. Thank you, I'll do just that.

Disco_P · 16 Feb 2019 at 16:06

You don't even need to format your HDD if it's just used for file storage.