Clean windows 10 install.

[DampDog]

I'm debating with myself whether to do a clean windows 10 install as I need to replace a failing HDD. Thing is my windows 10 is a free upgrade from windows 7.

1. Does that make thinks any more complicated, re activating a new install?
2. What is the easiest way to go? ( I have a sata SSD as boot drive/ 1Tb for backups and infrequently used stuff.
Cheers.

 

[ED209]

I'm debating with myself whether to do a clean windows 10 install as I need to replace a failing HDD. Thing is my windows 10 is a free upgrade from windows 7.

1. Does that make thinks any more complicated, re activating a new install?
2. What is the easiest way to go? ( I have a sata SSD as boot drive/ 1Tb for backups and infrequently used stuff.
Cheers.

1. Does that make thinks any more complicated, re activating a new install? No, this will be activated by hardware ID so once on the internet it will activate. Just make sure before you do anything it states its activated. Also, it will be tied to your Microsoft account if you use one.

2. What is the easiest way to go? ( I have a sata SSD as boot drive/ 1Tb for backups and infrequently used stuff - Download the Windows 10 creation tool and create a bootable USB stick. Make sure that the only drive you have connected is the one you want windows as on as the install can sometimes store information on a second drive and doing this prevents this from happening.

 

[DampDog]

Cheers. Not having any additional drives connected seems a sensible way of making life easy. It isn't something I'd thought about but as I need to replace the drive I use for backups will help.

Is it as simple as using the "Reset this PC" from within the recovery options in the windows settings? Or do create an ISO disc/usb boot device from the windows site? I have no doubts there are guides, just thought I'd ask. I'll have a quick google this evening.
Thanks again.

 

[Rroff]

Not sure if it is something wider or specific to the setups I'm using or what but I found downloading the latest media creation tool for 20H2 and building installation media on USB stick resulted in a much faster booting OS install than doing the exact same thing but with an early 1909 media and then updating the OS through Windows update. Not sure rhyme or reason but I've tested it twice now on 2 different machines.

Maybe not entirely surprising as I've had a few times where trying to update through Windows update has resulted in all kinds of issues but doing the same updates via the media creation tool has avoided those issues.

 

[ED209]

Cheers. Not having any additional drives connected seems a sensible way of making life easy. It isn't something I'd thought about but as I need to replace the drive I use for backups will help.

Is it as simple as using the "Reset this PC" from within the recovery options in the windows settings? Or do create an ISO disc/usb boot device from the windows site? I have no doubts there are guides, just thought I'd ask. I'll have a quick google this evening.
Thanks again.

USB creation tool will create a bootable USB stick or CD\DVD. Once done reboot the PC and boot from the media created.

This will guide you through the rest of the install process.

 

[DampDog]

Cheers for pointers. I'm on it, Just created myself a bootable USB drive this morning. That said, I'm holding fire on the clean install for the moment.

What prompted it in the first place was a failing HDD, and I just had the feeling things may go south while replacing it. Thankfully it went pretty smoothly, with the exception of losing my Windows History/backup. (which I've never actually needed/used.) I back up all my important stuff every other day or so to a little external drive, so in the scheme of things it's just irritation rather than any real problem. Think I caught it right on the edge, it had some corrupted data, but I managed to recover what I needed.

Now going off at tangent which is my specialist subject. I've used SyncToy 2.1, for my backups since Noah was a lad. It's basic, but it's free and simple to use. I imagine things have moved on so are there any good free/cheap programs to make my backups a little more robust and easier/better organized?