Windows 10 installation on second hand PC

AnastieByte · 1 Aug 2016 at 18:29

Hi

I bought a used computer with genuine Windows 8.1 disk and number. The owner had taken advantage of the free W10 upgrade and that is what the PC is running all activated before the previous owner sold it to me.

I understand that because the upgrade will have registered the motherboard with Microsoft if I want to do a W10 clean install i just download the W10 from Microsoft, it will recognise the motherboard when I go to activate, check its database and all should be fine. Is my understanding correct?

Secondly, the PC has two M2 drives one with the operating system on, one foe games and I installed a third SSD drive. Before I do the above do I need to disconnect all the other drives and leave just one of the M2 drives connected. Or will W10 as me which drive I want to install the operating system to

All help appreciated
Cheers

Method0ne · 1 Aug 2016 at 21:03

It will ask you which drive you want to install to, but, in my system at least, the m.2 SSD I have isn't listed as the first disk in the OS install options, so to be absolutely sure you're installing on the drive you want it on, it might be wise to disconnect the others for that part of the install process.

This will also make sure the bootloader is on the OS drive, as for some reason if there are multiple drives, it may put it on the wrong one, leading to frustration if you happen to have a drive swap/failure as you will no longer have a way to boot into your OS.

When you install W10 either from a bootable USB or from a burned iso, it will still ask for a product key at least once (sometimes twice) and when it does there will either be an option saying "Skip this" or "I don't have a product key" either of which is option you should select, it will continue with the install as normal, and once an active internet connection is found it should activate automatically.

Or in short, yes, your understanding is correct.

AnastieByte · 1 Aug 2016 at 21:09

Thanks for this. Now a newbie question! When I reconnect the other drives will I need to wipe/format them or will they still work fine and I keep the data on them?

Method0ne · 1 Aug 2016 at 21:22

Once reconnected, those drives will be the same as they were before, Windows will detect them when you turn the PC back on and you'll have access to them once you get to the desktop.

If you want them to have particular drive letters you can either re-connect them one by one with a boot into Windows in between each drive, or you can do it within Windows by using Disk Management which is found on the left in Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management (right click the drive, Change drive letter and paths is the option).

AnastieByte · 2 Aug 2016 at 22:19

Ok I did all of this and win 10 said can't install on partition 0. I ran disk clean in cod window same problem.

I removed both m.2 ssd and tried with a normal ssd to no avail same message and now I can't boot to bios. I took my standard ssd to my old pc and formatted it thinking it would help again I can't get to bios.

Any ideas?

Method0ne · 2 Aug 2016 at 22:52

You should be able to get into the BIOS regardless of whether a drive is attached or not, you could try without a drive installed in the PC and see if that helps.

The only thing I can think of that would cause a message saying it can't install is if the partition is too small but since you're doing a clean install with only the OS drive connected, when you get to the stage where it asks which partition you want to install on, you should remove all listed partitions until it just shows you the SSD as unallocated space. At that point clicking "Next" will create any needed partitions, format them, and move on to installing Windows.