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View Full Version : How to clean install Windows 10 and create boot media



alanjg007
02-08-2015, 10:58 AM
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The installation process for Windows 10 isn’t much different to any other version. This guide is for those who want to install Windows 10 from scratch, wiping their hard disk in the process. If you're planning to upgrade from Windows 7 or 8, follow our Windows 10 upgrade guide.

This guide assumes you have backed up all the files you need and have made a note of any settings and licence keys for applications you want to reinstall later; you'll need to follow the same procedure as for any operating system reinstallation, so if you're not confident doing this, you should perform an in-place upgrade of Windows 10 instead.

Windows 10 is available as a boxed product, and also on a USB flash drive, for those who want to buy it outright. For those who are entitled to a free upgrade from Windows 7 or 8, it has also been confirmed that they will be able to install Windows 10 from scratch after they have performed the initial upgrade, by creating installation discs using disc images downloaded from Microsoft. We explain all this in the following article.

A note for upgraders

If you've claimed a free upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10 (boxed copies and those that shipped with a computer) and want to perform a clean install, then you first have to physically upgrade your computer using our Windows 10 upgrade guide. Once you've upgraded, you can perform a clean install of the operating system below. The most convenient way of doing this is to use the generic licence key that our upgrade guide shows you how to get, although it isn't strictly necessary: Windows 10 activates by recognising your computer, so you don't need a licence key to install it on a computer that has been previously upgraded.

A note for laptop owners

During our tests, we found that installing Windows 10 from scratch was easier on a desktop than on a laptop computer. This is because laptops often have complicated disk drive structures with several recovery partitions, which can make installing Windows 10 difficult, as well as a fussy BIOS which makes it tricky to boot from USB.

For example, a Dell XPS 13 running Windows 8.1 which we were using for testing had no fewer than seven different partitions. It also wouldn't boot from the Windows 10 USB flash drive we had made until we had gone into the BIOS, disabled Secure Boot and changed from UEFI boot to Legacy.

Unfortunately, as we were in Legacy boot mode, we then couldn't install to the laptop's disk as it was in GPT format; the only solution was to delete every partition before installing. This is not something you want to do if you'd like to keep your laptop's system recovery partitions, in order to make it easy to go back to a factory-fresh state should you wish.

If you'd like to install Windows 10 on a modern laptop without taking the risk of destroying all your manufacturer's system partitions, you're best off running the installer from within your current operating system, and electing to delete all your apps and files. This will give you a near-clean install with the minimum of fuss.

How to create a Windows 10 installation disc or drive

To create installation media, you have two options. First, you can download the ISO file to a computer and then use our instructions to create boot media. Secondly, you can run the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and get it to create the boot USB drive for you. The latter option is the easiest, so that's the method we'll focus on first.

How to create a bootable flash drive using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool

These instructions show you how to create a bootable flash drive only. If you want to create a DVD, you'll need to follow our instructions below on how to create boot media using the Windows 10 ISO. From a Windows PC download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool (ht8ps://w8w.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10). If you don't have a Windows computer available at the moment, you'll need to follow the instructions below on downloading the ISO file, and follow our alternative instructions.

Run the Media Creation Tool and select Create installation media for another PC and click Next. On the next screen, select USB flash drive. Insert your USB drive into your computer (it needs to be at least 3GB in size, and you can buy an 8GB Toshiba USB flash drive from Amazon for less than ?4, so cost isn’t a huge issue). Click Next, then choose the language, version of Windows (Home or Pro - you can ignore the N versions) and whether you need the 32-bit or 64-bit version. It's very important that you get this step correct; if you don't, your computer will not activate, as you will not have the right licence for it. Click Next and select your flash drive from the list (make sure you get the right one) and click Next. Your computer will download the installation files and write them to your flash drive automatically.

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How to create a flash drive or DVD from the Windows 10 ISO

If you want to create a bootable DVD drive, you'll need to download the Windows 10 ISO file. This file is also useful if you want to create boot media whenever you like. There are two ways to download the file. First, from a non-Windows PC you can just download the Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft (ht*ps://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO). You'll most likely need the standard 'Windows 10' ISO, which includes the installation files for the Home and Pro versions of Windows 10.

If you're using a Windows PC, you'll be redirected to a page that asks you to download the Microsoft Media Creation Tool. Once you've downloaded and installed this, you can download the ISO file from inside the software: select Create installation media and click Next, select your language, the Home or Pro version of Windows 10, 32-bit or 64-bit and click Next. On the next page select ISO file and click Next, choose where you want to put the file in the Explorer dialog box and click Save. Once you've downloaded the image you'll need to either burn it to a DVD or install it to a USB flash drive (see below). You'll be able to install from DVD on any computer with a DVD drive, but you'll need to have a DVD writer to create the install disc, and the installation process takes significantly longer than from a USB drive.

Most computers made in the last 10 years or so will support booting from USB flash drives. Windows 10 requires a 4GB or larger flash drive to use as the install disk, with an 8GB drive costing from as little as ?4. As well as making the installation process faster, using a flash drive means you'll be able to use the drive for other purposes after you've installed Windows. There are also plenty of slimline laptops out there that don’t have DVD drives.

How to create a Windows 10 DVD

The only tricky part of creating an installation DVD is making sure you burn the Windows 10 disc image to your DVD as a bootable image rather than as a file. You can use any disc-burning program you like, and the steps will be broadly similar, but we’ve used the free ImgBurn application.

Step 1 - Download ImgBurn for free (http://www.imgburn.com/)

Go to www.imgburn.com and click Download (http://www.imgburn.com/). Click the last Mirror link (Mirror 7 - Provided by ImgBurn - other download links are not safe), save the file to your hard disk and run it. Follow the steps to install the program, but make sure you deselect both the advertising add-ons the setup program tries to install (you'll need to select 'Custom Install (Advanced) to get rid of one of them).
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Step 2 - Write the ISO file to disc

Run ImgBurn, and click 'Write image file to disk'. Click the icon of a folder with a magnifying glass next to 'Source', and browse to the Windows 10 ISO you downloaded. Double-click the ISO file, put your blank DVD in the drive and click the large write icon at the bottom to make your DVD.
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How to create a Windows 10 USB flash drive

This is a bit more complicated than making a DVD, but the excellent Rufus application simplifies matters somewhat. Remember that you need at least a 4GB flash drive, and that all data already on the drive will be wiped during the process.

Step 1 - Download Rufus for free (http://rufus.akeo.ie/)

Go to rufus.akeo.ie, and download the latest version (http://rufus.akeo.ie/) (2.2 at the time of writing, about a third of the way down the page). Save it to your computer and run it. Plug in your flash drive, and it will appear at the top under Device. Rufus will show the USB stick's drive letter in brackets after the flash drive's name. Check in Computer/This PC that this is definitely the drive you want to use for your Windows 10 installer disk as remember that it will be entirely and irretrievably wiped during the installation process.

Step 2 - Write the ISO file to the flash drive

Under 'Partition scheme and target system type' select 'MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI'. Under 'File system' select 'NTFS'. Check that 'Quick format', 'Create a bootable disk using' and 'Create extended label and icon files' are selected, make sure 'ISO image' is selected in the drop-down next to 'Create a bootable disk using' and click the small icon that looks like a DVD drive with a disc above it. Browse to your ISO and double-click to select it, then click Start. Read the warning about flash drive data destruction, then sit back and wait for your Windows 10 flash drive to be created, which will take around 5 minutes depending on the speed of the drive.
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How to install Windows 10

Step 1 - Enter your computer's BIOS

You first need to make sure your computer is set to boot from your DVD drive or from USB. Insert your DVD or USB installation disk and restart your PC. You may find that your PC has a special boot override menu, which you can access with a key such as F10; look out for the message while your computer starts. If this is the case, press the key as soon as the message is displayed, then select your DVD drive or USB stick to boot.

If you don't have a boot override menu, you'll need to go into the BIOS or UEFI Setup program, which is where you change some of your computer's more low-level settings. The right key to enter Setup varies from PC to PC, but is usually Delete, F2 or F10, and you'll need to press it almost immediately after you turn your PC on or restart it. If you look carefully, you may see the relevant key displayed onscreen as the computer turns on. Some more modern laptops, such as certain Lenovo models, have a special button to enter the Setup program, which you'll most likely find next to the power switch.

Setup menus vary widely in look and layout, but all follow a similar logic, so if you look carefully you'll be able to find all the options we mention in this guide.

Step 2 - Set your computer to boot from DVD or USB

Once in Setup, find the Boot section. Now change the boot order to put the device you want to boot from first; this will be DVD or USB, depending on your installation media type. Bootable USB flash drives are sometimes listed as hard disks. If this is the case you'll need to set 'hard disk' as the first boot option, then go into the hard disk boot order sub-menu and put your USB boot disk at the top of the list. Find and select the Save and Restart option or equivalent. Your PC should now boot into the Windows 10 setup program - you may see a message to 'press any key to boot from USB', so do so.
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Step 3 - Choose the Windows 10 clean install option

Once you're in the Setup program, select your language, time and currency format and input method, and click Next. Click the Install Now button. Enter your Windows key if prompted, and read and accept the software licence. In the next screen, select 'Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)'.
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Step 4 - Dealing with your licence key

At this point you'll be asked for your licence key. What you put it, depends on the type of Windows 10 that you have, but we'll explain how to deal with everything here.
1. If you have bought Windows 10 from a store or as a download

If you physically purchased a copy of Windows 10, either from a store or via an online shop as a download, you will have a full and proper Windows 10 code. You should enter this at this point and you will not be asked for it again. This is the simplest way of handling the installation.

2. If you have upgraded from Windows 7 or Windows 8

It's a little more complicated if you're upgrading from Windows 7 or Windows 8. First, some people have reported that if you have a retail version of these operating systems (your bought your OS from a shop or as a download, and it didn't ship with your computer), you can enter your existing licence code. We have not been able to make this work, so you need to first upgrade your existing computer to Windows 7 or 8. The same is true if you have an OEM version of Windows 7 or 8 (the OS that came with your computer when you bought it). Follow our advice in our how to upgrade to Windows 10 article.

After you've followed our advice, you'll have a new Windows 10 product key. This is actually a generic key, which everyone shares, rather than your own unique key. However, it's useful, as you can enter the code into the installation and you won't be prompted for a key again. Once you've installed Windows 10 your computer connects to Microsoft, sending its own digital fingerprint; as your computer has already been upgraded to Windows 10 before, Microsoft recognises it and just activates it automatically.

If you have problems with getting the installer to take the generic code there are two things you can do. First, did you create the right type of installation media? If you used Microsoft's tool, make sure you got the version (Home or Pro) and architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) correct. Secondly, you can choose to skip entering a licence key on every dialog box that asks you for one: once the installation has finished, your computer will send its details to Microsoft and will activate automatically.

3. You bought Windows 7 or Windows 8 and want to move to a new computer

If you paid for a boxed or downloaded copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8, your licence allows you to move it to a new computer, provided you delete it from the device the OS is currently installed on. Upgrading to Windows 10 gives you the same freedom, but you can't do a clean install, as Microsoft will not recognise your new computer and can't activate it. Instead, you must install Windows 7 or Windows 8 on your new computer, then perform an upgrade, then you can do clean installs in the future.

Step 5 - Select your hard disk or SSD

What you'll see in the next screen depends on whether you're installing on a blank disk, or whether your disk has had an operating system installed on it previously. If it's a blank disk, you'll be shown a drive with 'Unallocated Space', so just select it and click Next. Windows will then start the installation process.

If your disk has had an operating system on it previously, or if you have more than one hard disk in your PC, you'll be shown a screen with several disks and partitions. The disks will be called 'Drive 0', 'Drive 1' and so on, and if a disk has previously had a Windows installation it will be split into partitions with labels such as 'Recovery', 'System', 'MSR' and 'Primary'. Before you install Windows 10 you'll need to delete all these partitions, by selecting each one and clicking the Delete icon. This will erase all data on the partitions, so quadruple-check that a) you're deleting partitions from the correct drive and b) that you're absolutely sure you've already backed up everything you need. Bear in mind that this may also delete your manufacturer's recovery partitions, so you won't be able to go back to your previous operating system. Once you've finished deleting partitions, make sure the drive you want to use for your Windows 10 installation is selected and press Next to install.
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source (http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/operating-systems/1401617/how-to-clean-install-windows-10-and-create-boot-media)