Hello all I upgraded from Windows 8 on my HP ENVY laptop to Windows 10 Home. It went very smoothly however I have tons of crap on my C partition from all the stuff I put on over the past year or so. I would like to do a Clean Install and have read, and looked at the Youtube videos and searched here etc. I have downloaded Windows 10 Home to my USB drive, but I have 3 partitions. I have C, D, and E a rescue partition from HP the original 8.0 is on it. When I try to do a Clean install it is not asking for a partition, I tell it to not save anything, and it just starts to install and I'm not sure if it's trying to format my entire drive or not since it did not ask what partition I want Windows 10 on. I run the setup.exe right off the USB drive while I am in Windows, I do not boot into the USB drive, because everthing I have read and seen here just says to run the setup off the USB drive and pick the partition but it's not asking me for one. Can anyone give me a quick minute and explain what i need to do to put it on my C drive? I've installed many OS's of Windows over the years but have not seen this problem. I also have my product key that I captured using the method described here in the MDL Forums so i have the product key written down if it asks for one. Any help is appreciated, all I want to do is a clean install so it wipes all the old stuff off my C drive. Thank you in advance,
Not entirely sure if this matches your issue. However I think windows setup does its own thing unless you click on 'advanced' during the drive selection stage. Once you do that you can pick a partition and pre-format it whichever way you prefer before installing your OS on it.
You need to reboot to your usb drive and choose custom installation. You can not do it by clicking on setup while in windows. That is called an upgrade. It will install to the same partition as your current Windows installation. But, if you reboot to USB, and choose install windows, then custom installation, you can then choose advanced, and pick a drive. You can delete partitions, format, etc. also. If you choose to install to a partition or drive you must ensure you have enough space. Windows will tell you if you do not. Also if you install to the same drive or partition as your old Windows, it will put all your stuff in Windows.old, unless you format that partition first. It is no trouble to get rid of windows.old after install, just run disk cleaner as administrator, and check all boxes. That way if you need to recover anything like documents, pictures, etc. you can move it out of windows.old folder before deletion. All this is provided you have enough space of course.
You will need to check all the sizes of your partitions, as you've said, you've installed before, so you know you won't see C, D E, you will only see them by size. Just format that partition, the one that's C: your OS. Don;t worry about the key, DO NOT ADD ANY KEY when you install, just skip that, using the skip button. P.S. You won't get a windows old file doing a clean install, that's when you upgrade.
You will get a windows.old file if you install onto a disk without formatting it, provided there is enough space.
Just making sure he knows as he said he didn't want anything so he'll format his partition. Also you already covered it with out formatting. Hate to see him not have it.