Windows 10: Full format of my 'C' Drive

I am just about to do a re-install of Windows 10 and am wondering if I can first do a very thorough clean-up of my 'C' drive first by doing a full format before carrying our the reinstall.

I am just about to look for the USB stick with Windows 10 on it, I think that it must be 12 months old by now, is it OK to use this or would I be better off downloading a more recent version.

Many thanks.

:)

 

windows 10 c drive full

hi

my c drive almost full (only 10 gb remaining) can I format c drive with out changing OS 10

if I can format c drive then what will be the procedure ??

 

Windows 10 complete format.

I was trying to format 'C' drive (completely) since 3 days. I had tried recovery option with full clean option but didn't work. Actually I want to format full hard disk including 'C' drive which contains system files/folders. Through recovery
option only the other drives get formatted but not the 'C' drive and after formatting the 'C' drive i got a folders in ' C' drive
'windows.old'. And don't want this folder to be there. My windows 10 is pre-installed.

Is there anybody who can help?

 

Hello Geoff, *Smile

There's really no need to format the drive first before doing a clean install as outlined in the tutorial below.

Windows 10 - Clean Install

I would recommend to get the latest Windows 10 ISO and create a USB with it to help save you some time later by not having to update to the latest build instead.

Windows 10 ISO Download

USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10

 

When you get to the custom install screen with all the existing partitions listed, you can delete each one and then select the unallocated space to install to and click next. If you have a data only partition that you want to keep, then don't delete that one but still select the unallocated space to install to. If you do have a data only partition, hopefully it is at the very end of the hard drive so you don't end up with wasted space after it.

 

Thanks for the replies folks.
I have now made a new USB with the latest Windows which I got from the link given above.

I have been using Microsoft Outlook since I changed to Windows 10, Can you tell me if I will lose my emails when I do the reinstall?
Are you going to tell me that I will need to save each of them to a folder before I do it?

 

If you have your emails set to keep a copy on the email server, then your emails will sync back when you set up Outlook with the email account again.

 

Hello Brink, thank you for your input. This is not something that I am aware of, how can I check to see if it is set up that way and, if it's not, can I do it now or, will it only save any new mails from the time the setting was changed?

 

If you have an @Outlook.com email address, then it syncs by default.

 

No unfortunately mine is an @gmail.com

 

Gmail will sync. If this is a POP, double check under "I want to download emails on multiple email clients" below to see if you have it set to Leave a copy of messages on the server.

Read Gmail messages on other email clients using POP - Gmail Help

 

Thank you Brink, I think that I should be OK.

 

You're most welcome. Please let us know how it went. *Smile