Windows 10: Is installing a clean windows 10 on OEM laptops impossible [discuss.]

hello
the thread title was meant to be "Is installing a clean windows 10 on OEM laptops impossible without losing associated manufacture recovery methods [discussion] " but you know i can't use more letters for post title
first of all i'm not a computer expert but i know some basics so excuse me if i mentioned any unintended wrong info
i have a Lenovo laptop that came with windows 8 preinstalled , i upgraded to 8.1 then to 10 which i'm using now and it's pretty good
the feature i liked most in 8 and 8.1 was "Reset PC" which helps a lot when performance declines
probably this feature is not doing well in 10 or let's say it's broken as it's gets stuck when i tried it and many others said
i wanted to get a fresh clean install of windows 10 so i downloaded windows 10 ISO file from Microsoft , mounted it to USB then tried to install it
if i boot using legacy BIOS mode i get into a problem that my hard drive is of GPT format type and i should convert it to MBR in order to install windows
if i boot using UEFI i cannot boot from USB then i cannot install windows
well i know that MBR doesn't allow you to partition your HDD into more than 4
this means if i converted GPT to MBR i can't use OneKeyRecovery because i'll have to have only 4 partitions *not to mention the data loss or having to buy a 3rd party app*



now i have to options
1- using windows 10 as it is and in case of decline in performance i use the restore point i created after upgrade
2- formatting my HDD using MBR and losing OKR to get a fresh install of windows 10
what is your opinion ?
is there any method to force windows installation on GPT partition ?
thanks in advance
N.B : i don't know if this is the most suitable section to discuss this so feel free to move it

:)

 

Swapping versions (pro / regular) during upgrade

Hi, ideally this question would go under the category Windows 10 help and support, but since that category doesn't exist, it's getting stuck in the only Windows 10 category.

I have an old Windows 8.1 Pro laptop, and a new Windows 8.1 OEM laptop.

I am planning to upgrade both to Windows 10 when it comes out, so here are my questions:

a) will the OEM Windows 8.1 still be OEM (i.e. non-transferable between laptops)

b) if it is able to be transferred, how would I 'swap' the licenses between computers? (old laptop gets Windows 10, and new laptop gets Windows 10 Pro)

I would prefer not to do a clean install.

c) if I did have to do a clean install, would I have to upgrade both to Windows 10, then use a program like Belarc Advisor to extract the Windows 10 license keys, then clean install using the extracted keys?

thanks in advance,

Matthew

 

Clean Install of Windows 10 After Free Upgrade

Please read over carefully
Clean Reinstall Windows 10 Upgrade which discusses your question as well as everything else needed to get and keep a perfect install.

 

How did you create the USB for booting?

Here is a Tutorial and I used option two with Rufus as I had saved the ISO to my system.

https://www.windowsphoneinfo.com/threads/create-bootable-usb-flash-drive-to-install-windows-10.7452/

Jim *Nerd

 

This is definitely possible, but my question to you is why do you want to keep the older recoveries? They are just taking up space once you move to Windows 10. At least for Lenovo there should be a tool to redownload all the pre-install junk with Windows 10 versions so long as you have a recent computer that Lenovo deems worthy of a Windows 10 upgrade.

 

Any time you pave over the original OEM operating system you are going to overwrite (or delete) the utility in the root of the system drive that the manufacturer puts there to sense the keypress at startup that starts the recovery process. You need to contact the manufacturer and download the utility in order to restore access to the recovery system put in place at the factory.

 

Option two here, http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials...e-windows.html is what I do to create my bootable USB thumb drives. When done this way with diskpart they work for UEFI and legacy BIOS. My laptops have UEFI and my desktop PC's are legacy. My wife's Acer laptop is very fussy as to how the thumb drive is formatted. If I do it any other way it will not boot from it. It has to be formatted in Fat32. My ASUS laptop is just the opposite, it will install in UEFI even if the drive is formatted in NTFS.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1...n-install.html

 

@Zaref

Is installing a clean windows 10 on OEM laptops impossible without losing associated manufacture recovery methods?

OEM recovery partitions are pretty much pointless in my book. Not much better than restore points. I mean, if your drive suffers catastrophic failure or simply becomes corrupted then the recovery partition will be lost and the user has no way to recover unless they get recovery disks sent to them by the oem.

The only robust and efficient method for recovery is by having your disk images and file backups stored on a separate disk, plus a bootable rescue disk to access them.

In my opinion, users should do a clean install and delete their oem recovery partitions. There are so many good backup programs available and many are entirely free. Please ask for suggestions of good backup programs if you want to consider this option *Smile

 

You need to change your boot order in the bios so that you can boot straight from your usb. Then the Win10 installation media can perform the clean install *Smile

 

It can also be because of the way the thumb drive was formatted/created. My Wife's Acer laptop will not boot from a thumb drive in UEFI mode unless its formatted in Fat32. It's not even listed as a boot option if it's formatted in NTFS or not made active. I tried many options, like Rufus, with no luck. I finally went old school with diskpart and got it to work.

 

Well I am following this thread and am not very successful in getting a clean install done (properly)..

I read the instructions on how to do the clean install and followed them as best I could. It all went well.
I used a USB stick to do the installation. I had to skip the license key. But my existing operation system was Windows 7 Pro and it was activated.

So I went through the install procedure. I chose the advanced method to install windows 10 which means I formatted my harddrive. I then put windows 10 on the computer and it went well.

But after it was all over - I see that windows 10 was not activated. I had a clean installation in place, but no longer activated.

What did I miss?

 

If Windows 10 was never installed and activated on that PC before, you have to do the free upgrade first. You have to do the free upgrade and activate on that PC before you can clean install.

 

A clean install will not activate unless you successfully performed a Win10 upgrade and activation from within Win7 first. That is, unless you purchased a brand new Win10 Standalone (aka retail) license.

Edit: Holy hell!! Alphanumeric beat me to it...just... I think he needs a more appropriate avatar. Something like this maybe:

 

Open a command prompt and enter "slui 4" to start phone activation.

 

lol, happens to me quit a bit. You click post, the page refreshes, and you see somebody beat you to it.