Windows 10: Is it safe to remove all partitions to perform a clean install of Windows 8.1?

Hi,I would like to perform a clean install of Windows 8.1. I already know the procedure to create a bootable USB drive and boot on the USB. The only thing I don't know is if it's safe to remove all the partitions. In that regard, I wonder if the Windows product key might be stored in one of those partitions like UEFI. There is no sticker on the laptop and I don't have a physical copy of the product key. I just would like to be sure that I won't lose it.Thank you in advance,Yoann

:)

 

Installing windows off of a USB stick

Step By Step from vista:
From admin cmd prompt

1. diskpart
1a. list disk
2. select disk 1 (replace 1 with your usb drive)
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1 (replace 1 with your usb drive)
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit

Copy Windows Vista's DVD ROM content to the Flash Drive

xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f e:\ (d being your vista cd and e being your usb stick)

And that's it, boot off your usb disk

 

Clean Install Windows 10 partition issue

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I appreciate the troubleshooting steps performed to resolve the issue. However, let’s try with the further troubleshooting steps and see if it works. Initially, I would suggest you to create a bootable media with a USB/Flash drive of capacity 8GB.
For better understanding, you may watch the video with the procedure from the article on
How to Clean Install Windows 10 on a PC Step-by-Step
Guide.

Set the boot priority to USB once after creating a bootable media using a USB and proceed with the Windows Installation. On the drive selection window, press Shift + F10 keys to open the Command Prompt. Then follow the steps listed
below:

• Type the following command in the Command Prompt window and press Enter:
  diskpart
  
• Once after executing the above command, type the following command to list the current drives and press Enter:
  list disk
  
• List disk will give you the list of drives, use the following command to select the drive and press Enter: select disk 0
  
• Type the following command to check if the disk is online: online disk
  (if the disk is not online)
  
• Type the following command to clean the drive and press Enter:
  clean
  
• To create a partition, type the following command and press Enter:
  create partition primary
  
• To select the partition that you created, type the following command and press Enter:
  select partition 1
  
• To set the partition active, type the following command and press Enter:
  active (if this is the boot partition)
  
• Type the following command to assign a drive letter and press Enter:
  assign letter(letter)
  

• After completing all this, close the command prompt screen and click on
  refresh button.
  
• Then you will only have one drive with “unallocated space”, just select the partition to start the installation.
  

Let us know how it goes and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,

Mala S

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

W7 Hard drive partition issue

to get rid of that 100 meg windows partition that setup creates for you on a new install on a blank hdd:

- press shift+f10 when on the partition management screen in setup <-- this opens a command prompt
- diskpart <-- start the windows command line partition management tool
- list disk <--- list the installed hdds in this computer for the next step
- select disk 0 <- might have to replace 0 with the number of the correct disk
- clean <-- this will erase all data on the disk you selected one step up- dont use the wrong disk!
- create partition primary <- creates a primary partition taking up all space on the drive, adjust the command if necessary
- exit, exit to exit diskpart and the command prompt
- click refresh in partition manager and select your newly created partition and install to that