Windows 10: Loss of disk space despite clean install

BTW, I did boot the computer from the DVD, unless I am doing something wrong.

 

@Augi1

You are missing a step, or don't realize you haven't gotten to that step yet.

This is step #10. It has nothing to do with deleting partitions. It simply tells the installation you intend to do a totally clean install.





Read these notes. What I have circled is what you need to do to have one unallocated space on your machine to install to.




Here is the place where you do that. In the example picture, it is already done. In your case, there will be a few partitions with data in them. I do not know exactly how many, but it's not important. Delete them all using the delete function I pointed to. Highlight each partition you see and click delete until all are gone and you have only one unallocated partition on the machine. That is where you will install Windows. If you delete all of the partitions first, it is impossible for you to still have that 454GB partition.





If you're not clear on any part of this, please ask. One of us will explain further.

TC

 

Thanks for the response. I am never asked what type of installation I want. I am never shown the screen that lets me select "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)". When I go to install W10, I am asked if I want to keep my old files, apps, etc., or basically get rid of them. I cannot give you the screen shot, but it does not look like the one you supplied me with. I click on get rid of all old files, apps, etc., but them I'm never asked where I want to install windows. The download and installation just starts from there. I suspect the hard drive was partitioned when I upgraded from W7. I am at a loss as to how to get out of the loop I'm in.

I don't know if this has anything to do with the fact that I seem to have SATA drives. I don't know if it's a problem regarding Legacy BIOS issue. Give me help before this thing eats lead!

 

Are these the screens you are getting?





Then....





Then....





--- OR ---

 

Yes. I click on Change what to keep and tell it to keep nothing.....

 

I know what you said, BUT...... you did not boot the DVD. Those screens are what you will get if you mount the DVD, or open it with Explorer, and run setup.exe. It is exactly what will happen if you do an In-Place Repair or In-Place Upgrade.

How, exactly, did you try to boot the DVD? The exact steps......

 

I put the DVD in the drive, turn off the computer and turn it back on. I have also tried to do it by clicking F12 at startup. I have checked the BIOS by clicking F2 at startup to enter setup to make sure it will read the DVD drive first. I know I am an idiot. I do appreciate your patients. How is it that I am supposed to boot from the DVD?

 

I am realizing that I don't know what I don't know. Clearly I am making a basic mistake somewhere. I am figuring this out as I go through the help you all are giving me.

 

You're not an idiot....I apologize if my comments implied that.

If the DVD drive is set to be read first, do you see at the top of the screen something like

Press any key to boot from CD............

with a countdown going on for 10 seconds?

 

I know I'm not an idiot, and you did not imply that I was one. I just feel like one. Such is life.

 

Did you press "any key"? If so, what did you see next? Any error message or something strange?

 

Yes, I press enter. No error message or anything, but W10 then booted with my usual screen saver. It seemed like that shouldn't be what should see.

 

Yes, I pressed enter. No error message or anything, but W10 then booted with my usual login screen with the W10 photo of a west coast ocean scene. It seemed like that shouldn't be what I should see.

 

You are correct, it's not. How did you make the DVD? Try to list as much as you remember. Where you got the ISO. What software/procedure used to burn the ISO to the DVD. That sort of stuff.

 

I downloaded the ISO file from Microsoft as instructed in the tutorial. I saved it to my desktop then went into file explorer and right clicked on the ISO file. I then asked to burn it to a DVD and asked to verify the disk.