Windows 10: Need formatting tool for 10 Install

I've got a brand new Acer R3-131T for upgrade.
Got it from a customer, a Walmart item.
At first glance, I thought a mistake was made since I've never seen a PC shipped with a 32GB HDD since before Windows 3.1.
Anyway, I couldn't do the Upgrade because of lack of space.
Acer support told me to
create a Factory Default Backup (Did this to a USB)
When creating, click "No" to deleting the Recovery Partition.

After creating, use a third party application and format the HD. (This is where I need help. A usb bootable to be able to format the drive}

Use Recovery media and reload
Install all updates. After updates are done, you will get the option to install the upgrade.

Unless someone has an easier way.
BTW, looking at less then $200 laptops in BestBuy, found a bunch with the 32GB HDD.

Pete

:)

 

Hard Disk Failure - Reinstall Win 10

Thanks for the information, I need a little more help.

I used the media creation tool and then installed it on a USB. I then tried installing Win 10 on the brand new hard drive and the installation was able to see that I previously had Win 10 Home edition installed. I then got instructions
to remove the USB and restart the PC and then insert the USB but when I did that I get a problem message that no operation system is found.

The hard drive is brand new and I assume that I need to format it (NTFS) before I do the Win 10 installation. I am not really sure how to format the hard drive since it is the only hard drive in the system and I do not have another
PC where I can install it to format it. I did a search and found a program DBAN which sounds like it will format the hard drive but it also says that it will permanently erase everything. So I wanted to
make sure that is the right tool to use for formatting ans also that it will not erase the information that Win 10 needs to verify that Win 10 was previously installed.

Thanks for your additional help.

 

How to restore windows 10 to a formatted HD

You use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool to re-install Windows 10. You do NOT need to format the hard drive yourself. That is so 90's. See

here for re-instating a clean Windows 10..

 

Use command prompt in RE

You can delete the disk partitions, then use format command

Use an sdcard or USB thumbdrive for the space to install win10. Best bet is to download the media and either run it from an ISO or USB thumbdrive

Image your pc, then delete the recovery partition. 10 no longer uses the 4GB + recovery partitions, and will create what it needs if that old windows partition is gone (450mb recovery partition will be created). That old partition just wastes space.

 

Actually, these do not have a "32gb HDD". They have 32gb of solid state storage, usually eMMC, and not a spinning disk hard drive. This is a common configuration in Windows tablets and some ultra light low end notebooks and convertibles that use tablet class configurations. Storage is limited, but they have a longer runtime on battery.

I agree with the previous poster. You should "burn" the ISO to a USB memory stick for use as the install media. Also, as usual you should backup any user files you may want to keep to another USB memory stick just to be safe.

 

D-ban is the best tool to wipe a hard drive... Darik’s Boot and Nuke – DBAN

 

Or you could use any Linux distribution that runs in "live" mode from a USB stick.

 

Thanks for quick reply.

So when I create the factory default backup again, this time uncheck copying the recovery partition.

This creates a bootable restore of the 8.1 with more space.
I've used 10 since the first build but still haven't upgraded it on my PC's which are dual booted and I have no problem there.

This is a new customer's PC and will a downloadable iso activate?

And thanks for the suggestions. I'll try my unbutu cd.

 

Be sure to copy down the product key.

 

That's not easy.
I'll have to try to find it in the registry

 

No just use Belarc Advisor free Products: Belarc Advisor

 

Folks who actually purchased Win10 have reported that, like with previous Windows versions, they got a new product key.

The old product key, one associated with an existing Win7/8/8.1 installation can NOT be used to activate Win10. So, copying it down is a waste of time. The only way to activate Win10 using the free Upgrade is to do an in-place upgrade of an existing Win7/8/8.1 installation.

 

I just remembered that from an earlier build problem. Had to do with the old way of dual booting.