Windows 10: New Dell Laptop, Time to Format and Reinstall?

I'm surprised to read that a Windows 10 installation will automatically create 4 partitions when doing a clean install. My point of reference is Windows 7, where a clean install could mean a "C" drive only if that's what you wanted. But if that's the way it is, time for me to join the party. Thanks for all the information and help.

 

Those 4 are standard for a GPT disk scheme. What you were accustomed to under Win7 would have been an MBR scheme. GPT is a bit more fault tolerant and gives you capability to install many more primary partitions on a given disk (not limited to 4 as in MBR) - no more fiddling with extended partitions containing logical partitions and so forth to have more than 1 or 2 extra partitions.

 

Is it possible to erase all partitions and just have one "C" drive? That's always been my preference.

 

With a legacy boot and MBR partition layout, yes, but it requires some purposeful fiddling. You might want to consider the merits versus the disadvantages, however, of forcing Windows and your machine into that configuration, which has become a bit obsolete and probably will become more so.

Bear in mind that 3 of the 4 GPT partitions will be quite small in comparison to the rest of the disk by today's standards.

 

Yeah, probably best to go with the flow. Thank you for all your help.

 

Yes Sir...

The info on those 4 GPT partitions - is the same info you will have on 1 MBR partition...

But instead of re-writing 1 whole MBR partition to fix something

You can fix just 1 small GPT system partition - because they separate , boot, recovery, OS and you can split everything else there after

 

OK. Here's where I'm at now. I used Rufus to prep a thumb drive and then installed Windows 10 on it, along with drivers I downloaded from Dell if they are needed. I just need to plug in the drive, reboot the laptop, and installation takes place while I sit there looking good and drinking an adult beverage of my choosing? Nothing to change in the BIOS beforehand? I recall with Windows 7 on my 4 year old Dell that I needed to change the boot order.

 

If its anything like my Dell then you probably have to hold the F12 key as it boots to get into the 'one time' boot menu. Change to boot from USB and you should be good to go. I found W10 installed very quickly indeed, perhaps 7 or 8 minutes in total with using an SSD.

 

Mooly, took a look at the BIOS yesterday and it's a bit more involved than I'm accustomed to from my 4 year old Dell XPS 15 laptop. For me at least it wasn't as intuitive and changing the boot order seemed a bit daunting. Changed nothing for the time being. But I'm being told no changes are required and the machine will automatically boot off the thumb drive if the drive is in place and the OS will install pretty much without much input from me.

 

Hmmm... as I mentioned, UEFI is something I've not got on any of my PC's. You are just going to have to try it and see I think.

I would think is equally applicable to W10,
UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows

And for install,
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 8 with

And Shawns W10 tutorial (step 13)
Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums

 

Hi, Carbo. Did you make a separate factory restore image using Dell Backup and Recovery first, or have you made a complete disk image with a reliable imaging program? That would be the first thing to take care of.

If you used the correct settings in Rufus for the USB flash drive you created and place WIn10 install files on, you should get a boot menu after tapping the F12 key as soon as you power on the laptop and be able to see a list of at least 2 choices to select for boot at the upper part of the displayed info - select the choice that describes your flash drive.

You will indeed need to interact with the initial parts of the install, particularly to delete all of the partitions until nothing but unallocated space remains on your system's disk. THis is all described in the Tutorial you were pointed to.

 

I enabled Legacy boot and disabled Secure boot. I was able to boot off the USB. That's the good news. The bad news is I have quickly run into an error of some kind when starting the install. I'm seeing a screen that asks "Where do you want to install Windows?" Followed by "We couldn't find any drives". Then I have an option to "load driver". But I don't have or know what driver they are looking for. What did I do wrong?

 

I'm not sure how you proceed in that case, not without sitting in front of it at any rate. If no one chimes in then its probably worth just asking that as a separate question.

I'll look in tomorrow and see how its going, good luck *Smile

 

Does this help perhaps,
We couldn't find any drives during install of Windows 8 - Forum Thread - PC Advisor

 

Mooly, shortly after posting I found the issue. Needed to correct the boot order in the BIOS, (which I thought I had already done). Partitions are visible and should be smooth sailing from here. Many thanks for all your help.