Windows 10: Rebuild and eliminate dual boot at same time

I have a computer that is a few years old and in need of a rebuild, by which I mean reformat the disk and reinstall everything.

The issue is that this computer is currently a dual boot arrangement with Windows 7 first then Windows 10, Creators Upgrade. I want the end result to be Windows 10 only.

I am concerned that since the boot record resides on the Windows 7 OS since it was installed first, that there might be some unforeseen issue when I reinstall Windows 10 and expect it to create its own boot record. I don’t think this will happen but I am concerned nevertheless.

The process I am going to follow is to (1) back up everything, (2) reformat the complete disk removing the partitions that are there. With the nice clean formatted disk, (3) create new partitions for the OS and the data and (4) do a clean install of the Windows 10 OS. Then (5) reinstall all programs and (6) data. I am hoping that I can get a Windows 10 Media Creation tool to reinstall my Windows 10 and somehow that it will recognize that it is properly authenticated on this machine and all will be well.

Is there any fault in my thinking or am I correct in thinking that there may be some issues? Is the brief process that I outlined correct? Any suggestions?

Thank you all,
SR

:)

 

Rebuild and eliminate Dual Boot at same time with clean install

The article I linked in my previous reply, will achieve the results you want, which is to delete then format the partitions:

How to: Perform a clean install of Windows 10

 

Rebuild and eliminate Dual Boot at same time with clean install

Andre,

The article referred to in Step 1 of your response is dated July 2015 and contains some updates that concern me. Are there any issues to worry about with today's ISO files provided by Microsoft? I am about to begin the tasks that I wrote about recently,
starting with a rebuild of a 32 bit laptop that I will return from a dual boot system to a single boot, windows 10 Pro and then do the same with a 64 bit dual boot system.

Thank you for your continuing support. I am enjoying the education.

LK

 

Hi seattlerust and welcome to the forum. Correct me if I am wrong but if both Win10 and Win7 are on the same HDD then reformatting the disk will remove both OSs including any boot records. Then you can do a clean install of Win10 with the MCT and it will activate.

 

After you delete all the partitions on the drive, create only the data partition at the end of the drive and format it as NTFS. When you clean install Windows 10, select the custom install option. Click on the unallocated space at the front of the drive and next - let Windows create all the partitions it wants to in the unallocated space.

 

Hi and welcome to the forum. Correct me if I am wrong but if both Win10 and Win7 are on the same HDD then reformatting the disk will remove both OSs including any boot records. Then you can do a clean install of Win10 with the MCT and it will activate.

That is what I think as well, but I have had interesting experiences in the past fooling around with boot records in dual boot systems and am nervous. Wouldn't be so bad if this were my own computer, but it belongs to my wife *Rolleyes

SR

 

If you are doing clean install, it doesn't matter what was on that disk before. During installation you can delete all the partitions and let windows make own.