Windows 10: What to delete/format?

You cannot install windows on the drive you are attempting to in the screenshot posted 3GB is not enough space - I believe the absolute minimum is around 32GB though I normally allocate at least a 128GB Drive, (ssd), but these days I go with a 256GB drive (SSD).

I would suggest you back-up any data you wish to keep and wipe the disk completely and install to a totally clean system and let windows sort things out as part of the install, It will allocate and create at least two partition, a System Reserved and an OS partition. The OS partition will be the size of the disk minus 500 MB for the System Reserved partition, ( used for boot and recovery systems ). Once you have the system running you can shrink the OS partition to a suitable size, 128 - to 256GB, and create a data partition with the released space

 

There's no data I wish to keep, but isn't wiping partition harmful in a sense. I mean, manufacturer drivers 'an all.

 

If the system came with Linux loaded any drivers included will be useless to a windows installation, they are totally incompatible. What you should do is research that all the windows drivers are available for your system, and it is fully compatible with the version of Windows 10 you intend to install. You will need to go to the manufacturer of your system's site and check what OS's they support for that specific system. If they only support Ubuntu then is is very unlikely that you will be able to run Windows on it

 

So ultimately, format/ delete partitions or both?

 

Once you are sure that the system will run windows - then you should wipe the disk completely and start the install, I would advise that you download and store a copy of as many drivers as you can find on a USB stick, this especially applies to the network drivers. If you can connect to the internet by an Ethernet cable for the install this will normally speed things up as windows can check for updates and drivers, and check the key and activate the system during the install

 

Yes, I'm sure it'll run Windows. How do I backup drivers? We're talking about Ubuntu drivers (since it's pre-installed). Will it be essential for Windows 10?

 

Ubuntu Linux Drivers are totally useless for use on a windows system

You need to source Windows Drivers specifically for the hardware you have.

If you want to backup the Ubuntu Linux drivers I suggest you check on the Ubuntu Linux site

 

You need to make a partition larger than 3GB - it is not enough. To install 32 bit you need 16GB, for 64bit you need 20GB.

It will take less space than that but that is what the installer checks.

Forget drivers. When you install Linux you (sometimes) have to take and install drivers from Windows. Normally not but sometimes.

You never have do to the other way around. Just install Windows. It will most likely be fine.

If not you will almost certainly be able to find a Windows Driver for whatever hardware you imagine you may have a problem with. I don't think that there is hardware with drivers that exist solely for Linux on your average laptop.

Of course filling in your specs would help.

 

If you don`t have any data you want to save, then delete each one of those partitions until you have nothing but unallocated space, then just click next.

But partition 3 says you have 0 GB free of 1827 GB, so you must have a lot of something on there.


Windows 10 - Clean Install

 

No, it`s not harmful, and you have to wipe the drive in order to install Windows 10.

And because you have Ubuntu installed, you will most likely have to run the clean command to wipe out any Linux code.


You should really take it to a professional if you are so confused.