Windows 10: Windows 10 Clean Install / Delete one-touch recovery system / Drivers

I have a PB (Asus) EasyNote ENTF71BM with Celeron quad core N2930 processor, Intel HD Graphics, 4GB DDR3 L memory. I am British but living in Poland with very limited command of Polish language. I bought the PB in Poland with W8 pre-installed in Polish and everything appeared to work fine in Polish. I and none of my contacts were up-to-date regarding language options and the end result was that after much trouble I eventually installed W8.1 in English after downloading from Microsoft and burning installation disk. I have experienced several problems centred around drivers but have reached a stage where basically machine is fine and when something happens I know how to fix it or it does not appear to have any everyday effect. The main exception is that I cannot get the touchpad to work. I know it is a driver problem as the touchpad works fine when using Linux. The drivers are a custom installation by Asus and the Intel Driver update site will not work.
I now want to do a clean installation of W10 which I hope will eliminate the aggravations I have. I have done the preparation work i.e. backups, installation disks, identified sites for driver downloads but before going ahead I would like advise / help on the following.

• The computer came with a one-touch recovery system that I have never used as it will take me back to Polish. I would like to eliminate this system and use the disk space for general storage. I have Paragon Hard Disk Manager and attached are screen shots of the partitions on my hard drive.
  • Which of the partitions can I delete and should I do this before or after W10 installation
  • I will keep C for W10 and E+F for my data.
• Following installation / initial set-up can I go to the Intel Driver update site for driver updates and ignore PB / Asus.

:)

 

Asking for driver during clean install of Windows 10

I have a Window 8.1 laptop. I did a free upgrade to Windows 10 with no issues. Now I want to do a clean install of Windows 10. During the clean installation of Windows 10 it will prompt me for a driver. It never really tells me which driver it wants. I did
a search for my issue and seen an old video where someone was getting the same error during a clean install of Windows 7. What he did was to delete a recovery partition that was on his drive. I'm not sure that this is what I need to do.

Well I looked at "Disk Management" and it shows for the one and only HDD on this laptop, 7 partitions. 1) "EFI System Partition" 2) "OEM Partition" 3) 500MB Recovery Partition. 4) Main partition (The C: Drive) 5) 450 MB Recovery Partition. 6) 350MB Recovery
Partition. 7) 8.47GB Recovery Partition.

I don't mind deleting any or all of these partitions if it will result in a clean good installation of Windows 10. I just don't want to delete something that is unrecoverable AND does not result in a good install.

Anyone with a brighter mind than mine can suggest if deleting recovery partitions will allow Windows 10 to install?

Any suggestions on which partitions to leave alone? or delete?

Or am I just not only on the wrong train, I'm on the wrong track?

 

Upgrading to Windows 10 now or later?

The upgrade to Windows 10 will not affect the OEM recovery partition. Windows 10 will only touch the main partition which the operating system is installed to.

If, after upgrading to Windows 10 you need to use the OEM partition to reinstall Windows 8.1, you would boot into it the exact same way you would now, and everything would be reset to factory defaults.

Note: If you perform a clean installation of Windows 10, then make sure that you do not format or delete the OEM partition if you would like it preserved. This only applies if you are performing a clean install. The upgrade is not a clean
install.

 

To qualify for the free Windows 10 you must do an upgrade and activate first. Once you have done that and verified it activated you can then do a Clean Install. Nothing you can do to circumvent this process, it's just the way it is. Here are some good links for you to follow:

Windows 10 - Upgrade Installation
Windows 10 - Clean Install

Read this one so you will understand the first part of both of the two above:

Windows 10 ISO Download

 

Well, actually there is a way to circumvent the upgrade process.

Video card not supported, will not download Win10 - Windows 10 Forums

However, I have not tried the method myself, so I cannot guarantee 100% that it works, and it is not my method originally, but it is posted in a few different articles on the internet and here on these forums.

 

I tried it 3 or 4 times and have yet to make it work. I always get invalid key.

 

You have to reboot at least once for this method to work before you put the genuine ticket in the correct folder. I have successfully done this 3 times on various systems and VMs.

 

I'll give it another try as soon as I can.

 

Yeah, but you would have to have a "Windows 10 virgin" computer to really try it. Maybe I'll have to go out and buy one just to find out

 

People thanks for responses. However the queries were not about the actual installation, I have prepared a disk for clean install, but about deletion of partitions and installation of Intel ? Asus drivers.

If anybody can help with these matters help would be greatly appreciated

 

First, you have to an upgrade from inside Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 in order for Windows 10 to activate. Once you have an activated Windows 10 on that computer then you can do a clean install. Skip when it asks to enter a product key. Never enter a Windows 10 product key unless you have purchased one.

During the custom clean install you can delete all the partitions on the hard drive, wiping everything out, and install to the unallocated space left. Then as long as you have internet you can load drivers for hardware either from Asus or the maker of the hardware such as Intel or Realtek.

 

Thanks for last. You say "During the custom clean install you can delete all the partitions on the hard drive". I don't want to do this. I want to retain my 2 data partitions E and F. I am concerned as there are various references to "Windows recovery" amongst the partitions, some as part of Windows and some PB one touch recovery. I would like to know which partitions, if any, I can delete before W10 clean install and similarly which after installation. Must I make choices during the W10 installation and if so what choices should I make? The perfect scenario for me would be to tick the partitions to retain during W10 install and for the rest to be deleted as part of the installation. Of course life, and Windows, is never that simple.

 

OK, now I understand. This is what I would do.

MAKE A BACKUP OF ALL YOUR ESSENTIAL DATA - then:

Just leave everything like it is and do the in place upgrade to Windows 10. Run setup.exe from your Windows 10 install media from within your existing Windows 8.1. Once you have a successful upgrade to Windows 10 and it is permanently activated then move on.

Next you will want to make a bootable USB, CD or DVD of MiniTool Partition Wizard. Or looks like you can use Paragon if that is what you have now. Before the next step it is critical to make sure that you can boot from your Windows 10 Install USB or DVD - boot from that, select your language, keyboard, click install now button in the center, then click Custom Install. You should see a list of your partitions. Stop and cancel, you know the Windows 10 install media will work.

Now boot into your partition manager program - whether it be Paragon or Partition Wizard. What I would do is delete every partition except for the two data partitions that I want left. Then move those partitions to the end of the disk. You can resize them then if you want. Once you are left with nothing but the two data partitions at the end of the disk, properly exit out of the partition program making sure it has completed all of the operations.

Now, boot from Windows 10 install. Do like you did before, select language, keyboard, click install now button in center of the screen, click on custom install. Now just point it to the big unallocated space at the beginning of the hard drive and let it install itself there, creating whatever partitions it wants to in the process. That should be it.

 

Thanks for the above which provides exactly what I have been looking for.
I would like to come back again when hopefully W10 is installed and running as I want it to let everybody know my success thanks to your help. I am not sure if I can do that if I Mark as Solved so I have left it open at present. I just need to make a day available to go through the whole process. Perhaps I should take up tiddly-winks, much less mentally draining

 

As a follow-up to above I have been bookmarking articles about W10 for some time ready for my installation. I just started looking through some and saw this one from CNET
How to do a clean install of Windows 10 - CNET
This describes how to do a clean install from W7/8 without upgrading to W10 first.
This is in contradiction to statements from members who say you must upgrade first.

Who is right????