Question Best method for clean W10 install to M2 SSD on Dell G3 Laptop

[aleader]

I bought a Dell G3 laptop around Xmas (i5 8300H, GTX1050ti, 8GB Ram). The 1TB Hybrid drive it came with is so slow its sad. It has an M2 slot though so I was going to get a Crucial MX500, 500GB drive now that they're reasonably priced. I'd like to do a clean install of Windows though to ensure that I eliminate all sources of slowdown (bloatware). What's the best way to do this?

I checked and the BIOS is set to UEFI, no legacy stuff is on. I will get a new ISO on a USB from the Windows site. So do I just unhook the old drive, install the M2 drive, insert the USB and start the install? Is it that easy? I'd like to keep the 1TB drive for storage afterwards.

Any formatting required on the M2 drive first or with that be done by W10 during install?

Do I just then activate it in my MS account afterwards?

I've done several clean installs of Win 7 on my desktops, but never tried with a laptop.

 

[Furious_Styles]

Yeah should be that easy and should be able to format it win10 setup. I don't see a problem re-activating but if so you should be able to call MS support and get them to give you the re-activation code.

 

[aleader]

I suppose I can erase the 1TB drive after i get Windows installed on the SSD? I don't like having more than 1 drive installed when installing windows as I've run into issues with that before, but I guess if I direct it to boot from the SSD in the BIOS it should ignore the HDD (with the old W10 on it).