Necessary to format partition to get clean Win10 install?

[Muse]

I am about to try for first time to install Windows 10. Both laptops are Win7, one 32bit Home Premium the other Ultimate 64bit.

Both machines have a C OS partition and a D data partition. I have both imaged using WD Acronis (in case I want to go back to Win7).

Should I remove the HDs to enclosure and format the C: partition before doing the Win10 installs? 😕

 

[John Connor]

If I was going to do this and had fresh media, in your case Win 10, I would do a complete format just to make sure there are no issues with the install. But you know what? Win 10 its self, like the other OS's (maybe not 8 not sure) have a built in format option already. So it would not be necessary to format before an install as the OS will have a format option prior to install.

 

[Muse]

If I was going to do this and had fresh media, in your case Win 10, I would do a complete format just to make sure there are no issues with the install. But you know what? Win 10 its self, like the other OS's (maybe not 8 not sure) have a built in format option already. So it would not be necessary to format before an install as the OS will have a format option prior to install.

OK, good, I'll look for the format option. If I can't find that to format the installation partition I'll have to remove the HD to enclosure and do that format with another machine.

A few days ago I installed Win7 Ultimate 64bit on a machine that had that OS on it's C: partition already (FUBAR) and didn't see the option to do a format first. I'll look closely using the Win10 installs.

Thanks.

 

[Muse]

This site seems to have good info on installing including clean, how to go about things whether reinstalling Win10, installing anew, etc.

 

[Eug]

Some of my Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrades gave me weird problems with backup applications, esp. on drives with recovery partitions. So each time I just did a clean install. You can do it from within the installer.

BTW, remember that if it's an SSD that was previously cloned from a hard drive, the partition alignment will likely be wrong. That's OK as it will still work, but you'd be sacrificing performance for no good reason. If you partition it fresh from within the Win 10 installer, it will be automatically aligned properly.

 

[Muse]

Some of my Windows 7 to Windows 10 upgrades gave me weird problems with backup applications, esp. on drives with recovery partitions. So each time I just did a clean install. You can do it from within the installer.

BTW, remember that if it's an SSD that was previously cloned from a hard drive, the partition alignment will likely be wrong. That's OK as it will still work, but you'd be sacrificing performance for no good reason. If you partition it fresh from within the Win 10 installer, it will be automatically aligned properly.

I did a clean install on the SSD. I have been having problems, they are iastor() issues with the memory device (i.e. the SSD in this machine), and I get them practically daily. They are delays of 1-5 minutes, averaging around 2.5 minutes, I'd guess, during which the machine is entirely unresponsive. I've already had 4 of these today! The first 3 were evidently contiguous. Those 3 took up around 4-5 minutes between them. The other one was just a few minutes ago. I've only been computing an hour or less.

I don't know if it's solely the SSD that's to blame (Intel 330 180GB SSD), or some other things involved. One guy at Thinkpad Forums said he had the same machine and SSD as mine and that when he went from Win7 to Win10 his iastor() timeouts went away. I heard varying reports of the experience I could expect if I tried to RMA the SSD, and I put it off and now it's too late. I'm hoping the problems will disappear when I install Win10. That's one of the reasons I'm going to move to Win10. I figure to install (or try) today. When I tried doing it through MS's migration applet it evidently installed via Windows Update it said my CPU wasn't supported! I think that spurious and will just try the install with network connectivity shut off on the hardware level and like my chances that I will at least be able to install.

 

[Eug]

Assuming it's the drive (and not defective memory or something like that), in your shoes I would have just returned the drive. I'd consider your setup as is to be unusable.

 

[Muse]

Assuming it's the drive (and not defective memory or something like that), in your shoes I would have just returned the drive. I'd consider your setup as is to be unusable.

Yeah, and I may have to just reinstall. I have another similar Intel SSD, same series but it's 120GB instead of 180GB. I hesitate to use it (although it's never been used) because I figure 120GB is pretty small seeing as I want a local data partition of some size, and also I heard (don't know if true) that the 120GB is apt to have similar problem.

I may have to buy another SSD (or use one of my unused HDDs), and do another install of Win10. Meantime, hopefully I can manage a decent install and activate before the July 29 deadline.

I used the Win10 install flash to delete the C: partition, but didn't see anything that would let me format it or choose it for the Win10 installation, although I think it was highlighted when I pressed the [Install] button, or whatever it was called. An image of a window appeared on screen and nothing else. It remained so for about 1.5 hours and I turned the machine off. I'm now trying to install again, this time I will have a look at the partitions and see if the C: ~90GB partition is formatted and if not, try to format it right there (didn't see that last time). If that doesn't pan out, I figure to remove the drive to a 2.5" enclosure and format it to NTFS with one of my other machines and return it to the laptop and try installing Win10 again.

 

[Muse]

Went to install fresh a 2nd time and saw my 3 partitions:

1. 100GB Service partition created when I installed Win7
2. 89GB Primary partition where Win7 was (had deleted it during last install, thought Win10 was installing in there but it failed)
3. 81GB data partition

This time I was allowed to format the 2nd partition. Didn't indicate that it wasn't formatted, but figured if I could format it there, it was a good idea.

The install appears to be succeeding this time!

Will see if after getting Win10 going I still get iastor() timeouts. If so, I'll likely look to a different drive for the machine. Assuming I am able to activate, I figure there's no hurry, however.