Question Windows 10 clean install question

TitusTroy

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Dec 17, 2005
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when doing a re-install of Windows 10 (or Windows 11) on my NVMe drive what is the proper way to do it with Diskpart?...I load up my USB stick with the Windows install and when I get to the Language/Time and Currency screen I press Shift + F10 to enter Diskpart...do I use the Clean command or the Format Quick command?...I've always used format quick in the past but I'm guessing that's not the right way to do it for SSD's and NVMe's?...is the way I listed below the proper way to do it?

diskpart
list disk
select disk [whatever disk you want it to be installed on]
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
exit
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
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Sep 13, 2008
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When doing a clean install of Windows on an NVMe drive, assuming you don't need to completely cleanse the drive such as if selling the computer to someone else, simply using clean on the desired drive should be fine. Or even deleting all partitions on it from the install menu should be fine as well. The important thing to remember is the drive should be initialized as GPT. So you will need to install Windows in UEFI mode. Then, in the install wizard, simply select the drive, and say install. You shouldn't need to create any partitions manually. Windows will take care of whatever is needed.

If you really want to clean the drive, like for selling, I would recommend doing an NVMe secure erase on it, instead of using the windows installer to delete it. There are various tools that can do this.
 
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TitusTroy

Senior member
Dec 17, 2005
331
39
91
When doing a clean install of Windows on an NVMe drive, assuming you don't need to completely cleanse the drive such as if selling the computer to someone else, simply using clean on the desired drive should be fine. Or even deleting all partitions on it from the install menu should be fine as well. The important thing to remember is the drive should be initialized as GPT. So you will need to install Windows in UEFI mode. Then, in the install wizard, simply select the drive, and say install. You shouldn't need to create any partitions manually. Windows will take care of whatever is needed.

If you really want to clean the drive, like for selling, I would recommend doing an NVMe secure erase on it, instead of using the windows installer to delete it. There are various tools that can do this.

I always used Diskpart in the past thinking that the Diskpart Clean command would do a better job wiping the SSD or NVMe versus just letting Windows do it...meaning I thought Windows might leave behind some traces from the previous install while Diskpart would do it properly
 

TitusTroy

Senior member
Dec 17, 2005
331
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91
If you really want to clean the drive, like for selling, I would recommend doing an NVMe secure erase on it, instead of using the windows installer to delete it. There are various tools that can do this.

I have a Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB NVMe M.2...I was thinking about using the Samsung Secure Erase tool to wipe the drive before each Windows re-install...is that overkill?...will it cause unnecessary wear on the drive?...so Secure Erase should only be used if I'm throwing the drive away or giving it to someone else?
 

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
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You shouldn't need to do a secure erase for a Windows reinstall, but it is not a harmful thing to do. Though it does do a pretty good job of actually deleting data beyond most recovery, at least to my understanding, it is very quick and it isn't like in the old days when to truly wipe a drive you would have to write a whole bunch of 0s or random patterns over and over throughout the drive. Secure erase doesn't put any extra wear on the drive. To go more in depth of how it works technically, you can do a quick search and have a read.
 

Super Spartan

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Aug 1, 2020
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I usually just do a diskpart /clean command but from time to time I use PartedMagic's bootable Flash disk to do an NVMe Secure erase (specific to SSDs) to restore back performance and I do feel the OS is a bit snappier when I do that.
 
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