How to correctly (fresh) instal Win10 on a BRAND NEW (unformatted) SSD (Kingston NVME 2TB)

ThomasXT · February 12, 2023

Hi

I currently have windows 7 on some Samsung 500 GB SSD (850 evo?)

I bought and already physically installed (additional) SSD - brand new - Kingston 2TB NVME (Kingston KC3000 2048GB, SKC3000D/2048G). I did NOT format or in any other sense "touched" the new SSD in my current windows 7 (so i dont even see it among the drives). I want to instal fresh Win 10 on this new SSD (kingston) and i want to do it "correctly".

I will be installing the windows 10 from an USB stick, with some up-to-date instalation of windows 10 that i plan to download beforehand (from my current windows 7 running system) from the microsoft website. Couple of questions:

1) Before Installing Win10 on my new Kingston SSD, i DEFINITELLY should unplug the old Samsung SSD (with current windows 7) from the motherboard SATA connector...? ( i can leave the power sata connector in place (its hard to reach))?

2) I can LEAVE all other of my HDDs (4 magnetic standard HDDs) connected during the process of Win 10 instalation on my new SSD...? (I dont see a reason why i should disconnect them, although people online sometimes say you should) (none of the 4 magnetic HDDs has or had any windows instalation on them ever)

3) The "pre-instalation" wizard of the Win 10 installer (from the USB stick) will let me format and partion the brand new untouched SSD Kingston drive before the instalation of the win 10 itself, correct? Cause the Kingston SSD is currently NOT formatted or partioned etc.

I would like to make 2 partions 1) 565 GB (give or take) for the system (C:); and secondly - 1 300 GB for my work related files (E:). I can do this from the USB stick "pre-instal wizard". Correct ? ( I do not have to format, partion or whatever the new SSD from my current windows 7 OS enviroment beforehand...?)

4) What "format" should i choose...? I assume NTFS for both partions...? What about MBR vs GPT, which one should i choose for System and Work partions...?

Thank you

Robchil · February 12, 2023

46 minutes ago, ThomasXT said:

Hi

I currently have windows 7 on some Samsung 500 GB SSD (850 evo?)

I bought and already physically installed (additional) SSD - brand new - Kingston 2TB NVME (Kingston KC3000 2048GB, SKC3000D/2048G). I did NOT format or in any other sense "touched" the new SSD in my current windows 7 (so i dont even see it among the drives). I want to instal fresh Win 10 on this new SSD (kingston) and i want to do it "correctly".

I will be installing the windows 10 from an USB stick, with some up-to-date instalation of windows 10 that i plan to download beforehand (from my current windows 7 running system) from the microsoft website. Couple of questions:

1) Before Installing Win10 on my new Kingston SSD, i DEFINITELLY should unplug the old Samsung SSD (with current windows 7) from the motherboard SATA connector...? ( i can leave the power sata connector in place (its hard to reach))?

2) I can LEAVE all other of my HDDs (4 magnetic standard HDDs) connected during the process of Win 10 instalation on my new SSD...? (I dont see a reason why i should disconnect them, although people online sometimes say you should) (none of the 4 magnetic HDDs has or had any windows instalation on them ever)

3) The "pre-instalation" wizard of the Win 10 installer (from the USB stick) will let me format and partion the brand new untouched SSD Kingston drive before the instalation of the win 10 itself, correct? Cause the Kingston SSD is currently NOT formatted or partioned etc.

I would like to make 2 partions 1) 565 GB (give or take) for the system (C:); and secondly - 1 300 GB for my work related files (E:). I can do this from the USB stick "pre-instal wizard". Correct ? ( I do not have to format, partion or whatever the new SSD from my current windows 7 OS enviroment beforehand...?)

4) What "format" should i choose...? I assume NTFS for both partions...? What about MBR vs GPT, which one should i choose for System and Work partions...?

Thank you

grats on new disk..

1 disconnect old drives.

2 disconnect ALL old drives. windows is funny.. and can put the bootloader on a different disk if it finds one. it usually don't but hey. why not be sure.

3 download AHCI/Raid drivers for your mainboard unpack into a folder you copy to your install usb.

when booting be carefull to use the UEFI image when loading windows.

let windows create everything it wants. so since there is no partitions on it your good.. if it is.. delete them all. there is no need to make 2 partitions.. . you can access it.. if you don't see the drive at first, select load driver and find the ahci drivers you downloaded earlier.

4 windows likes to create all partitions when installing it on a drive. let it.. point it to the unformated disk and it should be GPT to see anything above 2TB. since that is MBR limit. old tech we don't need.

partitioning up a system drive is old tech.. there is no need to do it.. not on win 7 either .. linux needs it. but your not installing it.

as preinstall preperation you might check in bios that your nvme settings are ahci too. that uefi is turned on.. not cms

read the manual to check if any of the sata ports are disabled when you use the nvme port you are using.. it usually is.

C2dan88 · February 12, 2023

9 minutes ago, ThomasXT said:

1)

2)

Disconnect all other drivers during install to prevent the installer putting the boot partition onto a different drive from the one you chose

10 minutes ago, ThomasXT said:

3)

Yes you can create/size partitions from the Windows installer. Or you can create the work partition after installation in Disk Management.

13 minutes ago, ThomasXT said:

4)

NTFS is your only option for the filesystem. If you motherboard supports EFI and you have CSM disabled then GPT will be default.

ThomasXT · February 17, 2023

thanks

BTW i have a new SSD drive that i will be installing windows 10 on. Its not formatted yet. Im planning to format/partition the C system partition to approximately 565 GB. Im planning to have Windows 10 and my programs on that drive, nothing else... 565 GB should be plenty enough space for this ussage (system+programs), correct?

Also, i know that each memory "cell" of an SSD has limited times you can write to it, before it goes bad (dead)... AFIK ssds have some function that ensures that each new byte of data is written to a new cell, that way, every cell of the SSD is written to, before any old one is overwritten. This basically distributes the written data EQUALLY all over the SSD (in order to prolong the life of the ssd). My question is simple - does this even/uniform/equal distribution of data all over the SSD respect partitioning...? If i create a partition that has only 50 GB for example (or those 565 GB of mine, but lets take an example of 50GB). And i write and overwrite the 50GB again and again and again... Are those 50 GB still distributed all over the drive, or basically are those 50GB written in particular small part of the SSD only and thus those memory cells degrade fruther and further (and much faster than the rest of the drive)...

My hope is that this uniform data distribution ignores the partitions and writes the data still uniformly all over the drive... Correct...?

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