First Time Reformatting Windows 8.1

Shark With A Laser · September 20, 2015

Hi all,

I've been getting a recurring Windows 8.1 error where a program hangs and I can't do anything. I've tried some of the repair things like scf.exe /scannow but it's still detecting errors. I figure at this point I might as well reformat my computer and reinstall Windows 8.1. I have an option to upgrade to Windows 10, but I've read people are still having serious issues with gaming in Windows 10, in particular with an SLI configuration (I have a 980Ti in SLI config).

My questions are:

1) I have the Windows 8.1 disc and an optical reader in my computer. To initiate the reinstall do I just restart my computer with the disc in the optical reader? Or do I also have to enter BIOs and set my computer to boot from my disc drive first?

and...

2) I currently have 3 SSDs in my computer, 1x 120 GB that I salvaged from my older computer which I installed the OS on and two Intel 730s 480GBs that I use to store my games on. If I wanted to reformat my OS drive only without affecting my two gaming SSDs should I just unplug those two while performing the reinstall?

Thanks in advance for any answers. Sorry if the questions are rudimentary but this is a task I've never performed before and I wanted to be sure, I've only installed an OS before and that was relatively simple enough.