Formatting HDD for clean install?

[Komplett]

So I have a new Motherboard, CPU, GPU and RAM on the way for an upgrade, I currently run Windows 10 Pro and what I have understood I need to wipe the harddrive and do a clean install with the new PC parts.

So do I just go into the file explorer, right click my harddrive and choose format and it will then be as when I bought it, ready for a fresh Windows 10 install, or do I need to do it in some other way?

[Murasaki]

When you boot into the installation, before anything starts installing, a window will pop up asking you on which drive you want to install Windows. Just format your C drive from there and start installing fresh.

Formatting the drive from within the OS while it's running is... is it even possible?!

[Altecice]

2 minutes ago, ModuleLFS said:

Formatting the drive from within the OS while it's running is... is it even possible?!

 

No Diskpart cannot format a volume that holds the Pagefile/Boot partition.

[Komplett]

1 minute ago, ModuleLFS said:

When you boot into the installation, before anything starts installing, a window will pop up asking you on which drive you want to install Windows. Just format your C drive from there and start installing fresh.

So I just boot from the Windows 10 USB without doing anything first, and then it will do a clean install from there? No problems with previous Windows (getting new key, as I upgraded from 8.1 to 10) or any motherboard drivers or such?

[DXMember]

First of all you don't need to reinstall Windows

Second of all if you decide to actually reinstall Windows with full format then you will be able to do so during the installation process

And third of all you can install Windows on the same drive without formating it as there will be no difference unless you're trying to get rid of malware

[Komplett]

2 minutes ago, DXMember said:

First of all you don't need to reinstall Windows

Second of all if you decide to actually reinstall Windows with full format then you will be able to do so during the installation process

And third of all you can install Windows on the same drive without formating it as there will be no difference unless you're trying to get rid of malware

As far as I've read, my current windows key is stuck to my current motherboard, with the change, if the PC boots, I need to put in a new windows key, and most likely even do a full clean install..

[DXMember]

4 minutes ago, Komplett said:

As far as I've read, my current windows key is stuck to my current motherboard, with the change, if the PC boots, I need to put in a new windows key, and most likely even do a full clean install..

you don't need a full clean install

if you have OEM key then yes you will have to buy a new Retail key and use that to activate Windows after your first boot

If you have Retail key already then you don't have to do anythig and it should work, if you are prompted to active online then follow the instructions, if it fails to activate online then follow the instructions

[bgibbz]

21 minutes ago, Komplett said:

So I just boot from the Windows 10 USB without doing anything first, and then it will do a clean install from there? No problems with previous Windows (getting new key, as I upgraded from 8.1 to 10) or any motherboard drivers or such?

i just did this a couple of weeks ago. I booted into the win10 USB and then used command prompt to clean and format the drives using diskpart.

[Daniel644]

when you get to the step of installing where you select which drive to install windows onto you have a little "Options" selection that expands out and give you things like deleteing partitions, creating partitions and formatting, you simply format from that point, it's also how I usually combine all the partitions on a computer I'm wiping that had a factory recovery partition eating up like 20% of the drive capacity.