Nuke Required

[pottsyy]

Ok to cut a long story short, I am going to have to reinstall windows 8/1 to re-upgrade to windows 10 but first I think it would be best to format both my drives. 

 

Here is the problem. I have never formatted any of drives before let alone the C drive. If i format both my drives, will it be like when i first build this computer. So just boot with the ISO and install the new os?

 

I'm very lost and I dont want to leave my computer fried

[pottsyy]

1 minute ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

Yup.

But i'm not installing windows 10 first. Im gonna have to install window 8.1 to get windows 10

[ARikozuM]

No, it won't. Formatting just tells the drive to write over used portions. I'd use "clean all" through diskpart so that the drives all fully zeroed.

[pottsyy]

So if i format both my drives first, it will just boot to the bios?

[ARikozuM]

Just now, wrathoftheturkey said:

If you're insane about security, do this. But you don't need to, since you're keeping the drive anyways.

What?

[pottsyy]

1 minute ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

You can't format the OS if you're running it, you'd need to do that from a live USB. 

So just run the ISO now and get it to format?

[pottsyy]

I just want a fresh install with clean drives. I aint bothered about removing every last bit of data

[pottsyy]

Just now, wrathoftheturkey said:

Yup, just tell it you want a clean install

OK COOL

[ARikozuM]

Just now, wrathoftheturkey said:

If you really want to remove all traces of data from the drive, you write every sector with empty data (0s or 1s). But for most people, formatting is enough.

That's what you meant. I meant OP won't notice an appreciable boost in performance whether he formats or not as the OS will do so either way.

[bgibbz]

32 minutes ago, pottsyy said:

Ok to cut a long story short, I am going to have to reinstall windows 8/1 to re-upgrade to windows 10 but first I think it would be best to format both my drives. 

 

Here is the problem. I have never formatted any of drives before let alone the C drive. If i format both my drives, will it be like when i first build this computer. So just boot with the ISO and install the new os?

 

I'm very lost and I dont want to leave my computer fried

Here is how I would do it- backup any and all nessacary data. Boot into windows install media, and go to repair. Go to the command prompt and use diskpart clean on any relevant drives. back out of command prompt and continue with the installation. 

[asdf2061]

37 minutes ago, pottsyy said:

But i'm not installing windows 10 first. Im gonna have to install window 8.1 to get windows 10

Why do you have to get 8.1 to get 10? You can just download the Windows Media Installer and it'll create a boot drive for you.

[Captain_WD]

12 hours ago, pottsyy said:

~snip~

Hi there pottsyy

 

As the guys pointed out, you can delete everything from your drives from the OS installer, you don't really need to format the drives as the new OS will write all data on top of the old one and the drive will appear empty to the OS. 

Any particular reason why you'd prefer to install the older OS and then upgrade? Making a complete fresh install of the Windows 10 OS is a better choice and involves less issues and smaller chance of something going wrong during the process. I'd recommend getting the newest ISO file and creating a bootable thumb drive instead of reinstalling the old OS and upgrading to the new one. 

Also, make sure you check the health of your drives before reusing them so you are safe that your data is secure there. 

 

Captain_WD. 

[MrDrWho13]

Yep, get a Windows 10 installation disc/USB drive because I don't think you're able to go from 8 to 10 any more.