Question Best way to do a fresh install on new ssd?

[Brosophicles]

Hello,

I'm a bit of a novice builder. I bought a new M.2 SSD because the old one was full, and smaller capacity. I was planning to use the new, faster one as my OS boot drive, and install windows on it with a USB, but the old M.2 with Windows currently on it is still installed, and I'm not sure if it can be removed. It's in an Asus Z-370-E motherboard and is stuck with some adhesive thermal paste to the built in heatsink. While this is pretty crappy design, I unscrewed it and am a bit worried it might actually break if I try to force it. So since the board has 2 M.2 sockets and they're the same speed, I just figured I'd let it win for now, and stay there.

Since the original Windows was installed about 5 years ago, I wanted to do a clean, fresh install. What's the best way to wipe the old drive, convert it to extra storage, and use the new M.2 as my boot drive? Went ahead and backed everything important up on an external, created a USB boot drive, and also downloaded every driver I could think of to the external just in case.

I thought that telling the installer to install on the new M.2 would work, and then I could reformat/delete the partitions on the old one, but worried that it might do something else if both are installed in the board when I try to install. Not sure what that would actually do though, or if it would be a problem.

Appreciate the help.

 

[Lafong]

Having 2 drives during a clean Windows install can be a problem...although I guess it doesn't always happen and it can be corrected after the fact if it is a problem.

You might be able to disable the old SSD in the BIOS?

Not sure what is going on with your sticky heatsink. I'd certainly wouldn't try to forcefully remove it either, but I can't see the situation from here.

Did you make the Windows installer using Microsoft's "Media Creation Tool"?

 

[Brosophicles]

Yeah, I used Microsoft's Media Creation tool to make it.

Grabbed a shot of the motherboard online and outlined where the M.2 and thermal stickiness is if it helps, plus the screws for some reason, but there's not much you can really see. You can sort of tell/imagine the heatsink/shield (really more of an aesthetic feature) is fairly low to the motherboard and big enough that it blocks vision pretty well around the M.2. It's just bonded to the little M.2 under there... Rather annoying. I assumed when I originally installed it that it was by design, and all would be good if I needed to take it off.

Link

But you mentioned if it creates problems doing a fresh install with 2 drives, one can remedy them after the fact? Could I ask what kind of problems?

 

[dwd999]

Hello,

I'm a bit of a novice builder. I bought a new M.2 SSD because the old one was full, and smaller capacity. I was planning to use the new, faster one as my OS boot drive, and install windows on it with a USB, but the old M.2 with Windows currently on it is still installed, and I'm not sure if it can be removed. It's in an Asus Z-370-E motherboard and is stuck with some adhesive thermal paste to the built in heatsink. While this is pretty crappy design, I unscrewed it and am a bit worried it might actually break if I try to force it. So since the board has 2 M.2 sockets and they're the same speed, I just figured I'd let it win for now, and stay there.

Since the original Windows was installed about 5 years ago, I wanted to do a clean, fresh install. What's the best way to wipe the old drive, convert it to extra storage, and use the new M.2 as my boot drive? Went ahead and backed everything important up on an external, created a USB boot drive, and also downloaded every driver I could think of to the external just in case.

I thought that telling the installer to install on the new M.2 would work, and then I could reformat/delete the partitions on the old one, but worried that it might do something else if both are installed in the board when I try to install. Not sure what that would actually do though, or if it would be a problem.

Appreciate the help.

Since you backed everything up externally you could fake out the windows installer by telling it you want to install on the old m.2 and selecting the Delete All Partitions options, then after they've been deleted you can back out of there or even reboot and go ahead with the installation on the new m.2. Or if you want go all out you could use a utility like Gparted or something specifically designed for disk maintenance to delete all the partitions on the old m.2 before even booting up the windows installer. I generally prefer Gparted since it allows me to verify that all my drives have GPT identifiers before getting involved with Windows.

 

[Brosophicles]

Nevermind! After reading online that installing with two drives in had the potential to brick the thing, I decided to try again and see if I could find an angle to very gently and slowly pull it off from a corner, and it worked after a bit. Sorry for the trouble! And thanks again for the help.

 

[dwd999]

Nevermind! After reading online that installing with two drives in had the potential to brick the thing, I decided to try again and see if I could find an angle to very gently and slowly pull it off from a corner, and it worked after a bit. Sorry for the trouble! And thanks again for the help.

You can't brick it if both (all) drives are blank. That's why I use Gparted to clear out both drives that I have before installing.