Can anyone please help? I am ready to just reinstall windows 10.

[nednerbish]

Okay so for a couple months I've been trying to create it a recovery thumb drive and I get an error message saying that I'm missing files. I get my replacement GPU Tuesday and would like to have this all sorted by then. My C drive I only use for my operating system, Chrome and different tools anti-viruse Trend Micro, Malwarebytes and CCleaner. I also have all the MSI programs that I use. I have an MSI Motherboard. My C drive is an nvme m.2 drive. I use my 4 terabyte hybrid drive for all of my Steam games and music pictures and videos like personal things. I don't really have any documents that I use for work as this is 100% just a gaming computer and internet Surfer. I did download the windows tool and it allowed me to reinstall Windows without deleting any of my files but it still has the issue I can't create the thumb drive as it says I'm missing files. On my C drive, under users, it has six different options. I'm the only one on this computer so I don't know why there's six different users, and the one that I use I needed for something to go in and change it in properties but I only have read and write permissions even though I right click run as administrator. It's like the computer runs on one of the six user accounts and it doesn't have all the permissions that it needs. So then I got upset and started copying and pasting one of them into the other (then undid it) so my C drive is boogered up, i think. But I mean everything runs perfectly fine and nothing slow I mean my computer you would think has nothing wrong with it. All the windows updates or done and completed no fails. So I'm really confused. The C drive also has 3 partitions when I go into it in order left to right the first one is a 450 megabyte healthy recovery partition, the next one is a 99 Mb healthy EFI system partition, then to the right is the 450gb NTFS partition and they all say healthy and the one far to the right says boot, pagefile, crash, dump. Primary Partition. If it's the primary partition should I make that the first one in the row of 3? Would that change things? I don't know a whole lot about computers I've only been at it for a year or so now so I need help and I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts or ideas or suggestions for me. I mean I think my best bet is just to bite the bullet do the full windows media recovery on my flash drive I chose the option create for another PC and just wiping my C drive, do a clean install of win 10 and starting over since there's nothing valuable that I need off of it (if you think this is what i should do, do i need to reformatt C drive? Best way to start w/ clean C drive and win 10???). I can redownload all the anti-viruses and tools that I used. Also through research I did the 2 different admin command prompts one checked for missing files and other for errors, i think. No issues.. I truly would appreciate some feedback if anyone can help me out at all. Thank you very much for reading...

 

[junii]

Just reformat C drive and clear the whole thing, on the windows 10 installation. make sure to remove all partitions off your c drive. I recommend to also remove all extra drives, except for your m.2 drive which im guessing is the one for the OS. Use the windows media creation tool to help you.

 

[nednerbish]

Just reformat C drive and clear the whole thing, on the windows 10 installation. make sure to remove all partitions off your c drive. I recommend to also remove all extra drives, except for your m.2 drive which im guessing is the one for the OS. Use the windows media creation tool to help you.

Ok how do I remove my other drive? Its a sshd. Do i just unplug it? And will that effect it? I did run the win med create tool once but chose 1st option to keep all my data/ files. I right clicked the c drive and clicked format and it said i cant as its currently using the windows im using.

 

[k1114]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from nednerbish : "Anyone plz give me advice? URGENT"

I cannot create a recovery thumb drive. My C drive (which is an nVME m.2 drive, keeps saying i am missing files. I downloaded the windows tool that reinstalls windows allowing you to pick whats to save. I tried the first one where It saves all my info and still have same issue. My replacement gpu is coming tuesday and i am tired of this issue. Under users it shows like 6 or 7 options although im the only user. I also couldn't get admin access to delete some files, only giving me read- write option. I only keep things like OS and different tools on my c drive. My D hybrid drive has all my steam games, music pics...I am thinking of just selecting the option to delete all my data and files and do that install. Should i reformatt c drive if i take that path? Once new gpu gets here it'd be nice to have my C drive in order. I do use c cleaner pro along w paid malwarebytes and trend micro paid antivirus. Those are all on C. So I realize I will have to reinstall everything again so i took pic to remember whats on desktop. Anyone have any info, thoughts or suggestions for me? I also did all the 2 admin command prompts for sysckeck (i forget which ones but there were 2 and checked for missing files or errors) and showed no errors. Plz help if possible, thank you!

 

[junii]

Just reformat C drive and clear the whole thing, on the windows 10 installation. make sure to remove all partitions off your c drive. I recommend to also remove all extra drives, except for your m.2 drive which im guessing is the one for the OS. Use the windows media creation tool to help you.

Ok how do I remove my other drive? Its a sshd. Do i just unplug it? And will that effect it? I did run the win med create tool once but chose 1st option to keep all my data/ files. I right clicked the c drive and clicked format and it said i cant as its currently using the windows im using.

Yea just unplug it out of your pc. and with the media creation tool your gonna have to get a 8 gig flash drive and install windows from the bios blah blah blah. In the start of the installation that way its gonna show you your m.2 drive click on it and click clear and then format and if theres other drives put delete.

 

[nednerbish]

Just reformat C drive and clear the whole thing, on the windows 10 installation. make sure to remove all partitions off your c drive. I recommend to also remove all extra drives, except for your m.2 drive which im guessing is the one for the OS. Use the windows media creation tool to help you.

Ok how do I remove my other drive? Its a sshd. Do i just unplug it? And will that effect it? I did run the win med create tool once but chose 1st option to keep all my data/ files. I right clicked the c drive and clicked format and it said i cant as its currently using the windows im using.

Yea just unplug it out of your pc. and with the media creation tool your gonna have to get a 8 gig flash drive and install windows from the bios blah blah blah. In the start of the installation that way its gonna show you your m.2 drive click on it and click clear and then format and if theres other drives put delete.

I have a 32gb sandisk ultrafit thumb. So i cant just download the win tool to it and select delete all? You're saying I need a second thumb drive to copy win 10 from msi bios?

 

[junii]

no if you have that your fine, just go to the windows media creation tool, install windows on the flash drive then go to bios change the boot order to the usb and delete everything off c

 

[nednerbish]

no if you have that your fine, just go to the windows media creation tool, install windows on the flash drive then go to bios change the boot order to the usb and delete everything off c

Ohh. Ok. Because I downloaded the windows tool that lets you create an installation media for another PC to my USB but I noticed my USB is formatted for FAT32 and I read that if you're using the BIOS it needs to be UEFI? But I think what you're saying is since I have that program downloaded I just run it and this time instead of saying to keep my files and everything to erase everything and then it will prompt me to format my C drive, is that right or no?

 

[USAFRet]

Ohh. Ok. Because I downloaded the windows tool that lets you create an installation media for another PC to my USB but I noticed my USB is formatted for FAT32 and I read that if you're using the BIOS it needs to be UEFI? But I think what you're saying is since I have that program downloaded I just run it and this time instead of saying to keep my files and everything to erase everything and then it will prompt me to format my C drive, is that right or no?

The formatting of your USB install has nothing to do with what ends up being installed on your actual drive.
FAT32 is normal and expected for the USB install media.

How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

 

[nednerbish]

Thank you. Trying now!

 

[nednerbish]

Ohh. Ok. Because I downloaded the windows tool that lets you create an installation media for another PC to my USB but I noticed my USB is formatted for FAT32 and I read that if you're using the BIOS it needs to be UEFI? But I think what you're saying is since I have that program downloaded I just run it and this time instead of saying to keep my files and everything to erase everything and then it will prompt me to format my C drive, is that right or no?

The formatting of your USB install has nothing to do with what ends up being installed on your actual drive.
FAT32 is normal and expected for the USB install media.

How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

Can, and should I do what I says to create a system backup image using Acronis True Image or Macrium Refle? And I could only put it on d drive then unplug it though idk if that's even an option.

 

[USAFRet]

Can, and should I do what I says to create a system backup image using Acronis True Image or Macrium Refle? And I could only put it on d drive then unplug it though idk if that's even an option.

This depends on why you're doing this clean install.
If your current install is having issues, there is no need to create an image of it. You'll just be creating an "image with issues".

By all means, save any and all personal data. But from (trying to) reading your initial post...your system has issues.

Time to start over.

 

[nednerbish]

Ohh. Ok. Because I downloaded the windows tool that lets you create an installation media for another PC to my USB but I noticed my USB is formatted for FAT32 and I read that if you're using the BIOS it needs to be UEFI? But I think what you're saying is since I have that program downloaded I just run it and this time instead of saying to keep my files and everything to erase everything and then it will prompt me to format my C drive, is that right or no?

The formatting of your USB install has nothing to do with what ends up being installed on your actual drive.
FAT32 is normal and expected for the USB install media.

How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

Right. I'm just a little confused yet about my USB as when factory reset it it picks FAT32 and my bios screen for MSI z270 gaming pro carbon shows everything as UEFI. It has boot order and for usb it says UEFI usb SanDisk partition 1. So i guess what I'm asking is before putting the win tool on it if I should format it to UEFI then install the window tool onto it. And for clean install it says to make a
Entire system backup using create an entire system backup image using a utility like Acronis True Image or Macrium Reflect. But I only have my d drive so idk if I'm able to use my d drive, make the image, then disconnect it and run tool. Because like I said my PC is running great, there's just an issue somewhere w files preventing me from making bootable drive. I mean I should have some sort of backup if I run into any issues. Right? Or no.

 

[USAFRet]

You don't put the MediaCreation tool ON the USB.
You use the MediaCreation tool to create the USB Media to install on your hard drive.


So if your system is running OK, what is the reason for making a bootable USB?

 

[nednerbish]

You don't put the MediaCreation tool ON the USB.
You use the MediaCreation tool to create the USB Media to install on your hard drive.


So if your system is running OK, what is the reason for making a bootable USB?

My system says I'm lacking files to create a recovery drive. And in users there's 6users on c drive and I tried to make mine the primary one but it won't let me. It only gives me read-write permission when I run something as administrator. I want to get rid of all these extra users but some things will split their install into different locations. It's weird. I think when I 1st got PC most things we're installing to c drive then I switched to d and only used c for performance things and os... I'm pretty green to PC procedures n stuff. Only 2 r 3 yr ago I took my 2011hp w 6gb ram and put a 30$ pay and 150$ gtx750ti into it and was immediately gaming. Everything I've learned for the most part was from Linus and Jayz2cents

 

[nednerbish]

Yes the media creation tool is on my d drive and if I unplug it then I can't launch it. So put it on c drive?

 

[USAFRet]

Yes the media creation tool is on my d drive and if I unplug it then I can't launch it. So put it on c drive?

1. Obtain a USB stick, 8GB or larger.
2. Run the MediaCreation tool
3. Select "Create Media for a different PC", and tell it the USB stick. Wait until it is done.
4. Disconnect ALL drives except that which you wish the OS to be on.
5. Do a full clean install on that drive, deleting ALL partitions and data on it while you do this.
How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

 

[nednerbish]

Okay so I have a few hiccups along the way but I eventually got everything sorted out and my PC is now completely blank with my C drive only having 31 gigabytes only out of it. So please excuse me being so uninformed about this stuff. But I got it set up for the most part with Cortana and not crap the way I had it before, but what are my next steps now? I just did a restart and it went beautifully super smooth. I just plugged in my SanDisk USB and did a test run of creating a recovery drive and it works now!!! The problem is actually fixed thank you all so much <3. Now for my next barrage of questions LOL what do I do next? What drivers are anything like that do I have to install? I'm guessing I can plug my D drive back in again? I deleted it all the bull crap games and stuff they have pre-installed and then I downloaded Chrome set that as my browser because I'm most comfortable with that even though it uses a lot of system properties but I have 32 gigabytes of RAM in an i7-7700…so it shouldn't be any issue. My graphics card will be here Tuesday so I really don't have to worry about anyting G-Force yet, but do I update any drivers like my motherboard or CPU anything like that?

 

[nednerbish]

Okay so here's one thing I found that I'm curious about and slightly concerned for some reason. When I go into my C drive and click users and then right click on my name and go to properties and then security it says grouper usernames and has my name and then in parentheses that says BRENDEN (DESKTOP-KUKGNOK\BRENDEN) and the second one says Administrators (DESKTOP-KUKGNOK\Adminstrators). I didn't make that name and it almost sounds like a slang term.

 

[nednerbish]

Anyone? Plz...

 

[USAFRet]

Okay so here's one thing I found that I'm curious about and slightly concerned for some reason. When I go into my C drive and click users and then right click on my name and go to properties and then security it says grouper usernames and has my name and then in parentheses that says BRENDEN (DESKTOP-KUKGNOK\BRENDEN) and the second one says Administrators (DESKTOP-KUKGNOK\Adminstrators). I didn't make that name and it almost sounds like a slang term.

\Administrators is not a "slang term"...that is supposed to be there.

"DESKTOP-KUKGNOK\" is also not a slang term. It is that, because you neglected to change it from whatever the OS decided it to be upon installation.
Every system would do that, if you just allow the default.

 

[nednerbish]

Okay so here's one thing I found that I'm curious about and slightly concerned for some reason. When I go into my C drive and click users and then right click on my name and go to properties and then security it says grouper usernames and has my name and then in parentheses that says BRENDEN (DESKTOP-KUKGNOK\BRENDEN) and the second one says Administrators (DESKTOP-KUKGNOK\Adminstrators). I didn't make that name and it almost sounds like a slang term.

\Administrators is not a "slang term"...that is supposed to be there.

"DESKTOP-KUKGNOK\" is also not a slang term. It is that, because you neglected to change it from whatever the OS decided it to be upon installation.
Every system would do that, if you just allow the default.

 

[nednerbish]

That's great news as I thought maybe I downloaded and installed a corrupted file somewhere or did something wrong so I'm relieved to hear that that is normal I should be okay from here on out unless you have any things you think that I need to install now since it's up and running I installed Trend Micro first then Malwarebytes next is CCleaner and then from there I was going to plug back in my D drive. Then download any motherboard or component drivers that I might need. Sound like a plan? Again thank you very much I couldn't have done this without you