Do i need to clear my drive before installing windows again?

[horsemeAT]

The title pretty much sums it. I'm having some issues with my PC, (not bad, resolved easily from just a clean install) and i'm going to use the windows media creation tool to do a fresh install of windows on my drive.
Now my PC came with windows 8.1 pre-installed, but since i HAVE upgraded to windows 10 already, it won't download windows 8.1 right?
Also, since i already have windows and everything working on this drive, will i need to do a factory restore before using the media creation tool, or does it clear everything on the drive anyway when i use the creation tool?

 

[Darkbreeze]

This:

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2784691/ditch-problematic-win10-upgrade-replace-clean-install.html


If you want to reinstall Windows 8.1, you can, but you need a valid product key, so if you have your old product key you can use the media creation tool for windows 8.1 and install that rather than 10. Downgrading back to 8.1 is no problem if you know the old key. Otherwise, you're pretty much stuck with 10 which IMO is a better OS anyhow, not that anything was wrong with 8.1 really.


Make sure, either way, to choose the custom option during the installation, then delete all the existing partitions. If you have data on that drive you need to save, you need to back it up first as deleting the partitions during the installation will wipe out everything on the drive. The instructions on how to do the clean install, and actually HAVE a clean install, are linked in that tutorial but also here:


Windows 8: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2299-clean-install-windows-8-a.html

Windows 10: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

 

[horsemeAT]

This:

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2784691/ditch-problematic-win10-upgrade-replace-clean-install.html


If you want to reinstall Windows 8.1, you can, but you need a valid product key, so if you have your old product key you can use the media creation tool for windows 8.1 and install that rather than 10. Downgrading back to 8.1 is no problem if you know the old key. Otherwise, you're pretty much stuck with 10 which IMO is a better OS anyhow, not that anything was wrong with 8.1 really.


Make sure, either way, to choose the custom option during the installation, then delete all the existing partitions. If you have data on that drive you need to save, you need to back it up first as deleting the partitions during the installation will wipe out everything on the drive. The instructions on how to do the clean install, and actually HAVE a clean install, are linked in that tutorial but also here:


Windows 8: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2299-clean-install-windows-8-a.html

Windows 10: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

Thanks for your help, and one more thing. Since doing a clean install will leave my system without any drivers, does that mean i won' t be able to connect to the internet to verify my windows, and download other drivers?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Most hardware, in fact, almost all, will have some form of native driver support in Windows 10, and to a slightly lesser but still present degree in Windows 8.1. It might be advisable to visit your prebuilt system or motherboard product page and download any applicable network adapter or graphics drivers prior to performing the install although with Win10 it's probably not necessary. At least then though, if there is a problem with driver support you already have it covered. Save any downloaded drivers to another source like an external drive or optical disk for use in case you do need it but you likely will not.