Question Do I need to delete all files on target drive before installation of Windows 11 on a new build?

[doug_c]

I'll be installing Windows 11 Home from a USB from Newegg onto my build. The target drive is a 1TB M.2 SSD that was in another PC as a backup drive. It has mostly games and a few other files on it. Do I need to remove all those files before installing Windows 11 on the new system this SSD will be the boot drive for?

I also have a 1TB SATA SSD that will be installed as well, it is brand new and not initialized or formatted yet. Do I have to wait until Windows 11 is installed before installing the second SSD?

 

[zinkles]

Do I need to remove all those files before installing Windows 11 on the new system this SSD will be the boot drive for?

if all those files are in one big partition, you can shrink that partition and make a second partition which you can install windows onto. (if the drive has 2 partitions, and the second partition is empty, you can install windows onto the second partition without any tinkering. [assuming it has sufficient space for a windows install]

deletion is not needed. make sure you select "Custom: Install windows only" when prompted in the setup and if your drive doesn't have 2 partitions already you can do the shrinking and stuff from the installation media itself. when it asks for where to install windows onto, simply select the partition where the data is on, and shrink it. after that you'll get an Unallocated partition. create a new partition from that unallocated partition, then select that partitional as to where windows will be installed and click next. easy.

Refer: Clean installing Windows > Resizing/Formatting partitions

Do I have to wait until Windows 11 is installed before installing the second SSD?

Not necessary, nothing will happen if you put the SSD before installing windows. as long as you chose the correct place where to install windows onto. (adding 2 drives may make it hard to figure out which is which cause both are 1tb)
Ofcourse, please DO NOT put the drive *while* windows is still in the installing screen