Do you need to format the hard drive and make partitions if you're not installing windows onto the hard drive?

[calippoblue]

I have a new ssd and i want to delete everything off the Hard drive and start fresh. When i'm choosing which drive my OS should install to do i need to format my hard drive if i'm installing Windows onto the ssd?

 

[ChumP]

If you don't format your hard drive , you won't be able to see it at all in windows.Your computer will boot into windows ,but you will see only the SSD storage
Although you can format a secondary HDD dieectly from windows using disk management.

 

[terry4536]

Unplug the other hard drives, then install windows. The new SSD will be your primary drive C: . When you plug in the other drives, just format them and you will have a fresh system.

 

[terry4536]

Windows will format the new drive in the installation process with just one partition.

It may give you the option of additional partitions, but the default is one.

 

[calippoblue]

Unplug the other hard drives, then install windows. The new SSD will be your primary drive C: . When you plug in the other drives, just format them and you will have a fresh system.

But cant you choose which drive is used for the OS?

 

[terry4536]

You can but it is a pain. If you just unplug the SATA of the other drives, it forces the system to use it as the primary.

Plus if you do it during the installation and you miss the option it may not install on the one you want.