How to properly uninstall and reinstall OS on SSD???

[okini55]

Hello everyone!

This is a long post so please bear with me!

So quite recently I built a new rig and kept my two corsair SSDs and my PSU from my former rig. However I only formated my SSD with my games on it, without actually uninstalling anything which was really stupid I guess? And the SSD with windows on it I just moved to my new rig without formating.

The reason being is that I just thought I'll install a new fresh copy of windows on my old SSD. The setup process formats the disk anyway so I thought it wouldnt be an issue.

However when I was going to boot from a windows USB I accidently booted into my old SSD. And to my surprise it actually booted into windows but since it was on a completely new rig everything was laggy as hell. It was unusable.

So I thought whatever i'll just install a fresh copy from the USB but guess what?.... Piece of <mod edit> (sorry) didn't work. Everytime I boot the USB from bios I just get a error message on a black screen. I dont really remember what it says but its something about it entering 'grub rescue mode' or w/e. I dont understand anything of it.

Keep in mind that I installed windows through USBs on computers like a billion times so I know how to do it and it have ALWAYS worked until now.

But then I got the brilliant idea to put my old HDD in it which had a windows installation file on it so I could just boot into my old windows and install it that way. But guess what? after installing a fresh copy of windows everything was still laggy as hell. It was completely unusable.

So then I thought ill just install Ubuntu instead. But despite installing it on my other SSD the same problems persisted. Through ubuntu however I formated my other SSD with windows on it and tried ubuntu on that but still same problem.

Then I bought a completely new samsung SSD, removed my two old ones and installed ubuntu on that one and now finally the lag is over. I got other problems, for example ubuntu doesnt detect my monitor so I cant change my screen res but other than that it works great it doesnt lag and it runs smooth and fast just as it should. But now im scared <mod edit> of destroying my new SSD. So before I do anything, before I uninstall ubuntu or install windows on it I need to know how to do it properly and what exactly I did wrong last time.

Why did my two old SSD get <mod edit> up? was it because I didnt clean them properly before putting them in a new rig? Was it because I formated them? I just did a quick format btw not a full format.

Or was it something else? And last question are my two old SSDs FUBAR?

I will be forever grateful to anyone who helps me I really really need help!

And if anyone thinks im retarded yeah I agree I often act impulsive and dont think things through before I do something and if my old SSDs are destroyed beyond repair its OK the important thing now is to not mess up my new one it cost me a ton of money.

<Second warning for language>
<There will be no further warnings>

 

[Colif]

did the 1st ssd you put in new PC that booted, but was slow, have linux on it? trying to work out why grub rescue mode showed up. I have never seen that.

Are the specs in your equipment list old or new? if old, what motherboard you have now? what brand are the two old ssd?

you generally don't need to format ssd before moving to new PC, nor would the formats themselves done anything I can think of. If it is Win 10, you can even move the hdd and run it on another PC though as you found, its not always a good idea.

had you installed latest drivers for motherboard? as that could explain slowness, but not the grub rescue mode.. i got nothing on why it came up.

 

[okini55]

did the 1st ssd you put in new PC that booted, but was slow, have linux on it? trying to work out why grub rescue mode showed up. I have never seen that.

Are the specs in your equipment list old or new? if old, what motherboard you have now? what brand are the two old ssd?

you generally don't need to format ssd before moving to new PC, nor would the formats themselves done anything I can think of. If it is Win 10, you can even move the hdd and run it on another PC though as you found, its not always a good idea.

had you installed latest drivers for motherboard? as that could explain slowness, but not the grub rescue mode.. i got nothing on why it came up.

New rig
http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/datorkomponenter/236495-webhallen_upgrade_kit_i5

New SSD
http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/datorkomponenter/208492-samsung_ssd_850_evo_ssd_500gb

Old SSD
http://www.webhallen.com/se-sv/datorkomponenter/134951-corsair_intern_ssd_120gb_force_3_series_sata_iii_25

No the old one did not have linux on it when I moved it to the new PC. I installed linux later and BTW linux was perfectly and is still perfectly bootable from a USB but for some reason windows isnt.

And what is that grub rescue thing anyway?

Thank you for answering!

 

[Colif]

where did you get the win 10 installer from? Did you download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

grub rescue mode seems to tie into Ubuntu which seems prescient of it, knowing you would go there next before you did... I still don't know why it appeared

Grub is the boot loader for linux I think... yep: http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/definition/GRUB-GRand-Unified-Bootloader

http://askubuntu.com/questions/228763/how-to-delete-grub-entirely-from-grub-rescue-and-boot-windows-only

So it ignored USB with windows on it but it saw the Ubuntu one.. that is clever. Does Ubuntu use Uefi or legacy boot? (I don't know much about linux). Might need to look through your manual and look at the boot tab, or on front page with boot priority. You might need to set the USB up as UEFI as per the 2nd drive in picture below

 

[okini55]

where did you get the win 10 installer from? Did you download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

grub rescue mode seems to tie into Ubuntu which seems prescient of it, knowing you would go there next before you did... I still don't know why it appeared

Grub is the boot loader for linux I think... yep: http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/definition/GRUB-GRand-Unified-Bootloader

http://askubuntu.com/questions/228763/how-to-delete-grub-entirely-from-grub-rescue-and-boot-windows-only

So it ignored USB with windows on it but it saw the Ubuntu one.. that is clever. Does Ubuntu use Uefi or legacy boot? (I don't know much about linux). Might need to look through your manual and look at the boot tab, or on front page with boot priority. You might need to set the USB up as UEFI as per the 2nd drive in picture below

Sorry I forgot to mention that I use windows 7.

Now I tried again to install windows 7 from a usb.

The black screen first said something like:
"There is no operating system on this device. Boot from a device with an operating system
Press any key to restart"

Something in the lines of that. So I pressed a key and next the grub rescue <mod edit> popped up.

So now I'm really confused do you think there is something wrong with my motherboard? But then again, booting Linux from a USB works perfectly fine.

I really don't understand this problem and I am totally clueless on how to resolve it.

 

[Colif]

Go here, choose win 7 from drop down, look in manuals and download the win 7 setup Guide as I am curious what it is

This link may help solve part of your problem. Win 7 and Z170 motherboards are fun... what USB slots were you using?

can you show me a screen shot of your boot priority? Curious if that is where grub comes from.

See how you go with those 2 links, Asus are trying to help you

 

[okini55]

Go here, choose win 7 from drop down, look in manuals and download the win 7 setup Guide as I am curious what it is

This link may help solve part of your problem. Win 7 and Z170 motherboards are fun... what USB slots were you using?

can you show me a screen shot of your boot priority? Curious if that is where grub comes from.

See how you go with those 2 links, Asus are trying to help you

Thank you so much for your help so far mate! In the Z170 motherboard setup guide it says something about putting in a disk in the pc to install or run some kind of USB drivers before installing win 7. I will try that first and we'll see how it works. I'll get back to you as soon as possible and once again thank you for taking time and effort to helping me!

 

[Colif]

i think you can put those drivers on another usb and just navigate to them during the install (Or I am thinking of something else)

you can't install drivers before win 7 installed, but I think you can put them on the installer - it will all be in the links

NP, I wish i had thought to look on Asus site the night before, I was probably tired

 

[okini55]

Go here, choose win 7 from drop down, look in manuals and download the win 7 setup Guide as I am curious what it is

This link may help solve part of your problem. Win 7 and Z170 motherboards are fun... what USB slots were you using?

can you show me a screen shot of your boot priority? Curious if that is where grub comes from.

See how you go with those 2 links, Asus are trying to help you

The second link is the same as the user guide so I did just that. I put in the motherboard dvd that came with it and booted it. I got some kind of long message on the screen but it was no error message this time. After that I tried booting with the windows USB again but it didnt work :/ This is exactly what the screen says:

An operating system wasn't found. Try disconnecting any drives that dont contain operating system.
Press any key to restart.

After that:
error: no such device: ba2af1c5-cb9e-4f3a-a028-823b8d531b7e
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>_

Thats what happens ;/ So do I have a faulty motherboard or what? 🙁

I will post my boot loader in next post.

 

[Colif]

what you do is

Insert win 7 installer into USB slot
insert the Asus support DVD into the optical drive
start PC and hold F8 during POST
Select the Win 7 installer as boot device
the USB 3 driver will be loaded automatically during installation startup
install win 7

that is what the two links say to do in method 1

Soon, if i can't work this out I will get more help...

 

[okini55]

what you do is

Insert win 7 installer into USB slot
insert the Asus support DVD into the optical drive
start PC and hold F8 during POST
Select the Win 7 installer as boot device
the USB 3 driver will be loaded automatically during installation startup
install win 7

that is what the two links say to do in method 1

Soon, if i can't work this out I will get more help...

Did exactly that and still same issue. Funny things I tried the bootable windows USB with 3 different USB sticks. I tried both making them bootable manually through the CMD and with software and still nothing works. I am totally clueless. I still dont understand how linux works with USB but not windows. I mean when linux boots through USB doesn't it go through same procedures as the windows USB does?. Maybe I should try with windows 10???

 

[Colif]

where did you get win 7 from? https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows7

Are you making the usb using Rufus? http://www.techverse.net/how-to-create-a-bootable-usb-pen-drive-for-windows-7/

Win 10 probably easier to install but expensive if you don't have a licence for it.

I have asked for a 2nd opinion, I am probably missing something....

 

[okini55]

where did you get win 7 from? https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/software-download/windows7

Are you making the usb using Rufus? http://www.techverse.net/how-to-create-a-bootable-usb-pen-drive-for-windows-7/

Win 10 probably easier to install but expensive if you don't have a licence for it.

I have asked for a 2nd opinion, I am probably missing something....

I have used Rufus to make a linux USB and that worked perfectly fine.

To make a win7 usb I followed this guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFJwiILbsdo

And it ALWAYS worked until I got this new PC.

So now I will try making a win7 USB with Rufus. Before I used another software 'Windows 7 USB download tool'.

 

[Colif]

first fix here might work, seems a work around: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/3h8vk0/build_help_installing_windows_7_on_skylake_z170/

Might want to turn fast boot off
do you have secure boot turned off? it needs to be for win 7 though if you using UBuntu already, it might be now - https://www.all4os.com/windows/disable-asus-motherboards-uefi-secure-boot.html
OS type (under secure boot) should be Other OS

I can't see anything else in Your manual that is obvious.

 

[okini55]

first fix here might work, seems a work around: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/3h8vk0/build_help_installing_windows_7_on_skylake_z170/

Might want to turn fast boot off
do you have secure boot turned off? it needs to be for win 7 though if you using UBuntu already, it might be now - https://www.all4os.com/windows/disable-asus-motherboards-uefi-secure-boot.html
OS type (under secure boot) should be Other OS

I can't see anything else in Your manual that is obvious.

This is just increadible. Even now I have problems I mean I dont even know what to say anymore. Building this pc has been hell from the very first day I hate this motherboard more than I hated anything or anyone in my life.

Ive built many pcs with asus mobos and never had any problems but this one omg.... Now im not really sure if this issue is related to my mobo but what would it else be.

Now I payed loads of money to buy windows 10 and guess what. I can't install it because it says it doesnt support my partitioning type or whatever. it only supports NTFS apperantly and I have GPT I think. So now again I dont have any idea what to do. I havent formated my samsung 850 ssd yet. I just have linux on it but that shouldnt prevent me from installing windows right? I mean it does support dual boot doenst it. Do you have any idea how I format to NTFS?

 

[Colif]

Win 10 wants GPT. What you do at that stage of install is delete all the partitions on the ssd - leave it as unallocated space, and then click next. Win 10 will create 4 Partitions. Its all in step 13 of the guide I gave you: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

 

[Colif]

i understand how you felt, i did same last year. I have installed Windows on every PC from 98 to now and Win 10 was only time I found it wouldn't just let me delete the C drive and reinstall, as I had upgraded from 7 and it uses MBR. Win 10 will insist on GPT format if PC has a UEFI, and isn't set to legacy boot. Suddenly I delete C and PC says, nope, can't install on here and I am like what??

I felt lost as PC wouldn't let me put win 10 on it even though it just had it. I somehow managed to work out deleting all the partitions was needed, and after a few restarts it decided to let me continue. I messed up still and managed to only have 1 partition, not the usual 4.

 

[madmatt30]

You have disconnected all the drives physically apart from the one you want the windows install on ??

 

[Colif]

Good point, i may have missed that along way... otherwise win 10 might decide to use the other ssd as the place to put its boot sector. Seems I did forget that bit.

been a battle to this point just getting PC to accept windows.

 

[okini55]

Good point, i may have missed that along way... otherwise win 10 might decide to use the other ssd as the place to put its boot sector. Seems I did forget that bit.

been a battle to this point just getting PC to accept windows.

Hey man!

I finally finally managed to get windows 10 up and running. Im typing this from my new PC 😀 !!!
I really hope that its going to work properly now but it seems so.

I want to thank you so very very much for putting all your time and effort helping me! I would never be able to do this by myself. Even though the solution was really easy haha. I just deleted the partition just as you said and installed.

Thanks again!

 

[Colif]

I am happy its fixed too... have fun