- Apr 1, 2024
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I have a Dell 7820 Desktop with a tiny SSD, so I installed a M.2 NVMe on a PCIe card to receive a new Windows 10 installation. However, going through the Forum's Window 10 Clean install Tutorial, the first warning has stopped me from continuing:
This is my daily work computer; so I thought of doing these steps:
1. Build a new Windows 10 install on the new drive I installed, while keeping my current Windows install safe, by booting from a Win10 USB installer, and tell the installer to install it there.
2. Boot from the new M.2 drive, finish drive installation, etc. , if Windows misses something important.
3. Activate Windows, which I thought it would get done easily, as the Windows license there somewhere in the DELL hardware.
3. Do Dell driver updates, tools, etc.
4. Create my user account from scratch on a brand new windows 10 installation residing on the M.2 drive.
This warning that apparently shoots down the above procedure:
Before you begin the installation, whether now or after you create your installation media, it is of utmost importance that you disconnect ALL system attached storage drives EXCEPT for the target drive (Drive you are installing TO) and source drive (Drive you are installing FROM, usually a USB flash drive these days). This is important because we've seen MANY instances of where either the system has decided it does not need to create a new boot, EFI or recovery partition because it sees there is already one present on another drive that may previously have had Windows installed on it, or decides to put it somewhere other than the target drive, and that results in making it impossible to boot into Windows if that partition or the drive is ever removed.
So, my questiong is What is the safest way to build a clean install on M.2 on a somewhat recent DELL (2020)? I'd like to have the option of going back to the old Windows install in case something goes wrong (due to a driver problem supporting a newer M.2 drive, for example, or some other Dell-specific hardware situation). That warning says that may not be possible if the boot options get messed up.
I guess experienced IT people here would know how to safely do it, so I ask for recommendations not really covered in the tutorial.
[Note: Dell has an utility to clone the current installation to another drive, but that includes all user accounts (tons of old stuff that is no longer needed, old windows files, etc). amd it does n't say exaclty what it does, or if support new hardware. I wanted a clean install] For that, Windows creates a recovery image, which I never had to use, but have it updated, in case of SSD failure.]
Thanks,
This is my daily work computer; so I thought of doing these steps:
1. Build a new Windows 10 install on the new drive I installed, while keeping my current Windows install safe, by booting from a Win10 USB installer, and tell the installer to install it there.
2. Boot from the new M.2 drive, finish drive installation, etc. , if Windows misses something important.
3. Activate Windows, which I thought it would get done easily, as the Windows license there somewhere in the DELL hardware.
3. Do Dell driver updates, tools, etc.
4. Create my user account from scratch on a brand new windows 10 installation residing on the M.2 drive.
This warning that apparently shoots down the above procedure:
Before you begin the installation, whether now or after you create your installation media, it is of utmost importance that you disconnect ALL system attached storage drives EXCEPT for the target drive (Drive you are installing TO) and source drive (Drive you are installing FROM, usually a USB flash drive these days). This is important because we've seen MANY instances of where either the system has decided it does not need to create a new boot, EFI or recovery partition because it sees there is already one present on another drive that may previously have had Windows installed on it, or decides to put it somewhere other than the target drive, and that results in making it impossible to boot into Windows if that partition or the drive is ever removed.
So, my questiong is What is the safest way to build a clean install on M.2 on a somewhat recent DELL (2020)? I'd like to have the option of going back to the old Windows install in case something goes wrong (due to a driver problem supporting a newer M.2 drive, for example, or some other Dell-specific hardware situation). That warning says that may not be possible if the boot options get messed up.
I guess experienced IT people here would know how to safely do it, so I ask for recommendations not really covered in the tutorial.
[Note: Dell has an utility to clone the current installation to another drive, but that includes all user accounts (tons of old stuff that is no longer needed, old windows files, etc). amd it does n't say exaclty what it does, or if support new hardware. I wanted a clean install] For that, Windows creates a recovery image, which I never had to use, but have it updated, in case of SSD failure.]
Thanks,
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