Old HDD in new Build.

[Skivington102]

So I am upgrading my PC very soon and plan to use the same 3TB HDD that i currently use. as it is a pre built and i am changing the motherboard i will not be able to use the same copy of windows. how do i go about clearing the hard drive to do this?

Thanks in advance

 

[USAFRet]

So I am upgrading my PC very soon and plan to use the same 3TB HDD that i currently use. as it is a pre built and i am changing the motherboard i will not be able to use the same copy of windows. how do i go about clearing the hard drive to do this?

Thanks in advance

Directly in the Windows install routine

Boot from your install media
When it asks 'where', Custom
Delete ALL existing partitions
Format it as GPT
Install to that single space.

 

[ConorBenstead]

I used DBAN (http://www.dban.org/). Probably a bit OTT but did the job for me, be sure to give it around 24 hours.