[SOLVED] Partition Hard Drive Before OS Installation?

[chaoyang]

I ordered a 1TB WD Blue HDD off Amazon the other day and was thinking of fresh installing Windows 10 on it.

However, I am unsure of whether I should first set up and partition the drive before installing with a bootable USB or after?

I kind of want to quarantine everything that was in my old hard drive and not let a possible virus spread to my new one.

Thanks.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

during the windows 10 install you are given the option to partition the drive.

On the screen that says "Where do you want to install windows" it is possible to delete and create partitions. That's when I normally do it.

For the quarantining part, remove your old HDD / SSD from the PC while you install to the 1TB. Only after fully doing windows update etc, installing all drivers etc do you connect up the old drive. (if you even want to do that at all)

 

[alceryes]

What is the exact reasoning behind doing this? If your old drive has a virus (or you think it may have a virus) you should get rid of the virus before doing anything else.

 

[USAFRet]

I ordered a 1TB WD Blue HDD off Amazon the other day and was thinking of fresh installing Windows 10 on it.

However, I am unsure of whether I should first set up and partition the drive before installing with a bootable USB or after?

I kind of want to quarantine everything that was in my old hard drive and not let a possible virus spread to my new one.

Thanks.

No, you do NOT need to do any partitioning beforehand.

If there is data on that drive you wish to keep, you really really need to offload that to somewhere else first.

Then, use the whole drive for the Windows install.
And install with ONLY the one drive physically connected.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[chaoyang]

What is the exact reasoning behind doing this? If your old drive has a virus (or you think it may have a virus) you should get rid of the virus before doing anything else.

My old hard drive is dying; it crashes unexpected every once in a while. I am concern that it might corrupt or damage the new HDD. But I might be too paranoid.

 

[USAFRet]

And if there is virus infected stuff on the other drive, you need to address that now, before you reconnect it with the new drive and OS.

 

[USAFRet]

My old hard drive is dying; it crashes unexpected every once in a while. I am concern that it might corrupt or damage the new HDD. But I might be too paranoid.

That may be just a physically dying drive, that is due for a trip to the recycling center.

 

[TommyTwoTone66]

My old hard drive is dying; it crashes unexpected every once in a while. I am concern that it might corrupt or damage the new HDD. But I might be too paranoid.

Anything important you want to keep you should upload to google drive now before it is too late. Photos, important documents, anything you'd be bummed out to lose. Do it right now!

 

[kanewolf]

The only benefit of partitioning an HDD is that it allows you to more easily move to SSD. A 400GB partition can be moved to a 500GB SSD without having to worry about the other 600GB.

 

[alceryes]

The only benefit of partitioning an HDD is that it allows you to more easily move to SSD. A 400GB partition can be moved to a 500GB SSD without having to worry about the other 600GB.

Most, if not all, of the mfg. partitioning/copying softwares that they allow you to use to move to the SSD look at 'used space' and will ignore the fact that your source drive may be larger than your SSD.

 

[kanewolf]

Most, if not all, of the mfg. partitioning/copying softwares that they allow you to use to move to the SSD look at 'used space' and will ignore the fact that your source drive may be larger than your SSD.

Sure if it is unused. There are WAY too many threads on this board that ask how to put a full 1TB C: drive on a 500GB SSD. By partitioning that 1TB to C: and D: you can simplify it.