Question Reinstalling Windows 10 with new components

Jan 11, 2022
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I'm changing my motherboard and CPU soon and wondering which way to re-install windows is the best option. The motherboard is a new brand, along with my CPU which I'm going from LGA 1200 to LGA 1700. I've seen two ways to re-install windows. First way is by using windows installation media tool to download onto a flash drive, wipe the boot drive, and then reinstall onto the clean drive. Second way is by going into settings>recovery>Reset this PC.

Is there a difference between the two windows re-installation, if so which one of the two would be the best option for during my upgrade process? Also, if the the first way is the best, is wiping the boot drive necessary or just better in the long run?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Your first option, a clean install, is what you want to do.

 
Is there a difference between the two windows re-installation, if so which one of the two would be the best option for during my upgrade process? Also, if the the first way is the best, is wiping the boot drive necessary or just better in the long run?

Yes, there is a difference. Clean install via Media Creation Tool reduces the chances of you later having problems.

But during a clean install, you would not have to manually wipe the drive before starting.

You would instead boot from the USB you made and look for the early screen in the procedure where it shows you all the partitions on the drive, with the opportunity to delete all partitions. Do that....delete all of them. If you have personal data on any of those partitions, back it up elsewhere beforehand.

Windows will do the necessary from then on.

Be sure to have ONLY ONE drive connected before you start.