Should I upgrade or clean install Windows 10?

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Mechanics55

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I want to upgrade my laptop (Windows 8.1) to Windows 10. I bought it back in early June and have only installed a few pieces of software as listed:

Steam (along with many Steam Games)
Itunes
Microsoft Office Software
Blender
Unity
Adobe Premiere
Word document/files for school
A few other minor programs

Is it better to perform a clean install even with the small amount of data and back up everything, or should I just upgrade?
 
Solution
You need to do the upgrade before you can do a clean install anyway to get your 8.1 key validate for windows 10, so you can do a clean install.
If you've got the time, go ahead and do it. If you run into any software that doesn't work as a result, check for updates to both Windows 10 and the offending program to see if that resolves the problem. If it's still not fixed, you do have 30 days to revert back to 8.1.
 

Mechanics55

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Does my USB drive need to be empty to boot from? I only have one with over 3GB with many files already on it.
 

Mechanics55

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Actually never mind that response.
 

Ranjha Singh

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Jul 29, 2015
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your USB will be i think formatted when you try to make the usb so remove the stuff and put it somewhere else what i did was that i bought external hard drive and store all my stuff from windows 8 because i was going to do clean install and delete everything of old windows
and external hard drives are cheap these days
 

Mechanics55

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Yeah just read about that. Going to just buy a cheap 16GB one.
 

Mechanics55

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Oh and will all my drivers be removed? And if so will my laptop still function properly? I don't want to screw anything up.
 

Ranjha Singh

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what you mean mechanic you are not being clear which drivers if you are going to format and do a clean install yes everything will be gone from previous version.
why would not your laptop function properly once you install windows 10 and then reinstall all your drivers it should work fine in my case i have not found yet touchpad drivers for my laptop i am using a mouse
 

Mechanics55

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Ok can I just backup the drivers I currently have installed before upgrading then?
 

Ranjha Singh

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try it lets see if you are able to use those backed up drivers or not
 
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