Question Upgrading my PC - Help with Windows 11

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JoshTheG

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May 16, 2013
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Hi all,

I have purchased myself some new components to upgrade my PC - A new B550 Motherboard, Ryzen 7 5700x CPU, and some RAM to go along with it.

I am going to use my old SSD(s) and GPU, but I was doing some research and people suggest that I should reinstall Windows 11 because of the mobo/cpu upgrades. I currently have one SSD with my Windows 11 installed as the primary boot drive, and a second SSD that I use for game storage, etc.
,
I am in the process of downloading Windows 11 onto a USB stick - but my main question is how should I go forward putting the fresh installation onto that main SSD (which already has Windows 11), is there a way to delete everything on that SSD (WITHOUT another computer available) or can I do some other option where I don't need to mess with the Windows 11 that is already on that SSD?

Also, it seems that once I do rebuild the PC that I should only connect the SSD which has Windows 11 on it for initial set up, and leave my "storage SSD" unplugged as to not confuse the partition setup?
Thanks for any input.
 
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Yes.

If you need to do a full wipe and reinstall, have only the ONE drive physically connected.
Boot from the USB you are creating, and install...deleting ALL existing partitions in the process.

Later, reconnect any other drives.

This is Win 10, but very very similar for Win 11.

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 forums.tomshardware.com
 
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USAFRet said:
Yes.

If you need to do a full wipe and reinstall, have only the ONE drive physically connected.
Boot from the USB you are creating, and install...deleting ALL existing partitions in the process.

Later, reconnect any other drives.

This is Win 10, but very very similar for Win 11.

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 forums.tomshardware.com
Click to expand...
Thank you, seems pretty straightforward then!
 
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JoshTheG said:
Thank you, seems pretty straightforward then!
Click to expand...

It is and avoids complications further down the road. It seems myself and @USAFRet say this a lot on these boards. The reason we say it is because if you have your storage drive attached when installing Windows, even when you tell it not to go near your storage drive during install, the installer will still put crucial boot files on it. I'm surprised Microsoft still allow this to happen. But if it does this and puts boot files onto your storage drive and not the main one, if you remove the storage drive then Windows tends not to want to boot.

I'm dual booting Windows 10 and 11 on separate SSDs, both were the only drive upon install. I also have a 3rd drive, the smaller W10 drive that I cloned to a larger one, I could boot off that if need be but I'll be replacing that with a 2TB SATA drive for game storage. But if I wanted to, I could remove any one of those drives and the others will still boot fine because each OS's boot files are on the one drive each OS is installed to.
 
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John Chesterfield said:
The reason we say it is because if you have your storage drive attached when installing Windows, even when you tell it not to go near your storage drive during install, the installer will still put crucial boot files on it.
Click to expand...
Funnily enough, we've had people here who categorically state that this cannot happen.
No way, no how, never ever.

Then, I point them at one or more threads, and laugh.
 
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USAFRet said:
Funnily enough, we've had people here who categorically state that this cannot happen.
No way, no how, never ever.

Then, I point them at one or more threads, and laugh.
Click to expand...

Some people say a lot of things around here and state it as fact before doing their homework. Luckily their misinformation is quickly corrected by other posters.

For the OP, the advice you gave is the absolute best way to clean install. Fact.
 
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John Chesterfield said:
Some people say a lot of things around here and state it as fact before doing their homework. Luckily their misinformation is quickly corrected by other posters.

For the OP, the advice you gave is the absolute best way to clean install. Fact.
Click to expand...
What are the options I have for my "browsing history" after the clean install? I did an export of all my saved Chrome passwords (and hope I can import them back afterwards) - but I feel there will inevitably be a few that are missed. I would assume my entire Chrome browser will likely be fresh as well? Such as all bookmarked pages.
 
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JoshTheG said:
What are the options I have for my "browsing history" after the clean install? I did an export of all my saved Chrome passwords (and hope I can import them back afterwards) - but I feel there will inevitably be a few that are missed. I would assume my entire Chrome browser will likely be fresh as well? Such as all bookmarked pages.
Click to expand...
Look for the Export function of your browser(s). Whatever they include, that is what you can Import to the new browser install.
 
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Not to beat a dead horse, here so proper sequence of assembly for this would be to assemble my PC, with an empty m.2 install windows11 and then once up and running I can install my old m.2 with that copy of windows and my personal files?

Only asking because of previous comments saying "IF" I need to do a reinstall of windows. However, I already have windows 11 on a m.2 with all my other files.
 
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instawookie said:
Not to beat a dead horse, here so proper sequence of assembly for this would be to assemble my PC, with an empty m.2 install windows11 and then once up and running I can install my old m.2 with that copy of windows and my personal files?

Only asking because of previous comments saying "IF" I need to do a reinstall of windows. However, I already have windows 11 on a m.2 with all my other files.
Click to expand...
Your drive with an existing Win 11 install may or may not boot up.

MUCH better to do a clean install on a blank drive in the new system.

The existing OS on the old drive is null and void. Of no use.


Also, it is much preferred to copy your personal files OFF the old drive first, while it is still in its original working system.
Copy them to something else.

Putting that drive in, you'll likely run into permissions issues trying to access the files in that OS and user libraries.
 
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USAFRet said:
Your drive with an existing Win 11 install may or may not boot up.

MUCH better to do a clean install on a blank drive in the new system.

The existing OS on the old drive is null and void. Of no use.


Also, it is much preferred to copy your personal files OFF the old drive first, while it is still in its original working system.
Copy them to something else.

Putting that drive in, you'll likely run into permissions issues trying to access the files in that OS and user libraries.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the pointers, hopefully all goes smooth.
 
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