Fresh installation of Windows on new NVMe in old PC

[Acornbread]

Hi folks. I've recently upgraded my GPU & CPU (thank you to all the kind folks here for assistance and advice!), and in the process caught a bit of the old CUD. I've now also gotten a shiny new 4tb NVMe. Here is my plan:

• I want to do a clean installation of Windows 11 on this new drive and make it my primary drive. I'm currently still on Windows 10 but my PC and OS installation is now 4 years old, so I don't want to upgrade and clone or anything like that, I want a clean slate. I'm in the process of creating a bootable USB with the Win 11 installation, no problem there.

I currently have a 1tb NVMe as my primary system drive with OS and programs, games, etc. and another 2tb NVMe as a storage drive with all manner of files (nothing is installed here). My questions:

1. Can I simply install the new 4tb drive in the place of the current 1tb, boot from USB and install Win 11, without formatting the new drive? Does the Win 11 installation onto the new drive give me the option to format the drive?
2. Do I need to temporarily remove my 2nd current 2tb drive, install Win 11 and only put the 2nd drive in afterwards? This is what I'm reading online: apparently if I don't, Windows will leave unnecessary traces of itself on the 2nd drive, which I don't want.

If there is anything else I should look out for during this process? My PC was put together by a trusted friend so this will be my first time installing an OS & drive from scratch.

 

[Areola Grande]

Windows will handle the partitioning, formatting and installation automatically. To be 100% safe, you could remove the existing drives so that you don't accidentally format your existing drive. Depends how confident you're feeling about the installation process.

As for Win11 leaving traces on other drives, I don't know. I haven't experienced anything like that personally, but I've only done about 6 Win 11 installations so far so it's possible I haven't noticed it.

Not much to look out for really. I assume you have a license key. If not, make sure to do the installation without any internet connection, otherwise it will force you to login to a Microsoft account. Not necessarily a problem, but it's an additional step you can skip. Make sure to do all Windows and drivers updates after installation, before installing games and whatnot. Just for system stability.

 

[Acornbread]

Windows will handle the partitioning, formatting and installation automatically. To be 100% safe, you could remove the existing drives so that you don't accidentally format your existing drive. Depends how confident you're feeling about the installation process.

As for Win11 leaving traces on other drives, I don't know. I haven't experienced anything like that personally, but I've only done about 6 Win 11 installations so far so it's possible I haven't noticed it.

Not much to look out for really. I assume you have a license key. If not, make sure to do the installation without any internet connection, otherwise it will force you to login to a Microsoft account. Not necessarily a problem, but it's an additional step you can skip. Make sure to do all Windows and drivers updates after installation, before installing games and whatnot. Just for system stability.

Thank you!

I've read and been told that I should format my new drive through the BIOS, before I start the Win 11 installation, but you're saying the installation itself will handle that?

I have a digital license. My PC is connected to the internet via wifi, will the Win 11 installation handle those drivers and allow me to login to my Microsoft account to verify the license? Hopefully I don't need to pull out an ethernet cable.

 

[Areola Grande]

Thank you!

I've read and been told that I should format my new drive through the BIOS, before I start the Win 11 installation, but you're saying the installation itself will handle that?

I have a digital license. My PC is connected to the internet via wifi, will the Win 11 installation handle those drivers and allow me to login to my Microsoft account to verify the license? Hopefully I don't need to pull out an ethernet cable.

I don't know who told you to do that but I assume they have substance abuse problems. Just let Windows handle the format etc.

It will automatically setup WiFi and allow you to connect, so you can just do the login as part of the installation if you like. Windows will install basic drivers as part of the installation. Once Windows itself has booted, just run Microsoft update and install all updated. Also click the "Additional Updates" option and select the drivers there.

Then you'll need to download the latest nVidia/Radeon drivers for your GPU if you want GeForce Experience/Adrenaline and all of that.

 

[aiccc]

For safety, would remove all drives from the pc.

Ppl can format the wrong drive.

 

[goldfritter]

The "traces" situation would become apparent if you install Windows on this new drive without removing the old one, and then later on you do end up removing the old drive - the PC could refuse to boot.

If you're switching out hardware anyway there isn't any real reason not to remove the old drive for the duration of the installation.

Are you planning on formatting the old drive? I'd consider doing so, it can be very annoying to try delete the Windows folders from the old drive on a new installation, if you want to use that space.

Windows 11 is clever enough to connect to WiFi during the installation. You shouldn't need the ethernet cable.

Ps. I've never heard of formatting a drive using BIOS. Is that even possible? I've always just used the Windows installer.

 

[Acornbread]

I don't know who told you to do that but I assume they have substance abuse problems. Just let Windows handle the format etc.

It will automatically setup WiFi and allow you to connect, so you can just do the login as part of the installation if you like. Windows will install basic drivers as part of the installation. Once Windows itself has booted, just run Microsoft update and install all updated. Also click the "Additional Updates" option and select the drivers there.

Then you'll need to download the latest nVidia/Radeon drivers for your GPU if you want GeForce Experience/Adrenaline and all of that.

The BIOS drive formatting thing has come up a few times but I'm glad it's unnecessary. 😂

 

[Acornbread]

The "traces" situation would become apparent if you install Windows on this new drive without removing the old one, and then later on you do end up removing the old drive - the PC could refuse to boot.

Thanks, this is good to know and scary enough to ensure I will definitely be removing all other drives.

Are you planning on formatting the old drive? I'd consider doing so, it can be very annoying to try delete the Windows folders from the old drive on a new installation, if you want to use that space.

I'm putting it in an enclosure and giving it to my girlfriend to use with her MacBook to expand the dismal internal storage, it'll be very useful for her. 🙏

Ps. I've never heard of formatting a drive using BIOS. Is that even possible? I've always just used the Windows installer.

Apparently it is, I was going to check but you guys have saved me the hassle. 😝

 

[Areola Grande]

Yea no, there is no way to format a hard drive through the BIOS. Perhaps they meant through a DOS prompt, like using FDisk or something? That was valid advice 15 years ago, but these days you'd just let Windows handle it.

 

[Ageless_ZA]

Yea no, there is no way to format a hard drive through the BIOS.

incorrect, Quite a few BIOS will give you the option to format the NVMe in NVMe options. ie a low level zero write or wipe.

But yes as previously stated this is not needed if you are already removing the existing OS drive with its secure boot info. If it was remaining in the PC, you would wipe the drive in Windows setup anyways to delete all of its contents.

 

[Acornbread]

incorrect, Quite a few BIOS will give you the option to format the NVMe in NVMe options. ie a low level zero write or wipe.

But yes as previously stated this is not needed if you are already removing the existing OS drive with its secure boot info. If it was remaining in the PC, you would wipe the drive in Windows setup anyways to delete all of its contents.

Thanks for the clarification, I was a bit confused after this discussion and seeing several sites mentioning very specific steps to do this.

 

[Rickster]

Tip, If you want to skip signing in to a MS account on first launch, enter no@thankyou.com with a random password and click next, it will give you an error then it will ask do you want to create a local account.

 

[Acornbread]

Tip, If you want to skip signing in to a MS account on first launch, enter no@thankyou.com with a random password and click next, it will give you an error then it will ask do you want to create a local account.

I have a digital license so not worried about that. Is there any advantage to doing what you've suggested?

 

[goldfritter]

I have a digital license so not worried about that. Is there any advantage to doing what you've suggested?

If you're going to log into that account anyway, there's no real benefit to skipping signing in during installation.

Windows consistently patches out the workarounds to signing in during instalation, so people's suggestions may not work with newer versions of the installer anyway.

 

[Areola Grande]

incorrect, Quite a few BIOS will give you the option to format the NVMe in NVMe options. ie a low level zero write or wipe.

But yes as previously stated this is not needed if you are already removing the existing OS drive with its secure boot info. If it was remaining in the PC, you would wipe the drive in Windows setup anyways to delete all of its contents.

Hmm thanks, didn't know that and my brief Googling confirmed it to be so. Confirmation bias is a beatch.

 

[Rickster]

I have a digital license so not worried about that. Is there any advantage to doing what you've suggested?

Home users, not so much but when i have to do it for clients none of them have MS accounts. I'm not going to waste more time in a dodgy area just to setup MS accounts for them. So i use the "exploit", create a local account and then GTFO.

 

[Acornbread]

Thanks to everyone for the help. Everything went smoothly.

Just want to mention something interesting that I found online while formatting new hard drives... Allegedly, if you have more than 1 NVMe in your system, you want to clean install Windows on one of them and you don't want to have to remove the others for the installation, you can simply format the other drive/s as MBR instead of the more modern GPT. Win 10/11 won't recognize the others due to the legacy format and will leave them alone. If anyone else can verify this it may help someone one day.

 

[JollyJamma]

Thanks to everyone for the help. Everything went smoothly.

Just want to mention something interesting that I found online while formatting new hard drives... Allegedly, if you have more than 1 NVMe in your system, you want to clean install Windows on one of them and you don't want to have to remove the others for the installation, you can simply format the other drive/s as MBR instead of the more modern GPT. Win 10/11 won't recognize the others due to the legacy format and will leave them alone. If anyone else can verify this it may help someone one day.

Never had that issue and I've always had a ton of SSDs connected to my system for multiple OS installations including Linux and OSX.

The only thing that I've found to be a pain is when I need to do a multiboot and the EFI partition doesn't see another install and you need to increase the size of the EFI partition to do some mods but that's advanced stuff and Windows is pretty good at setting other Windows installations.

You can just disable a drive in the BIOS instead of manually removing them but up to you - I've always removed other drives before doing a windows installation but Windows can do stupid shit sometimes and "adopt" another drive as a backup and recovery drive and bye bye data.

Upgrade your current Windows 10 installation to Windows 11 if you can, that way the system is registered with MS as having Win 11 and will auto-activate.

 

[Acornbread]

You can just disable a drive in the BIOS instead of manually removing them but up to you - I've always removed other drives before doing a windows installation but Windows can do stupid shit sometimes and "adopt" another drive as a backup and recovery drive and bye bye data.

Oh that's good to know, less hassle.

Upgrade your current Windows 10 installation to Windows 11 if you can, that way the system is registered with MS as having Win 11 and will auto-activate.

I did a fresh install of Win 11 on a new drive and the digital license on my MS account carried over no problem.