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Completely Clean Install of Windows 10 - MCT USB Method

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12 views

Completely Clean Install of Windows 10 - MCT USB Method

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aetjrtjsd
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[Last Update: 4/9/2022]

Doing a Completely Clean Install of Windows 10 or 11


Using the Media Creation Tool to Create a Bootable USB Drive

NOTE: If you want to be absolutely certain that only the existing Windows operating
system disk can be selected when doing a reinstall, disconnect all other drives, internal or
external, except your USB installation drive, prior to starting. This is not a bad idea,
anyway, as it eliminates the potential for selecting the incorrect drive when using the
diskpart command, below.

1. Download the Windows Media Creation Tool (MCT) for whichever version of Windows it is
you intend to (re)install. These are available from the
a. Windows 10 Download Page
b. Windows 11 Download Page

2. Run the MCT and choose the option to download media for another computer. The MCT
defaults the language and architecture to match that of the machine running the tool. If you
need to change either one for your target machine then uncheck the checkbox that controls
this and tweak the dropdown for language and/or architecture [32-bit or 64-bit] appropriately.
When you arrive at the dialog that prompts for what you want to download, elect to create a
bootable USB flash drive.

3. Boot your system from the USB flash drive. [Since I don’t know what UEFI or BIOS you’re
using it’s up to you to find out how to change the boot device order on your machine to put the
USB drive first in the boot order].

4. If this is a fresh install on a machine that has never had any operating system on it, and you
are not using a drive that’s previously been used elsewhere, you can skip this step and move
along to Step 5. Otherwise, when you get to the screen that asks for language, press Shift + F10
(or the Applications/Context Menu key if your keyboard has it) to open a Command Prompt or
PowerShell session (depending on how your system is configured). Type the following
commands:

diskpart (you will likely get a UAC prompt for diskpart, answer, “Yes,” of course)

list disk

select disk X Where X is the disk number on which you wish to install Windows 10/11.
This is usually 0, as that’s what’s used as the default boot drive number
on most systems. That being said, make absolutely sure you have the
correct number as the next step will wipe the disk of all partitions.

clean or clean all Purges the disk of all existing partitions


IMPORTANT NOTE: The choice of clean versus clean all is based
on why you are doing the reinstall. If it’s for yourself or someone
else who will be keeping the machine, use clean. This clears the
drive of all existing partitions, but does not literally wipe the drive
by overwriting its existing contents. A clean all also overwrites
drive’s contents, and takes much, much longer to complete as a
result. Count on approximately 2.5 hours per 500 GB capacity on
a HDD, at least. It could be longer. I only use clean all when the
machine is being donated or given to someone else and you
need to be absolutely certain that there is no way to recover
the data that was on the drive.

convert gpt Initializes the disk as GPT required for booting on a UEFI motherboard. If
you get an error ignore it. If and only if you know you have a legacy
system that uses BIOS, use convert mbr instead of convert gpt.

exit (to close diskpart)

exit (to close Command Prompt or PowerShell)

5. The install will now continue; answer any prompts appropriately. When you get to the
screen asking on which disk you wish install Windows, activate the Next button. The Windows
installer will automatically partition and format the drive (using the boot type you previously
specified in the convert command above if you needed to perform Step 4, otherwise it will
figure things out as part of the install to an uninitialized drive based upon the hardware
configuration you have).

Important: If you get through the install to where you’ve answered “Custom” (which is your
only choice for a completely clean install, as you’ve wiped anything that previously existed and
cannot choose to work on an existing installation) you can walk away and let the install
complete. BUT, be aware that because you’ve changed the boot order, after the install
completes successfully the system will reboot from the USB thumb drive, which makes it look
like you’ve circled right back to where you started. You haven’t, really, just remove the USB
drive, restart the computer, and as part of that get back in to UEFI/BIOS and change your boot
order such that your HDD/SSD is the first boot device.

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