Clean Windows 10 Install Questions

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FenFox

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 20, 2016
Messages
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1.) Dumb question, but do you always need to change the boot order in your BIOS or within Windows to the USB flash drive or can you just plug the flash drive in and restart? I could have sworn this actually worked for me once.


2.) There seems to be different steps to install Windows if you're on UEFI or Legacy.


a.) Legacy involves setting the boot order to your USB flash drive within the BIOS?


b.) UEFI involves setting the boot order within Windows 10
Settings --> Update & Security --> Recovery --> Restart Now


Then: Troubleshoot --> Advanced Options --> UEFI Firmware Settings --> Restart --> Set boot order to start from the USB media.


Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-do-clean-installation-windows-10


3.) How do I know for sure if using UEFI/GPT or Legacy/MBR? I can set my boot to Ultrafast, so I assume UEFI/GPT?


4.) With the Media Creation Tool I guess if you download Windows 10, you can use it to select Windows 10 Pro with it?


5.) Does MS ever make changes to the media creation tool? Like if I were to put it on a USB flash drive today and I only need to use it like a year or two later am I fine to use it or am I going to want to put a newer version on my flash drive?


6.) Does anyone here use Rufus on a USB? I think I had to use it once because the MS Media Creation tool wasn't working and Rufus downloads an ISO to create a bootable USB flash media from?
 
The latest windows 10 iso file is bigger than 4gb thus no longer MBR friendly.

I recently installed windows 10 pro 1903 and media creation tool (freshly downloaded) gave me errors on creating the usb (after downloading the iso, just before copying to usb). So I had to change my browsers id to linux and trick ms to serve me the iso file :D Then I used rufus to create the usb disk, upon selecting the iso file, rufus set filesystem to GPT.

Here it may get a bit confusing. My previous install was MBR thus the disk was MBR. The new setup on the rufus created usb said it can not install on the selected drive (Kingston SSD) I deleted the main partition, leaving the 100mb alone. It didn't work, i deleted the remaining 100mb partition too and then it let me install. The result was a GPT disk.
 
Since my computer is only a month old, in Rufus, should I use: GPT/UEFI/NTFS? Or does it not matter if It's FAT32?

Also, I notice when looking at my C drive (1 TB SSD), that It's set to MBR Partition. I have no idea why that would be.
 
FenFox said:
1.) Dumb question, but do you always need to change the boot order in your BIOS or within Windows to the USB flash drive or can you just plug the flash drive in and restart? I could have sworn this actually worked for me once.


2.) There seems to be different steps to install Windows if you're on UEFI or Legacy.


a.) Legacy involves setting the boot order to your USB flash drive within the BIOS?


b.) UEFI involves setting the boot order within Windows 10
Settings --> Update & Security --> Recovery --> Restart Now


Then: Troubleshoot --> Advanced Options --> UEFI Firmware Settings --> Restart --> Set boot order to start from the USB media.


Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-do-clean-installation-windows-10


3.) How do I know for sure if using UEFI/GPT or Legacy/MBR? I can set my boot to Ultrafast, so I assume UEFI/GPT?


4.) With the Media Creation Tool I guess if you download Windows 10, you can use it to select Windows 10 Pro with it?


5.) Does MS ever make changes to the media creation tool? Like if I were to put it on a USB flash drive today and I only need to use it like a year or two later am I fine to use it or am I going to want to put a newer version on my flash drive?


6.) Does anyone here use Rufus on a USB? I think I had to use it once because the MS Media Creation tool wasn't working and Rufus downloads an ISO to create a bootable USB flash media from?
Click to expand...
1) Depends on the computer and how you have it configured. If you have USB or other types of drives higher in the boot order, they could very well boot first. I wouldn't worry about changing it, just use the Boot Menu to select what to boot to.
2a) Legacy mode on many newer computers needs to be enabled in BIOS.
2b) That would just be to reinstall without media; the built in recovery mode. Not truly a clean install but works OK. Sort of like reset to factory defaults on your phone.
3) When you boot to the install media, there will probably be 2 choices. If it's a USB drive it will say either USB: Drivename or UEFI USB: Drivename. Select the UEFI option to boot to that and have the OS installed as GPT
4) Yes
5) Yes, each build of Windows (twice a year) receives an updated version of the MCT. However, starting with the Windows build upgrade this fall, they are going to be distriubuted as a Cumulative Update, and I'm guessing will not receive a MCT update. But I'm not completely sure.
 
bigdogchris said:
1) Depends on the computer and how you have it configured. If you have USB or other types of drives higher in the boot order, they could very well boot first. I wouldn't worry about changing it, just use the Boot Menu to select what to boot to.
2a) Legacy mode on many newer computers needs to be enabled in BIOS.
2b) That would just be to reinstall without media; the built in recovery mode. Not truly a clean install but works OK. Sort of like reset to factory defaults on your phone.
3) When you boot to the install media, there will probably be 2 choices. If it's a USB drive it will say either USB: Drivename or UEFI USB: Drivename. Select the UEFI option to boot to that and have the OS installed as GPT
4) Yes
5) Yes, each build of Windows (twice a year) receives an updated version of the MCT. However, starting with the Windows build upgrade this fall, they are going to be distriubuted as a Cumulative Update, and I'm guessing will not receive a MCT update. But I'm not completely sure.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks. Do you know the answer to my other post?

"Since my computer is only a month old, in Rufus, should I use: GPT/UEFI/NTFS? Or does it not matter if It's FAT32?

Also, I notice when looking at my C drive (1 TB SSD), that It's set to MBR Partition. I have no idea why that would be."
 
I was just reading on this the other day for myself actually

64 bit and using likely more than 4gb total system memory of all sorts

GPT

GPT works with UEFI "natively"
MBR / NTFS are the "old" i.e legacy and/or OS specific, I believe Rufus gives a run down via hovering over to "read it"

FAT32 will be "readable" but depending on the files inside the installer etc it likely will give issues unlike GPT etc which supports much larger/longer names and sizes.

so IMO

GPT
as UEFI
4k file alloc size



I skip the detect bad blocks checker thingy as it ALWAYS cruds itself up for some reason when I go to write ISO in Rufus :( (not had a problem when it was written otherwise, sometimes it has a "false burn" and I need to run the same thing again, but, it works well for what it is.


I also thought I tricked via get the ISO mobile wise, it worked for me to direct DL as iso like was mentioned, but for 1809/19xx I had to get the media DL from MSFT site directly (with it's crazy fast kb/s levels of speed)
LOL

I not know why they bother as you need to link key direct to MSFT to use Win 10 anyways

unlike previous versions ^.^
 
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I think you might be overthinking this process. Make the flash drive with the Media Creation Tool, and it will be ready for use. I use UEFI for all of my systems, including the 200 or so I've rolled out in the enterprise. I also use diskpart during the install routine to make the drives GPT.

As for boot order, that changes per each system and how they are configured. All of mine are set to boot from the internal drive first. There's usually a hot key to use to bring up the boot order. I use that once to boot from the flash drive, and that's it.
 
Yeah, on my mobo it always makes the internal hard drive(s) boot first. If I want to install anything from a USB drive or an optical disk I have to change the BIOS boot order. That's with both legacy and UEFI.
 
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