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wtmc57

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April 9th, 2023 08:00

Installing Windows 10 on New Hard Drive

Good morning.  This is my first time using this forum.  I have basic computer knowledge, nothing advanced.  I have a Dell13 i7359 laptop that came with Windows 10 installed.  To make a long story short, my hard drive is dying. I purchased a replacement hard drive from Dell.  My question is, can someone give me the steps to reinstalling Windows 10 on the new hard drive?  I did some searching and saw options such as:  using the Dell Recovery Tool, using the Media Creation Tool, etc.  

Thanks for your time.

filbert

4 Operator

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1.8K Posts

April 9th, 2023 09:00

  1. Check in Settings | Activation to ensure that Windows is activated. If it is, it will reactivate automatically after you clean install Windows and connect to the Internet.
  2. Backup your personal files to an external drive and save any licence keys you will need to reinstall applications.
  3. Ensure that you have a BitLocker password handy, if you used BitLocker. 
  4. Use Microsoft's Media Creation Tool to create a bootable flash drive with Windows 10 installer. 
  5. Disconnect all peripherals: printers; USB devices; media cards; USB hubs and extenders; etc.
  6. Boot from the Windows installer flash drive and install Windows from scratch.
  7. I pause the installation to open a CMD window to run Diskpart to create the partitions that I want. If you want partitions but don't want to create them now, you can always do so after installation via a tool such as Partition Wizard.
  8. After installing Windows, you will be able to boot into your new Windows installation. Answer questions and choose options in the OOBE (Out of Box Experience) to personalize your Windows system.
  9. The first user account will, by default, have Administrator rights. I recommend that you create a second user account for day-to-day use, reserving the Administrator account for infrequent admin functions such as installing applications and changing system settings. Using a standard user account without Administrator rights is more secure and gives less potential for malware to mess up the whole system if an infection occurs.
  10. After installing Windows and before you connect to the Internet, install Intel Chipset Device Software and Intel Management Engine Components. Check Dell's support site for any other drivers in the chipset category.
  11. Connect to the Internet and run Windows Update. This will take a while, as many system updates, security definitions and hardware drivers will download and install. You will find that many required drivers will install automatically the first time you run Windows Update. For any drivers that do not install, check Dell's site or use a Dell tool such as SupportAssist or Dell Update.

If your Windows installer cannot see your internal drive, it's probably because you have RAID enabled. Windows installer doesn't include the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver that is necessary for RAID. You would have to pause the Windows installer to insert that driver, such as in this process:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000058724/memory-and-storage.html

An alternative is to enter BIOS and switch RAID to AHCI, then boot from your installer. With AHCI enabled, the Windows installer will see your drive. This is the simpler option.

Here's another description of the install process, from a Microsoft MVP: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/clean-install-windows-10-11-2023/1c426bdf-79b1-4d42-be93-17378d93e587

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