Clean Windows Reinstall?

[Hawke64]

A PC, 10-14 y/o, had Windows 7. After some time, Linux Mint was installed (not dual boot). Now, when I try to install Windows 10 from a USB, the PC attempts to launch Windows 7 and throws an error. The PC does not boot from the USB, but sees it after starting Linux Mint. The force boot options are Windows Boot Manager, Linux Mint, and the empty DVD drive. The USB is not among them. I've looked through the files on the OS drive and there are Windows-related folders, though I am unsure if they can affect anything.

How can I perform a clean Windows 10 installation, wiping everything on the PC?

[Bartimaeus]

If you don't know what the hell you are doing, then do not read the rest of my post, because trying to follow what I'm suggesting when you don't know what the hell you are doing could lead to very bad things and I'm assuming a fairly basic level of PC knowledge here and I will not be held liable for people accidentally deleting all their stuff because they're messing with things they don't even vaguely understand while not having the self-awareness to realize they don't understand those things:

Without being there in person to actually look at it, I'm not going to try to even guess what in the world has transpired. So since you seem to just want to start from scratch with this drive, my suggestion would be to take everything you care about off all partitions of the drive in question and then just delete all those partitions so that Windows can start with a completely untouched drive. If you can manage the drive when it's not actively the system drive (i.e. by putting it into another system that already has a running Windows drive), just go in with Windows' Disk Management and delete all partitions/volumes of that drive until the drive is blank and all space is unallocated (make sure you're only modifying the drive that you want to completely wipe; also, make sure that you understand what having partitions/volumes actually means because a single drive can show up as being a C:\, D:\, E:\ et al. drive if it's configured that way and you could easily delete a whole lot of stuff you may not want to if you don't know what the hell you're doing), then install Windows to that drive. Alternatively (and perhaps even more simply), when you boot from the Windows 10 flash drive, you'll be presented with the "Which type of installation do you want?" question...

...where you should select the second option, "Custom"...

...and you can just start hitting "Delete" on the different partitions of the drive until they're all gone, and then you can select the unallocated space as your target. If your system has multiple drives, make sure you pay good attention to what you're deleting, because deleting the wrong partitions of the wrong drives (seriously, pay attention to what is labelled "Drive 0" versus "Drive 1" and make sure you've identified what is your actual target drive, do not make any assumptions, do not start deleting anything unless you are completely sure that you've got it right) will completely wipe the data of unrelated drives.

I repeat: do not follow anything in this post (except to not follow anything in this post) unless you actually know what the hell you are doing and have a tried-and-true understanding of drives and partitions and how they can be configured. I will not be held liable if you delete everything on your whole damned computer because you're messing around with things you do not understand. Don't do it if you feel even the least bit unsure.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Hawke64]

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

If you don't know what the hell you are doing, then do not read the rest of my post, because trying to follow what I'm suggesting when you don't know what the hell you are doing could lead to very bad things and I'm assuming a fairly basic level of PC knowledge here and I will not be held liable for people accidentally deleting all their stuff because they're messing with things they don't even vaguely understand while not having the self-awareness to realize they don't understand those things:

Without being there in person to actually look at it, I'm not going to try to even guess what in the world has transpired. So since you seem to just want to start from scratch with this drive, my suggestion would be to take everything you care about off all partitions of the drive in question and then just delete all those partitions so that Windows can start with a completely untouched drive. If you can manage the drive when it's not actively the system drive (i.e. by putting it into another system that already has a running Windows drive), just go in with Windows' Disk Management and delete all partitions/volumes of that drive until the drive is blank and all space is unallocated (make sure you're only modifying the drive that you want to completely wipe; also, make sure that you understand what having partitions/volumes actually means because a single drive can show up as being a C:\, D:\, E:\ et al. drive if it's configured that way and you could easily delete a whole lot of stuff you may not want to if you don't know what the hell you're doing), then install Windows to that drive. Alternatively (and perhaps even more simply), when you boot from the Windows 10 flash drive, you'll be presented with the "Which type of installation do you want?" question...

...where you should select the second option, "Custom"...

...and you can just start hitting "Delete" on the different partitions of the drive until they're all gone, and then you can select the unallocated space as your target. If your system has multiple drives, make sure you pay good attention to what you're deleting, because deleting the wrong partitions of the wrong drives (seriously, pay attention to what is labelled "Drive 0" versus "Drive 1" and make sure you've identified what is your actual target drive, do not make any assumptions, do not start deleting anything unless you are completely sure that you've got it right) will completely wipe the data of unrelated drives.

I repeat: do not follow anything in this post (except to not follow anything in this post) unless you actually know what the hell you are doing and have a tried-and-true understanding of drives and partitions and how they can be configured. I will not be held liable if you delete everything on your whole damned computer because you're messing around with things you do not understand. Don't do it if you feel even the least bit unsure.

Thank you for your reply. Was going to say that I know what I'm doing (the BSc Computer Science degree kind of suggests that, old may it be), but I've never had this issue with any new PC or VM (the exact same Windows 10 USB worked on them).

Anything of value was backed up already, so I will try to unallocate the partitions from one of the drives on the weekend. Not sure, if it affects the USB drive not being recognised as bootable (so no the "Which type of installation do you want?" question, the PC just tries to start Win 7 and fails), but it might. The USB port is working, otherwise, Linux Mint wouldn't be able to interact with the USB drive, so I assume that the issue is with HDDs. Shouldn't be BIOS (no UEFI), but can't confirm nor inclined to touch any firmware.

[Bartimaeus]

If your Windows flash drive is not bootable, reformat it with Rufus or a similar program via a Windows installer .iso so that it is bootable (there's really no reason not to have a Windows installer flash drive not be bootable!): https://rufus.ie/en/

Edited December 28, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Hawke64]

On 12/28/2023 at 1:30 AM, Bartimaeus said:

If your Windows flash drive is not bootable, reformat it with Rufus or a similar program via a Windows installer .iso so that it is bootable (there's really no reason not to have a Windows installer flash drive not be bootable!): https://rufus.ie/en/

It was formatted with Rufus initially (tried both FAT and NTFS).

The issue seems to be with the recovery partitions, which were not formatted, though I am unsure why they were interfering with booting the USB drive. Installing Windows at the moment, so I hope it has been resolved.