installing windows on a formatted drive

[PUPPY_SQUADD]

Hi i'm looking for a little guidance on a new build i'm doing. My question is can I take one of my 1tb drives that's in my current build and reformat it and install windows while in my current pc? And then install in the new board?
I know it may seem like a silly question but I am only used to the creating a media player and installing method.

[nullable]

it's not impossible, but also no benefit compared to just learning the every easy steps to do it normally rather than some workaround because it doesn't feel familiar to you.

All you need to do is use the media creation tool on a usb thumb drive to make it bootable, and on the new PC in the BIOS set the thumb drive to the first boot device, and you go through the windows install wizard like normal and install Windows to the C drive. If you watch a youtube video or something you'll see there's nothing to it, so no reason to do or attempt what you're asking about.

[PUPPY_SQUADD]

ok yes I am familiar with that method I was just hoping as i'd be reformatting I could just install windows then. Thanks for answer.

[nullable]

Originally posted by PUPPY_SQUADD:

ok yes I am familiar with that method I was just hoping as i'd be reformatting I could just install windows then. Thanks for answer.

Oh, ok I read it as you taking a secondary drive and installing windows on it and transferring it to the new PC. Not formatting windows on your current PC and then transferring it a new machine. That's a bit more straight forward.

The short answer is yes, you can do that. There isn't really an issue with the last few versions of windows with swapping OS drives between machines. I've done it a bunch with testing and haven't seen any issues.

Although I expect some purists will advise against it because it's heresy and pre-Windows 7 it didn't work nearly as well.

I would also say unless you have some kind of issue or concern with your current windows install you could just toss that into the new PC too. The wife has been running the same windows install across three different PC's and two windows version upgrades for the last 10 years, at this point I'm just fascinated to see how long it can go on without issue. (Also props to her for not mangling the system either, she's competent but not an IT person.)

[PUPPY_SQUADD]

ok sweet. yea i just figured it'd be easier just reformatting and then swapping into new. Guess I'll do a bit more research. Thanks for insights!

[_I_]

if you reinstall windows without formatting the drive, the installer will move windows, user program file and folders it needs to a windows.old folder so you can recover or move them if needed
or if windows is uninstalled it will move them back so the drive can be used as it was

[SHAZBOT]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWwOJlOI1nU

which particular unit are you hoping youre digital windows license lands on? please advise.

[PUPPY_SQUADD]

little update- I was having issues with my sata m.2 drive. BIOS would not display it. It is a WD blue 3d sata ssd. I guess it's called a thin provisioned device and I just went and grabbed a crucial 2tb P305 I think it's called, and installed windows the normal way.
However then I could not connect to the internet either wireless or eithernet. so I had to then install the network adapter drivers to another thumb drive and install from there.After that it all went like normal and I'm using the machine now. thanks again.