Expert help on re installing windows.

[Pablo56]

Hi. I have built computers and installed windows in the distant past.
I had a brand new PC with a VMIe chip on the motherboard. I screwed up windows and needed to re-install. I also had 2 SSDs pluged in as D: and E: I know now I should have unpluged these first. I ended up with a dual boot system with only one actual Windows. Windows on boot up gave me a choice of windows to boot from and I had a windows.old on an SSD.

This time today, I went for a full install. I was presented with one drive (the SSDs now unplugged) with 4 partitions including Partition 3 (the 500G part) which I formatted. I was even told that I could keep my exsisting data which confused me as if this was a formated partition then where is the data. I choose to keep.

My big question is . . . . .
Can I delete all of these partitions under the microsoft instalation and format the only one left or will this cause harm to my complete (single Windows 11) attempt. I was also told I could recover my settings during instalation which puzeled me as how would it know if this was a clean instalation. All my data is safe on an SSD.

So help on how to do this again with only one windows or suspected windows, No origanal data. I will start all over again. Also what is in these 3 other partitions? Part 2 is MSR (Reserved and Part 4 is Recovery and Part 0 is System. How many partitions does one need on a clean instalation?

Sorry for everone as this is christmas and you would rarther be doing other things.

 

[RogerOver]

In my opinion,
If you want to reinstall only Windows 11 (and keep your Windows 11 data), you need to reinstall on partition 3. I believe this is very new. Before you couldn't install from boot while keeping your data; you needed to do it from inside windows by clicking on "setup" (not from boot).
If you want a total clean install, delete all partions until there is only one left (unallocated space) and install on unallocated space.
It's normal to have 4 partitions; you can later delete the last one (it's "Windows backup"), if you have another reliable backup solution (like for instance Macrium free).

 

[Pablo56]

Okay see where your comming from but this is what I used to do on my HDDs. Go to control pannel -> Disk manager and get the screen of all the drives if there are more than one. Go through each partition and delete it untill ALL are deleted leaving no partitions left. Right click and create partition. I get a window allowing me to choose the size or accept the default of the total size of the drive. I then right click and format it.

I should be able to delete all the partitons. If I left partiton 0, it would not be big enouf to install windows on it (68 Megs here). It would need re-sizing. If I deleted ALL. Then Windows instalation should create and format it on the instalation or get me to do it. Question is, if bought the VMIe card from a manufacturer and pluged it in. It would not have a partition or be formated. I am reliying on the days when I used to partiton an resize and format.

 

[RogerOver]

Sorry, I do not know for your graphics card (?). But as you already unplugged two SSDs, can't you unplug the card also and plug it back after the installation ?