Installing WIn10Pro on a new Elitedesk 800 G2 DM, how to format HDD?

[DaveVA01]

I purchased a new Elitedesk 800 G2 with a 500 gig HDD MS DOS.  My iintention has been that upon reciept I would perform a new low level format on the dive and install WIndows10 Pro.

I was not antipating EUFI

Is there a good guide avalable to help soemone with an old BiOS centric view of the world get well enough aquainted with EUFI to get thier machine formatted for Windows 10 installation?

Thank you.

-Dave

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@DaveVA01

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

There is absolutely no need to low-level format the drive -- and doing that incorrectly risks damaging the drive beyound repair.

Any new Windows installation media will provide the option to reformat any drive for installing Windows.

Here are instructions for installing Win10:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFbg1Q7a7yo

Good Luck

[DaveVA01]

Thank you!

I should be able to try this tommorow.

-Dave

[DaveVA01]

This workd great.

Ive been using a MS Win10 Pro USB stick  so I already had a bootable USB device. I had also noodled through the UEFI to get the machine to boot to the installer.

The speacial step was in learning (from the recomeded video) how to convert from MBR to BPT:

Shift F10

DSIKPART

LIST DISK

SELECT DISK 0

CLEAN

CONVERT GPT

EXIT

Close the comand line window. 

Restart the installer so it ssees the new GPT partician.

It was easy to chimp my way through these steps. Very helpful. 

Now I need to go back and learn what I was realy doing. 

Lots of neet stuff in that DISKPART menu

Thank you agian.

-Dave

[DaveVA01]

Another intersting observation:

After the OS was intalled I had no network conection. A liitle poking around showd that there were no drivers loaded for the NIC. I dont think I ve seen this loading any OS in the last 20 years.

A quick trip to the product support page, downlad the drivers to a USB stick, transfer them to the new machine and boom I was connected. The machine and OS were then able to get the rest of the drivers from HP with a little help from me.

I dont think I could have finished the install without a second machine available to go out in the world and bring back the NIC drivers.

Fun stuff.

Next challange:  Try to configure the machine to boot from an M.2 SSD. I'll dig about for a while before posting that as a new question.

Thanks again

-Dave

[DaveVA01]

I think the reason I had issues with the NIC drivers may be from missing a big step in the OS install:

• While reasearching my upcoming m.2 ssd install I saw that after win OS install is complete it is recomended to reboot and imeadiately enter bios
• Set sescure boot to WIndows UEFI
• Set Key Management to Install Default Secure boot keys
• F10/exit and the WIndows OS should resume and complete.

I am guessing that by missing this step, I prevented the NIC driver isntalls as well as leaving my BiOS in a suboptimal state.

Still having fun.

-Dave

[DaveVA01]

Other resources that I have found through HP along the way that are have been interesting to read but perhaps lacking in actionable sequences to adress my issues:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05166986

Technical whitepaper HP PC Commercial BIOS (UEFI) Setup Administration Guide For Business Notebook and Desktop 2015 Models May 2016 857394-002

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04830607

Hardware Reference Guide HP EliteDesk 800 G2 Desktop Mini

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02826744

GPT hard Disk Drives For HP Desktops April 2011

I expect that all three will be worth reskimming now that I've been coached trough a few workable install scenerio.

Of course I could have (should have) bought the machine with the OS bundled and installed, but

• Ive always felt like (no real emperical proof) that self installed OS was cleaner that OEM installs from the factory. 
• its more fun to do it this way
• I am (Sort of) learning a few things along the way

The last buillet is the reason for my verbose notes and comments WAWood took the time to read my question and stear me in the correct direction. Perhaps my notes and comments will be of assitance to someone else with similar issues searching the forum.

Still having fun.

-Dave

 >> Started reaseach on M.2 SSD Win10 Bootable drive insall with this generic video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No-ct8pQcIg

I am attepting a 1TB M.2 SSD (Wetern DIgital Blue) which was not an option from HP when I bougfht the machine. Perhaps I will soon be finding out why.