HP 1040 G3 - Partition 2: Windows. Format?

[VK5ZL]

I have a new 1040 G3.  It came with Windows 7 pre-loaded.  I stopped the initial loading of Win 7 at first turn on.  Re-started, went into boot and selected 'Legacy Support Disable and Secure Boot Enable' as advised through HP website.

So now with the Windows 10 disk in external drive it boots from drive, and gets to the 'where do you want to install Windows?' screen.  I presume Drive 0 Partition 2: Windows (currently showing 221.6GB total size with 180.6 GB free space, so the Win 7 files are still in there.

I now have the decision to make as to how to proceed, as the screen says 'Windows can't be installed to this disk.  The selected disk has an MBR partition table.  On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks'  So I can select 'Format' for this partition, but am warned  'This partition might contain important files or applications from your computer manufacturer.  If you format this partition, any data stored on it will be lost.

So will I lose any of the factory-installed data, and is this the way I should be going?  (currently the computer will not boot, showing it has not opperating system.  I assume this is due to my change to  Legacy Support Disable and Secure Boot Enable.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

Yes, you will lose factory installed data- the Windows 7 OS and drivers/programs. However,this is what you want. You can install software/drivers from your Support page after getting Windows 10 up and running. Actually, you can delete both partitions since the smaller one contains files to reinstall Windows 7. This will leave you with the entire drive as unallocated space which you can use to install Windows 10 on.

[VK5ZL]

Thanks CherylG - appreciated.