Which Partitions are required and what can I delete?

[VaniVangenix]

Hello, so I wanted to perform a clean install on my laptop by re-installing Windows 11 on my laptop via a USB. But I have no clue which partitions to delete, because I might brick the system by accidentally deleting an important partition. Any help and explanations of which partitions are required and can be deleted?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Ryan:

If you don't want to delete any partitions, install Windows on the existing Drive 1 Partition 3 Windows partition and it will create a Windows.old folder.

After W11 has completed installing, if you need to recover any files from the previous Windows installation, you can explore the Windows.old folder, find your old user profile and copy and paste the folders from your old profile to the new one.

After you have done that, or you don't need to recover files, you can delete the Windows.old folder by running the Windows disk cleanup utility.

When the utility opens, click on the 'Cleanup System Files' button on the lower left side of the program and it will run again.

When the program arrives at the window again, you can check all of the boxes including the Windows.old folder to delete the unnecessary files.