Windows 10 clean install won't allow installation on drive. manufacturer files can be lost? advice?

[JoshuaCaleb]

Hello, recently my system stopped booting into windows after a power surge and i reset the network adapter. I had been advised to do a clean installation after troubleshooting and trying to repair the boot area from the command prompt.

I had used commands to clean the primary drive of Windows 10 to re-install windows.

However, when I use drivers to recognize the hard drives, it will not allow me to install on the hard drive that I prefer. It says it is not GPT,  but MBR. It also notes that there are manufacturer files (likely HP files) on there. 

I would like to preserve the files on the secondary hard drive (which Microsoft assured me will not be deleted if I backed up the other files), yet install windows where it used to be. Then I would like to figure out how to get the system to recognize itself as the same system. I would appreciate your advice. thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

If your notebook has two physical drives (not one drive with a partition you keep your files on), I would use the Dispart utility to clean the disk you want to install Windows on during the windows installation process.

That removes all formatting and partition schemes (MBR/GPT).

Make sure you select the right disk to clean!

You can generally tell by the size of the disks that show up.

1. Press Shift+F10 from inside Windows Setup screen to open a command prompt window.
2. Type diskpart and press the Enter key.
3. Type list disk to find your disk number.
4. Type select disk (e.g., select disk0) to choose the disk you want to format.
5. Finally, type clean to wipe the disk completely.
6. Exit diskpart and install Windows.

[JoshuaCaleb]

i have some questions:

1. the ms installation had a suggestion that there were manufacturer files on the disk that i want to install on. i assume this may be HP files. what may i need tk be prepared? will bios be wiped? 

-can any manufacturer files be preserved?

2. once this is installed, how can i set it to be recognized as the same system since i have registered it ?

3. does installing windows on that drive affect the files on the other drive?

4. how do i run diskpart from the recovery usb? will it recognize other drives besides the usb itself? i have seen it only recognize the usb.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You can't run Diskpart from a recovery USB you have to make a plain Windows USB installation media and run it that way.

Installing Windows has no effect on the BIOS.

I would have no idea what HP files are on there.

Probably the diagnostic software (HP Tools) and whatnot.

Sorry, but I can't answer any of your other qeustions.

I thought you just wanted to clean install Windows with the Microsoft media creation tool.

[JoshuaCaleb]

what is a plain usb installation media? i made a usb installation media from the media creation tool. however, with that, i have not seen anything visible outside of the usb drive while booting from the usb drive. is there a way to view the other drives that way and run disk part? i saw a tutorial that said it was possible, but it didn’t really show the space on a hard drive, but rather the space on the usb drive.

would you know where i might find answers to the other questions?