Installing Windows 10 from disk. How to install Windows directly from a hard drive using different methods? Creating a disk using BurnAware Free utility

How to install Windows from a hard drive? Install XP/Vista/7/8/10

Hello everyone, in the next Computer76 blog article I will show you how to install Windows from a hard drive. Yes, the usual Windows installation process for a user requires the presence of an optical drive, installation disk and/or flash drive with the operating system. What if there is none of this?

To all dissatisfied “professionals”. This article is not written for a guru. That’s why I try to describe everything in detail with the appropriate links. And I will immediately divide the article into several parts.

To install Windows from a hard drive, all we need is the Internet and a more or less functional operating system.

Why and when is this needed?

• Firstly, I have already mentioned the main reasons. The Windows disk may be in any of a number of dusty drawers, or just out of reach. The disk drives of some desktop users no longer work or work poorly. And this is generally a problem for laptop owners...
• Further. No need to gut the BIOS settings. What are all these keys F2, F10, DEL, settings? Advanced Settings, changing boot devices... Do you need it? No, of course not. You can install Windows from your hard drive right now.
• You will be protected from the need to urgently transfer the necessary files to various media before the upcoming formatting: this can be done later, slowly, in comfortable conditions.

But, naturally, before installing Windows from a hard drive, we still have to get the installation files themselves somewhere. That is, download Windows from the network. To do this, you can refer to the section or specifically to the article If much remains unclear, refer to the article

However, you can right now download the image directly from a Microsoft server of ANY VERSION using a simple file:

There are no viruses at any stage of working with the file. I checked it personally and I also packed it. When choosing a Windows version, the antivirus should respond to the user's choice - this is normal. Sequentially select:

• version
• capacity of the future system

All that remains is to indicate the location where you will upload the Windows image. I use this utility in more detail in the article .

What do you need to install Windows from your hard drive?

I’ll give you a set of programs that will be useful to us.

• Actually, downloaded from the Windows network
• Program Daemon Tools for working with images (how to work with it is described in the article). The 7-zip archiver can also unpack the image, but stock up on an image “reader”
• Program EasyBCD to work with the boot record so that the computer correctly displays input into the new system.
• You can immediately stock up for your device. First download them from the network and put them in a folder, for example, Drivers. In any case, you can't go anywhere without drivers. However, this is not necessary; the operation can be done later (if the Windows installation files see the network card). I'll risk skipping this step for now.

ATTENTION

The described technique is not suitable for computers with Windows operating systems of the NT family (up to and including Windows XP). EasyBCD they will not work as we need. In any version, you don’t have to look!

Everything seems...

I won’t get excited about where to find a Windows image for a long time. You have already read my articles and we take it as an axiom that the Windows image is already on the computer. Don't push it too far. Personally, I throw all temporary files directly onto the Desktop.
Now you need to prepare your hard drive to accept the new system in order to install Windows from the hard drive. We will consider the option when the system will be installed second to the existing one. However, the method is quite applicable if the new copy of Windows overwrites the previous one. Now I do not advise you to do this. But one condition is unshakable - the presence of a free partition on the hard drive from which the installation files of the new Windows will be copied. , described in detail in the blog article of the same name. I did this on the same laptop.

So, the hard drive is broken, the Windows image is on the computer. And now, actually, how to install Windows from a hard drive.

Install programs Daemon Tools And EasyBCD on the computer so as not to be distracted later. You know how to install programs, I think.

Now let's look at the process of installing Windows from a hard drive using a specific example.

A laptop arrived with Windows Vista pre-installed and ready to go. The operation of the system turned out to be unstable, the system itself was badly beaten, and it was decided to install a second Windows 7 system. As you can see in the photo below, I had already divided the hard drive into three logical partitions. One of them is now occupied by Vist (naturally WITH), the second one was reserved by the hostess for files stored on the computer (disk D), and the third (F) reserved by me for Windows 7 - I pinched off a small piece from the storage.

START – Computer – Service(in the toolbar) – Folders settings…– tab View– set Show hidden files, folders, drives

Let's launch Daemon Tools. Let's show her the path to the Windows 7 image.

Then copy all the Windows installation files from the virtual drive and transfer them to the free partition that is reserved for the future Windows 7, that is, to drive F in my case. I put everything on drive F. It took me about 7 minutes to copy.

Let's try installing Windows from a hard drive

Let's launch EasyBCD with administrator rights. We are greeted by the settings window. Everything here is in English, but I'll walk you through it. Make sure you are in the menu Add New Entry:

Lower right in Removable/External media select tab WinPE. In field Name (Name) enter the name of the system. I designated it as "Seven". In field Path (Path) by clicking on the binoculars with the folder to the right of the field to fill, indicate the path to the file boot.wim, which is located in the newly created folder sources on disk F.

That is, the path on my laptop looked like:

F – sources – boot.wim

In general, this is what I ended up with:

Let's finish the settings. We need a button on the right Add Entry (Add).

ATTENTION

Clicking the button View Settings (Current menu) you can see what the bootloader menu will be like. This will be the first window that will allow you to select your operating system. Look at it before you make changes. It can be edited later. But now it should look something like this:

You will see labels numbered Entry#1 and Entry#2 (Entry 1 and Entry 2) in the same order. Will load first Seven, second - Vista. That is, after completing the settings and the inevitable reboot, you will see this window:

But that comes later.

If you managed to click something, click on the button on the left Edit Boot Menu (Edit Download Menu)

And delete incorrect entries. You can swap the loading order of the buttons Up And Down(Up And Down), delete selected unnecessary records with the button Delete, change the loading wait time from 30 sec. to 0. In general, play to your taste and admire the result after a reboot. If you made changes in this menu, save using the button below Save Settings (Save).

Are you all ready? Go. Don't close anything and just reboot.

The installation took me less than 10 minutes. As you will see for yourself, installing Windows from a hard drive is very fast.

After the installation of Windows 7 is completed, the boot menu will look like this:

Windows 7 is installed.. but the word Seven is in the way

Let's remove it using the same EasyBCD. Return to Vista, launch the program and enter the menu Edit Boot Menu:

P.S.

At some point, one of the systems may become boring... In my example, Vista is almost completely dead. It will be easy to remove. Just log into the new system (mine is Windows 7) and:

• Format the entire logical drive with Vista under Windows 7. All data will be destroyed! It may not be possible to do this using Windows tools; you will have to use the program . You can find out how to work with it in the article.
• however, in some cases, especially for devices with a pre-installed OS, you cannot do without a special disk to remove an unnecessary system. We will look at working with such disks in another article.
• using a program already installed on Windows 7 EasyBCD remove the Vista entry from the bootloader. How to do this is clear from the written article.

P.P.S. EasyBCD will not only allow you to boot operating systems directly from your hard drive. With its help you can:

any disk directly in the boot menu

Good luck to all of us

Read: 2,717

Microsoft has made sure that the question of how to install Windows 10 causes as little difficulty as possible among users. Moreover, the developers even made this process absolutely free, even for those who do not have a key. On this page we will introduce you to all installation methods, and also tell you where to get the distribution.

All methods can be divided into two large groups - installation from scratch or migration from the previous generation of the operating system. There are 3 approaches for these operations:

• Through the Update Center;
• Using the command line;
• Or using special tools;

First of all, you need to choose a path. The first two are available if you are currently running Windows 7 or 8 of any generation. In this case, if you have not disabled regular and scheduled updates, you have probably already seen a similar picture:

Until the updates are installed, you will not see this message. Next, you need to click on the message that the system has loaded the new OS and is ready for installation. And you will find yourself in a window like this:

After clicking on the “Continue” button, you will find yourself in the update center, where you only have to click one “Get Started” button.

After this, the PC will update itself. Moreover, all processes occur automatically and in the background. You don't need to do anything extra. When 10 is installed, the computer will prompt you to reboot, which can be done not immediately, but delayed a little. The next time you boot you will have a new OS. If you don't like it, you can roll back to your previous version. If everything is fine, then it is advisable to delete the Windows.old folder, because it takes up a lot of space.

Installing 10 via the command line

This method is also for those who are already running one of the latest versions of the OS. It happens that the method described above is not suitable. The first thing you should definitely do is turn on “Automatic Updates”. Without this step, everything described below will not help you solve the problem. Moreover, the settings should look like this:

Check, if everything is so, then use the WIN + R key combination to call up the executive environment and enter cmd, and then the command - wuauclt.exe / updatenow + press Enter.

After this, the download will begin. You can check this in the update center, where you will see the beginning of this process.

As in the first case, here the download will also be in the background, you just need to wait for it to complete and then follow the instructions on the screen, reboot and get the updated OS.

2 options above are only for those who already have another OS installed. If you bought a new device or want to upgrade to 10 from scratch, then you need instructions on how to install Windows 10 for free from scratch. The easiest option is to buy installation media. It is sold on a flash drive, but is quite expensive, so you can make it yourself, which will save you several thousand rubles. To do this you will need:

• Another computer that is already working;
• Utility ;

We launch the software on the computer, and in the first window select “Create installation media for another computer.”

You can either immediately create media or download an ISO image of the system and mount it later in any way convenient for you.

A USB device is the simplest method that does not require additional actions later. Therefore, let's dwell on it. Please note that the media itself must already be in the slot on your PC. The capacity of the flash drive is at least 4 GB. You can select the flash drive itself at the next stage, if you suddenly have several connected.

After this, you can forget about this utility for a while and go about your business. Again, it will download the necessary files in the background and mount the image itself. The time for this process depends on the speed of your Internet as well as the speed of your computer.

As a rule, this will take from 20 to 90 minutes. The process of creating an installation flash drive is shown in more detail in the video:

Installation process from scratch

Everything described above was preparation. Next, the installation itself begins. Before doing this, make sure that there is no information you need left on your hard drive. Windows 10 definitely requires formatted media. If the information is there, but you don’t need it, then it’s okay, during the installation process you can format the drive and continue the process as if it were empty.

The first step is to change the boot order of your devices. To do this, go to the BIOS section BOOT. You can get into the Bios when you restart your computer by pressing the DEL or F2 button. You must connect the USB flash drive and assign it to boot first. Save changes and reboot. In this case, the PC will start working with the installer, and you will see the following window:

If at the time of creating the bootable media you selected Russian and the Single Language option, then at this stage you will no longer be able to change the settings. We click on the next button and find ourselves on a new screen where there is only one button - “INSTALL”. Below there is a separate item -, but it is not interesting to us. Click on installation.

At this stage, the OS will already ask you for the key. For some, it will be automatically detected, since it is built into the BIOS. If it is not defined, then enter it manually. For those who do not have a key, you can click on the “Skip” button and return to the activation issue later.

A “License Agreement” will appear in front of you. Read it, check the box next to the phrase that you accept the rules and click the “Next” button.

The last steps separate you from starting the installation. On the newly opened window you need to select the “Custom” item.

In this case, you can choose the hard drive on which the OS will be installed. If the disk stores information, it will have to be formatted. All this can be done within one window, it is shown below.

For those who have several partitions, let us clarify that the OS requires at least 50 GB. Even taking into account that it itself only takes up 4 GB on a flash drive, after unpacking it will require more space, including for normal operation. And you should not touch, delete, merge or carry out any other actions with other partitions, especially small ones - 100-500 MB. They are technical and are required for the correct operation of the entire PC.

After these steps, Windows 10 will begin to install. This will take time, but the process can be monitored by a progressive number of percentages.

When it's all over, a series of questions awaits you. The first question will be about the license. You can skip it again. Those who have already entered the code for this question will no longer see it.

In the next step, you can configure the operating parameters. Even if you don't want to deal with them, we recommend not using the standard ones. The OS collects important information that does not need to be shared. All this can be disabled at this stage.

Then proceed to create an account. Determine who owns the PC - you or the system administrator. The latter is found only in organizations, which is why the answer “I” is the most common.

Windows 10 has absorbed all the best from previous versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. It is quite beautiful, convenient and fast. But it wasn't without its drawbacks. The most significant of them are errors that many people experience in the operation of the system, programs, games, and the operating system’s own removal of applications that it considers unlicensed, even some free ones.

However, if you have a fairly modern computer or laptop, then over time you will most likely still have to switch to Windows 10, since older versions of operating systems are gradually losing support from both the developers of the system itself and software developers.

Should owners of PCs that are rather mediocre by today's standards rush to update the system? Probably not... Since you will have more problems than benefits from the update - selection of drivers, glitches in the operation of the system and programs, etc. And you are unlikely to gain in productivity.

But for owners of licensed versions of Windows 7 and 8.1, it is important not to miss the moment and make a free upgrade to Windows 10, which is available until July 29, 2016. After this date, you will not be able to get the update for free.

If you love games and your video card supports DirectX 12, which is only available in Windows 10, then you will have to switch to it anyway, as it is designed to give an additional performance boost. Although games on DirectX 12 are unlikely to appear before mid-2016, or even closer to its end.

But if you have a modern computer or laptop with the not-so-successful Windows 8.1 and want to plunge into the world of a more modern operating system, then why not? Make it on an external drive and move on to new technologies! As a last resort, you can easily and quickly restore the previous system.
Hard drive Transcend StoreJet 25M TS500GSJ25M 500 GB

2. How to download Windows 10

Using the “Media Creation Tool” utility, you can not only download the original Windows 10 image, but also create a bootable disk or flash drive. You can download the utility in the "" section.

The utility allows you to download the version of Windows 10 you need with the latest updates. It works on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 of any bitness. You won't be able to run the program on Windows XP and Vista.

After running the utility and accepting the license agreement, you will be asked what you want to do.

The “Update this PC now” item is designed to update your existing Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 operating system. But it is always better to do a clean installation from a disk or flash drive. To do this, select “Create installation media for another computer.”

To download an image from which you can install both the “Windows 10 Home” and “Windows 10 Professional” versions, just leave Windows 10.

If a licensed “Windows 10 Home for one language” was installed on your computer or laptop and you just want to reinstall it without losing the license, then choose this option.

In the "Architecture" field, select the bitness of the operating system.

General recommendations are as follows. If you have 3 GB of RAM or less, then choose the 32-bit version. If the RAM is 4 GB or more, then it is 64-bit. If you select the “Both” option, a universal image will be downloaded from which you can install both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows. But the image size will be more than 5 GB, so to record it you will need a double-layer DVD or a flash drive of at least 8 GB.
Transcend JetFlash 790 8Gb

The next window asks you to select media for Windows 10.

If you install Windows from a flash drive, you can leave the “USB flash memory device”; this option will be the simplest and most reliable. Insert a flash drive with a capacity of at least 4 GB and click “Next”. Once the image is downloaded, a bootable USB flash drive will be created automatically.

Please note that all files on the flash drive will be destroyed, so copy them to a safe place in advance (for example, to drive “D”).

If you select “ISO file”, it will be downloaded to the folder you specify and you can make a bootable disk or flash drive from it at any time. Installing Windows from a boot disk is easier and more reliable than from a flash drive. So if you have a DVD drive and it works well, this option is preferable.

Once the download is complete, you will be prompted to burn the image to a DVD. If you plan to install Windows from a DVD, then insert a blank disc and click on the appropriate link.

Thus, using the “Media Creation Tool” utility, you will download the desired version of Windows 10 and prepare a disk or flash drive from which you can install the system.

3. Create bootable media

To install Windows 10 from a downloaded operating system image, you need to make a bootable disk or flash drive.

3.1. Creating a Windows 10 installation disc

The easiest way to create a Windows 10 installation disk is using the “Astroburn” program, which you can download in the “” section.

Launch the program, go to the “Image” tab and click on the icon next to the “Path to image file” field.

Be sure to check the “Check” box and click the “Start Recording” button.

As a result, you will receive a Windows 10 installation DVD.

3.2. Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 10

You can make a bootable USB flash drive for Windows 10 using one of the best programs “Rufus”, which you can download in the “” section.

Connect a flash drive with a capacity of at least 4 GB to your computer.
Sandisk Cruzer

Launch the Rufus program and click on the DVD drive icon.

Select the Windows 10 image and click Open.

Now just click the “Start” button and the creation of a bootable flash drive will begin.

If you have valuable files on your flash drive, copy them to a safe place in advance.

As a result, you will receive a bootable USB flash drive from which you can install Windows 10.

4. Boot from installation disk or flash drive

To begin installing Windows 10, insert a bootable disk or flash drive and turn on or restart your computer.

It is better to insert the flash drive into the rear USB connector on the motherboard without using a USB extension cable.

Immediately after turning on the computer, press and hold the “Boot Menu” key. It is usually listed in the prompts on the initial boot screen of your computer. On different computers and laptops, this can be a key from “F8” to “F12”.

After the “Boot Menu” appears, use the down and up arrows to navigate to the DVD drive or flash drive and press Enter.

If your computer does not even try to start booting from a disk or flash drive, then read our article. If the computer sees the flash drive and tries to boot from it, but freezes or displays an error message, then read and make a bootable flash drive in a different mode.

5. Start of installation and choice of bit depth

Immediately after booting from the installation disk or flash drive, you should see a prompt to press any key to begin installing Windows.

This must be done within a few seconds, otherwise the installation will not start and the computer will need to be restarted again. I usually press Spacebar.

During the Windows installation process, the computer will restart several times, but you no longer need to press a key on the keyboard, otherwise the installation will start over.

If you downloaded an image that allows you to install both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 10, a screen will appear asking you to select the bit depth.

Select the desired version using the down and up arrows and press Enter.

Wait for the blue “Install Windows” window to appear.

6. Configure language settings

At this stage you are asked to select languages.

In the next window, click the “Install” button under the “Windows” logo.

7. Entering the key and selecting the version of Windows 10

If Windows 10 is being installed on this computer or laptop for the first time and you have an unused key or a Windows 7, 8 or 10 key used on this PC, then enter it and click the “Next” button.

If Windows 10 has already been installed on this computer or laptop (for example, by updating Windows 7 or 8.1) or you do not have a license key, then do not enter anything and click on the “I do not have a product key” link.

Windows 10 does not have a license key tied to the operating system bit depth, as was the case in previous versions of Windows. You can, for example, upgrade 32-bit Windows 7 or 8.1 to 32-bit Windows 10, and then perform a clean installation of 64-bit Windows 10 and the license will remain. But Windows 7 or 8.1 Home cannot be upgraded to Windows 10 Professional.

In the next window, you need to select the operating system version - “Windows 10 Professional” or “Windows 10 Home”.

If you don’t know why you need the “Professional” version, then choose the “Home” version, as it contains fewer unnecessary components and will work faster. You can download a comparison table of “Professional”, “Home” and other versions of Windows 10 in the “” section.

In the next window, check the box “I accept the license terms” and click “Next”.

We are offered two types of Windows 10 installation.

“Update” – selecting this type of installation will display a message about the impossibility of updating when booting from media (disk or flash drive).

You can upgrade Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10 while saving files and installed programs (or without saving) only by running the installation program from Windows. We will not consider this option now.

“Custom” – installing clean Windows 10 on a new or existing hard drive partition. We will consider this type of installation in this article.

9. Disk setup

After selecting the installation type, the disk settings window will appear. If you already had some version of Windows installed, then the disk will have partitions with the old system.

Delete all partitions except the largest one, which contains your personal files (drive “D”).

Take care in advance of the safety of your files that were on the desktop and in the user’s “My Documents” folders, as they will be deleted along with the old system. It's best to copy them to an external drive.

Then select "Unallocated space..." to install and click the "Next" button.

If the disk of your computer or laptop is clean and there are no partitions on it, then create a partition for the system with a capacity of about 100 GB (102,400 MB) using the “Create” button.

It is better not to divide the SSD disk into several partitions, but to allocate it entirely to the “C” drive for installing Windows, programs and games. Then you will get unrivaled computer speed!

Hard drive A-Data Ultimate SU650 120GB

If your disk's partition table is in MBR format, a 500 MB service partition will be automatically created before the partition for installing Windows 10.

If the partition table of your disk is in GPT format, then before the partition for installing Windows 10, 3 service partitions with a capacity of 450, 100 and 16 MB will be created.

There will still be “Unallocated space...” at the bottom. Create another partition on it for user files for all the remaining space, select it and click the “Format” button.

Select partition 2 or 4 to install Windows, which has a volume slightly less than the 100 GB we specified, and click “Next”.

Creating and deleting partitions is quite simple, but if you have any doubts, refer to our article on installing Windows 8.1, it is described in great detail. If Windows 10 will not install to the disk and reports an error, then try.

At this stage, the files from the installation disk or flash drive are copied to the computer’s hard drive and then the installation will take place from the hard drive.

Sometimes this process may stop at 0% or any other place for a while, and then quickly end. Please be patient and do not touch your computer. If after 30 minutes of waiting nothing happens, then most likely the computer has frozen or the installation disk is hard to read. You'll have to start all over again and if it freezes again, perhaps replace the installation disk.

After copying the files, the computer will reboot several times and the installation process will continue, requiring user interaction. During the reboot process, each time you may be prompted to press any key, but you no longer need to press anything, otherwise the installation will start all over again.

If you did not click anything, but the installation still starts from the very beginning, then remove the installation disk or flash drive, restart the computer and the installation will continue from the hard drive.

11. Setting parameters

At this stage, you can configure some Windows 10 settings, mainly related to user tracking.

If you don’t want to bother, then click the “Use standard settings” button, nothing bad will happen. To view and change settings, click on the “Settings” link.

It is advisable to disable all options for connecting to unknown Wi-Fi networks and sending error reports, this will increase security.

It is better to leave browser protection and speed up its work. But it is better to prohibit other users from using your computer to download system files, so as not to load the disk and the Internet.

After this, the computer will restart and the installation will continue.

12. Login or create an account

The next window asks you to enter your Microsoft account username and password.

If you do not have such an account, you are encouraged to use the “Create one!” link. This account is tied to the Microsoft server and is needed primarily to synchronize system settings between several computers.

Personally, I don't like to link my account to the Internet, as sometimes it causes various problems and slows down my computer. To create a local account, as in previous versions of Windows, click on the “Skip this step” link.

Now just enter your name, preferably in English, and click “Next”.

It is better not to enter the password at this stage, but if necessary, set it later in Windows, after the computer has been fully configured.

13. Completing the installation and logging into Windows

At the last stage, the installation program finishes setting up the system and displays various messages on a background that changes brightness.

This may take from 5 to 30 minutes. Be patient and do not touch the computer.

When you first log into your desktop, you may be prompted to allow access to your computer from the local network.

If you have another computer or laptop and you want to exchange files between them, then allow access. If you do not have other computers, then it is better to deny access, this will increase security.

14. Activation and subsequent actions

If you entered the correct license key during the installation process or Windows 10 has already been activated on your PC once, the system will be activated automatically the first time you access the Internet.

To check the activation status, enter or change the product key, click on the Windows icon in the lower left corner and go to the “Settings - Update and Security - Activation” section.

There is also a “Go to the Store” button to purchase a license and legalize Windows 10 on your computer.

If you don't activate Windows 10, you'll see a reminder on your desktop to activate it, you won't be able to change color settings, and you can only set wallpaper on your desktop using the Photos app.

15. Links

Below you can download all the necessary files to download and install Windows 10 that I mentioned in this article.

Wait for Windows 10 to download and install, and.

Hard drive A-Data Ultimate SU650 240GB
Hard drive Transcend StoreJet 25M3 1 TB
Sandisk Cruzer

Microsoft is currently actively working on its new operating system. This operating system will be called Windows 10. The final version of Windows 10 is expected to appear in the summer of 2015.

The most interesting thing is that Microsoft recently announced that Windows 10 will be free. Or rather, that everyone will be able to upgrade to Windows 10. Not only users of licensed Windows 7 and Windows 8, but also users of pirated versions. How true this statement is will become clear only after the release of Windows 10, but for now we present to your attention a guide on how to install Windows 10 using it as an example.

Create a boot disk to install Windows 10

If you don't have a Windows 10 installation disc, you'll need to create one. It can be done, . As an example, we will demonstrate how this is done using the free ImgBurn program.

After launching the ImgBurn program, you need to click on the “Write image file to disk” button.

After this, a window for burning disk images will open in front of you. Here you need to click on the button with the image of the folder (Browse button) and select the ISO file with Windows 10.

Once the file with the ISO image is selected, you just need to click on the burn button, which is located at the bottom of the ImgBurn program window. After which the Windows 10 operating system will begin recording to disk.

As you can see, burning an installation disc is very simple. All you need to do is click a few buttons and select the ISO file to burn.

Setting up the BIOS to install Windows 10

Next, you need to configure the BIOS so that the computer tries to boot first from the DVD disc, and not from a flash drive or hard drive. The BIOS setup process can vary significantly depending on what version of BIOS your computer is running. But, in most cases this is done in the following way.

Many experienced computer users believe that for better performance and better performance, the operating system needs to be cleaned up periodically. It is clear that such users would prefer to install “zero” ten rather than install it on top of the old operating system. Let us leave aside discussions about how correct this opinion is and to what extent it is justified to spend time on clean installation of Windows 10 from the official Microsoft website instead of simply setting the “ten” on top of the “seven” or “eight” - after all, as they say, there are so many people, so many opinions. There is no single correct answer, so everyone does what they think is right. And if someone foams at the mouth to prove that it is right or wrong, then, in my opinion, this does not mean that this person is right. If it seems to you that a clean image installed on a formatted hard drive works faster and more stable, then why look for other ways. Let me add that I myself think so. I don’t have logical evidence of the benefits of a clean installation of Windows 10, like many other Windows OS users - only many years of experience, intuition and subjective feeling.

So, what should you do if you don’t want to upgrade your Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10, but want to clean and format your hard drive and then install a clean Windows 10 on it?

To ensure that all users can safely install Windows 10 completely, Microsoft has created a tool that allows you to burn an operating system image to a DVD or USB drive. You can download this free program from official website companies.

But be careful! If on this page you select the blue “Update now” button at the top, then a program for updating Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10 will be downloaded to your computer. download a program for recording a clean image of “tens” you will have to go down and select the blue button “ Download the tool now ».

The MediaCreatorTool.exe file will load. After downloading is complete, you need to launch it like any other program and select “ Create installation media for another computer." We choose it even if we need to completely install Windows 10 on the same computer. Otherwise, if you select “Update this PC now,” the new OS will be written over the old one, and not completely. (In general, it would be more logical to call these items “Update the operating system” and “Create an image of Windows 10”, but here, apparently, as often happens with software, there is an incorrect literal translation from English into Russian).

At one time, when launching the MediaCreationTool utility, it was observed error 80072f76 0x20017. It was associated with “jambs” exclusively on the Microsoft side and arose everywhere around the world from September to December 2017. At the moment, the problem has been resolved, but in such cases, you can use a “crutch” to download the Windows 10 image from the official website. You can download the top ten directly by replacing the user agent in your browser with Apple Safari. Everything is simple there: press F12 in the Edge browser - then go to the “Emulation” tab - change the user agent string to “Apple Safari (iPad)” - download the necessary images from Microsoft official website(described in more detail here in English). If you don’t have access to the Edge browser due to the lack of Windows 10 anywhere and you decide to trust me (by the way, completely in vain - because you can’t trust anyone on the Internet), then here I have links to ISO files in the Mega cloud storage with the latest versions of Windows 10 as of December 2017: 32 bit and 64 bit. I will say right away that downloading from there will most likely be slow. It’s faster to use the method with the official website and changing the agent in the browser. After downloading an ISO image from Windows 10 using any of the described methods, you need to create a bootable USB flash drive from this installation image. This can be done using the utility Rufus.

The Windows 10 clean image burning program provides the ability to create it both on a USB drive and on a DVD.

But first, you need to select some parameters for the image of the Windows 10 operating system to be created (this must be done if the default settings do not suit you, since you are going to install a clean image of Windows 10 on another computer).

The first is the edition (Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Professional) and then the architecture (32-bit, 64-bit, or both). Regarding the release, I’ll say this: choose Windows 10 Home if you don’t understand what the difference is.

As for the 32- or 64-bit version, then you need to know the bit capacity of the computer you want to use. install a clean image of Windows 10. How to determine this, read the article "". If you need a disk from which you can install different versions of Windows 10 on several computers at once, then feel free to select the “Both” option. If there is no need for both images, then you should not choose the double option, since the weight of the installation disk will exactly double and be about 8 GB instead of 4 GB.

After all the necessary parameters are set, you need to select which media you want burn a clean image of Windows 10. If it is a USB drive (flash drive), then the image will be written directly to it.

If you select a DVD disc, the program will first ask you to select a location to save the program on your computer or laptop - for convenience, you can place it directly on your desktop. Only then can you burn the created image of clean Windows 10 to a DVD. One of the ways to do this is discussed in detail in my article “ How to burn an image to a DVD in Windows 10».

Installing a clean image of Windows 10

I don’t see any point in considering how exactly you can install clean Windows 10 on your computer. If you are at all wondering about a clean installation of Windows 10, then you obviously know how this process occurs when installing Windows 7 or 8. With version 10 of Windows, nothing new has appeared in this process. As for choosing individual parameters, I personally prefer to install “top ten” with the default settings, and only then, if necessary, change something on a running operating system.

Based on comments and personal messages, I realized that many people still have questions about installing Windows 10. Wrote a very detailed article "".

I foresee the question of activating Windows 10. I will not advertise pirated methods - if you wish, you can easily find a great variety of them. I assume that you are planning to install a clean Windows 10, already having a license for it. If the licensed “ten” was installed on the computer at least once, then the key is already linked to it and after a clean installation of the operating system it will be activated automatically. If you do not have a license and you (quite rightly) do not want to use pirated activation methods, then I advise you to read my article “ How to get a licensed version of Windows 10 for free and legally after July 2016».

P.S.: Just in case, I’ll add that to find the item activation in the parameters you can use the search (magnifying glass on the control panel). When you start typing the words “Activation...” in the search bar, you will see the item “Activation. System parameters". This is what you need to launch by simply pressing Enter.