Installing 11 on a Brand New SSD

I have a Lenovo X1 Carbon (model 3444BCU) running Win10 Pro which I'd like to upgrade to Win11. At the same time I'd like to replace the SSD with a larger one. So the new SSD will contain nothing but whatever the manufacturer might have written on it. (I don't want to invest in the hardware which would let me copy the old SSD to the new one.). Will an install from a USB handle that, or might it expect at least a partition table and maybe other low level things? I should mention that my TPM is version 1.2. (I've read that a solution to the TPM problem is to put a lie in the registry. I'm not above that but of course the new SSD won't have a registry on it.). I'll appreciate any help/advice. Even if it's that I am not smart enough to pull this off. Thanks, Bob

Sorry. Build 17763.

If you go to the Tutorials section then there's one that gives you a step-by-step guide to do a clean install on a new disk.

Clean Install Windows 11

Download Windows 11 disk image (ISO) from Download Windows 11
Using Rufus 3.17 from Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way you can create a bootable usb to install Win11 on non-compatible hardware as per instructions at Rufus Introduces "Extended Windows 11 Installation" Support (Disables TPM/Secure Boot/RAM Requirements)

Yes, you can boot the computer from a Windows 10 or 11 installation USB flash drive and install Windows to a brand new, unformatted SSD. In fact doing a clean install to a completely blank drive with no partitions on it is the preferred way. But I would make one suggestion. After you have created the Windows installation USB flash drive, before you take apart your existing computer and remove the drive, I would suggest that you back up drivers to the Windows installation USB flash drive first.

Let's say your USB flash drive has drive letter E: when connected. If it is something else, change the drive letter in the below commands. You will want to run the commands in a command prompt with admin (run as administrator) window:


That way if you have any problems with device drivers in Device Manager after the clean install, you can reload them from the Drivers folder on your USB flash drive.

How much trouble will it be to get 11 up and running on a 9 year old laptop? https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/withdrawnbook/ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_1st_Gen.pdf

(Intel Gen3 CPU.)

bobkn said:

How much trouble will it be to get 11 up and running on a 9 year old laptop? https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/withdrawnbook/ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_1st_Gen.pdf

(Intel Gen3 CPU.)

Click to expand...

It would take me about 5 minutes:

But then there might be a problem with Windows 10/11 compatible drivers. So far all drivers compatible with Windows 10 are compatible with Windows 11.

I shouldn't have tried to discourage the OP from experimenting with 11 on a semi-ancient laptop. I suppose that any hardware that can run Win10 X64 tolerably can run 11, if the security stuff is bypassed.

I ran 10 X64 on a 2008 laptop with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 running on an nVidia chipset, with only 4GB of RAM. (Successfully worked around some driver issues.) I won't try upgrading it to 11, though. It's destined for recycling, when I get around to it.

Seems to run on anything - I used the Rufus method to create a usb for legacy hardware. The only driver missing on an atom netbook was graphics because there wasn’t a 64 but graphics driver for that machine (but found one that worked).
So yes - as above - good idea to copy drivers first.

RFS said:

If you go to the Tutorials section then there's one that gives you a step-by-step guide to do a clean install on a new disk.

Clean Install Windows 11

Click to expand...

Thanks RFS. I did see that tutorial but it contains a dialog in which you are asked to select the partition you want to install in. Since I'll be using a brand new SSD it won't have a partition table (at least I'd not expect it to have one). Thanks again, Bob

skcusime said:

Download Windows 11 disk image (ISO) from Download Windows 11
Using Rufus 3.17 from Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way you can create a bootable usb to install Win11 on non-compatible hardware as per instructions at Rufus Introduces "Extended Windows 11 Installation" Support (Disables TPM/Secure Boot/RAM Requirements)

Click to expand...

Thank you skcuysime, I will look into that solution. But I get very nervous using software which I don't get from an app store. Especially software which is messing around with low level stuff. I know from many experiences that software which does helpful stuff may also do bad things. But an early and very incomplete search of "rufus" on this forum is looking promising. Thanks again, Bob

bobkn said:

How much trouble will it be to get 11 up and running on a 9 year old laptop? https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/withdrawnbook/ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_1st_Gen.pdf

(Intel Gen3 CPU.)

Click to expand...

Wow! Has it been 9 years? None-the-less I don't want to just discard it without at least trying to upgrade it. And thanks for that great link to the Lenovo info. Thanks again, Bob

bob17821 said:

Thank you skcuysime, I will look into that solution. But I get very nervous using software which I don't get from an app store. Especially software which is messing around with low level stuff. I know from many experiences that software which does helpful stuff may also do bad things. But an early and very incomplete search of "rufus" on this forum is looking promising. Thanks again, Bob

Click to expand...

My apologies skcusime! I have learned that Rufus is available from the Windows App Store. Looks like the answer to my prayers. Thanks very much for making me aware of it. Bob

bob17821 said:

Thanks RFS. I did see that tutorial but it contains a dialog in which you are asked to select the partition you want to install in. Since I'll be using a brand new SSD it won't have a partition table (at least I'd not expect it to have one). Thanks again, Bob

Click to expand...

See step 11 where the starting point is a disk with just unallocated space. That's the point you will arrive at with your new disk. Here you can either click "next" and the whole disk will be set up as one partition (which you can shrink later if needed) or click "new" and you will be prompted to choose a size from the unallocated space for your partition.

Honestly it’s very easy :). I just downloaded Rufus Beta 3.1from their web page. Downloaded Windows 11 iso to a laptop. Used Rufus to burn the iso to usb stick. All Rufus is, is a method of burning an iso to a usb stick. But the version you want is the one made specifically for windows 11. So it removes the warnings about tpm missing etc. It is just pure windows 11.

I made two usb‘a with it. One for uefi hardware, one for legacy hardware. You have the option to choose when you make the usb stick. There are two drop down menus - one to choose uefi (it says gpt) or legacy (it says mbr). The other drop down menu you select “windows 11 extended “. That is the bit that removes the restrictions for hardware.

Then just put the new ssd in the machine and boot from the usb. Installs in minutes.

I’ve installed on two older laptops now. One it didn’t find a graphics driver immediately (but did after Windows updates done) snd couldn’t find my WiFi till after Windows updates were done. So I used my phone as a hotspot and connected to that to do the install. Then keep running Windows Update.

The link for the correct Rufus version is here. Select 3.16


Instructions on how to use it are on this article - step by step