is it Really Necessary to Disconnect all other drives before a clean install?

Hello All

is it really necessary to disconnect all other drives before a Windows 11 Clean install? as my last Reset ended up making my user account folder half of my email name for Microsoft account, plus wanna get system all fixed up.
Except don't have my work table up here currently after the Townhome inspection--i can get it back up here if need be, as otherwise i cannot access where Sata drive is installed in my case, as no room to get on other side of PC Desk to unplug said drive.

The 2nd M.2 is easy as its secured with ez-clip, not worried on the Samsung 990 Pro in M.2 Slot_2, thought about moving that to M.2_Slot 1, but at this point i'm like forget it

((thought i might be able to access the data cable for the Sata drive from Glass Side of Case i just realized)), is that enough or do i need to disconnect the Drives Power cord as welll?

is it really necessary to disconnect all other drives before a Windows 11 Clean install?

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There's been a lot of issues on various forums about having other drives connected especially if one had been previously used as a System/Boot or Windows drive. The installation routine could put part of Windows on a second drive and if that drive was later removed break the running of the OS [had that happen to me with a Win10 and the BIOS had a default setting of AHCI/RAID, had to redo it after taking out the second drive].

Ok I'll wait til i got the time to disconnect the drives, Then do the Clean Install with only minimum items connected to PC, Internet i'll reconnect after install done.

As don't really wanna re do a second time lol if i can help it

Already did 2 System Resets last week attempting to solve another issue lol.

Not even sure i need the Sata drive installed inside system as not really storing much on it, except Music Folder lol

no it isn't.
just make sure that you install Windows to the correct drive when installing
deleting all partitions on that drive and allowing Windows to re-partition as required.
unless you want something else or other partitioning.

i have my main 1TB drive partitioned 25% for C: drive and install Windows to this partition on the drive
the rest of the drive (75%) as D: partition i use for data after transferring the folders to it from C: drive.

you may want something different.
best of luck, Steve ..

As you can see, you may get some varied responses. Strictly speaking, no, it is not necessary, but unless you have this down to a science and know exactly what the results are likely to be in advance, you may avoid "unexpected results" by disconnecting other drives.

Put another way, it is a good way to avoid unexpected results so it couldn't hurt to disconnect those other drives.

Of course, if you a glutton for punishment like some of us, you might just wing it and see what happens

Yeah gonna go with disconnecting i think, rather avoid unexpected results, and have it perfectly done, and not rushed like i typically have to do on most things lol.

Now on Secondary Laptop that i can't really get open, on that one i got 2 different sized drives, so i've gotten lucky on that one, as it would be hard to screw up, not saying i couldn't lol, but on Secondary Laptop boot M.2 is only 128GB lol, and HDD drive for storage is 1TB lol,

Not like Desktop we're all drives are 1TB each (should try to get 2TB NVMe to be the NEW Game Drive lol prior to doing the clean install maybe lol)

It's always a good practice to disconnect any other drives when performing a clean install.
That doesn't mean it's impossible to do it without disconnecting the others. But if things go wrong, the outcome can be devastating.

Stigg said:

It's always a good practice to disconnect any other drives when performing a clean install.
That doesn't mean it's impossible to do it without disconnecting the others. But if things go wrong, the outcome can be devastating.

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Yes gonna go with disconnecting after all, as i realized the Desktop is a bit harder than other Household Machines to get right lol, Considering all drives inside Desktop 1TB Each lol. Too easy to screw up i feel

It's a pain to do, especially with NVMe drives that under the GPU!
As far as I know Windows won't create boot partitions on an already in-use drive, so if you're installing anywhere other than 'Drive 0' make sure Drive 0 isn't blank - Windows *should* then put the boot partition where you want it to go

Well im lucky my second slot is under GPU, but i can easily access it--as the slot is closer for M2_2 slot to the bottom of Motherboard, about 2-3 Slots Below Video card, not hard to access that one lol.

Slot 1 is a little harder if i don't remove Video card, and reaching between Air Cooler and top of video card, somehow i managed to do that on Christmas to install the Newer Boot NVMe at the time.

But since i couldn't get to video card latch that well, i was like ok well i'll try it that way lol, it worked, but if i do ever switch out Slot 1 NVMe again, will get video card removed to make it easier lol


Drive 0 is Samsung 860 Evo Sata drive i do believe--May remove this at some point, if i end up not needing it, but it is not blank currently

Drive 1 is Boot NVMe according to Diskpart, Detail disk info


and Drive 2 i'm sure is Samsung 990 Pro 1TB

I'll probably just remove the 2nd M.2 when im ready to do this, and disconnect the Sata drive, leaving only M.2_1 installed.

Then get it installed, and then shutdown again and reinstall M.2 #2, and decide if keeping Sata drive or not lol. ((2nd M.2 is secured by MSI Ez-clip, so really easy to get out, versus screw that secured #1 M.2 lol))

Just Moving the heavy case is part sorta not looking forward lol that much lol, but i can do it, but definitely doing dust clean out at same time, as not moving heavy case too much lol.

See step #10 of the tutorial. If you don't know what Drive # you need to choose, you could always decide to use the DISKPART utility to find out. In the screenshot below you can see that, after I select Disk 1 (sel dis 1), list volume (lis vol) shows that the boot volume with drive letter C is on that disk.

I am due to a fresh clean install soon. I have had this computer going without a clean install for several years now. I usually do it every year for a fresh start. I always disconnect all drives besides the two M.2 NVMe drives. Never have a problem doing that. Good luck.

Scramjet said:

I usually do it every year

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I was just like you, but after a huge modifying of Window image with NTLite, working with registries, services and scheduled tasks, I have a stable Windows now. just run a maintenance script after every update to make sure it's working well. you can read my scripts on GitHub and create a script for yourself. before running anything I strongly recommend testing them on a VM. I tested it on VM for 2 months and now I'm using my modified Windows on my main machine.

I learned the hard way on this. One time I left all three drives in the computer when reinstalling Windows. I installed correctly on the first drive. However, later after I removed the other two drives the computer would no longer boot. I ended up reinstalling Windows again on the first drive. The difference was that it was the only drive in the computer.

The only exception to this is when the computer has multiple M.2 drives. I wouldn't remove the other M.2 drive because doing that would require dismantling the computer. That is taking out the CPU cooler and GPU to get to the M.2 drive.

Well will get the Sata drive removed, then decide on if i wanna remove 2nd M.2 or not at that time. My 2nd M.2 is easy to get to. Not even sure when the problem with MS App store started updating Apps daily same ones lol.

Then Me was like i gotta get this fixed

So then i was like ok Reset install #1--Did not solve it lol, then i had duplicate OneDrives

So then i was like i know Reset Install-Remove Everything, instead of keeping Files, Well solved the OneDrive issue, but now i have my user folder name like my Microsoft email name lol, Store app issues not solved either lol.

So now im like Clean install sometime soon, and if store issue acts same after all the updates done, then not gonna worry on that anymore

Then hopefully it stays stable and works great for a long time

If you want to avoid any issues, it is always a good idea to be proactive and it doesn't take much to disconnect a drive.