Solved When installing Windows 10/11, is it required to delete the existing parititions?

A few months ago I did a clean install of Windows 10 on another laptop after a BSOD. I didn't delete any of the existing partitions, and only selected the primary one. I don't remember if the space was listed as unallocated. I now have received a BSOD on another laptop, and am in the process of performing a clean install of Windows 11.

When reading the ElevenForum tutorial, I noticed that it mentioned to delete the partitions until there is only one left that's labeled as unallocated, but I didn't remember having to do that when installing Windows 10.

So, I went to the TenForums tutorial for clean installing Windows 10, and found that it also says to delete the existing partitions.

However, it mentions to delete the partitions for the best results, so I'm wondering if it's required, or if it just ensures that no problems might occur during the installation.

I looked it up and found that on the Microsoft website, it says that it's not required.

Thank you!

Not required, just good practice to ensure total wipe/reinstall

I've always deleted all existing partitions and take the drive down to 'unallocated' when clean installing. If you do this then you are asked to create a new partition when installing because 'unallocated' means no partitions now exist.

Also be aware that if the CPU is an Intel11th generation then W11 will not be able to load the drivers required to initially allow you to continue with the install, it will report 'no drives can be found' and you have to add the driver yourself to the installation media.

All the info is out there to do that if that is applicable... its no big deal, just something to be aware of. Just check the CPU type and version first.

UEFI-GPT drives has four system partitions:
- EFI - 100M Fat32
- MSR - 16M RAW
- C: - NTFS
- Recovery - +- 850M NTFS


These partitions should be erased and windows installed to the unallocated space created.

It is a good practice to create a medium size C: partition (80G) and create at the end of the drive on the remaining space a D: partition for data only. In case you need to do a clean install, you would delete the 4 system partitions, install Windows to the unallocated space created and your D: data partition will still be there.
ALWAYS have your data backed up on an external drive.