Clean Install - Windows 8

[joey1558]

Well first off I should probably ask this: Would you recommend doing a clean install in the first place? I can uninstall a lot of the apps etc, but things like Samsung Kies and various other programs do not uninstall correctly and leave archive files all over the place. I run a lot of CPU heavy computation programs and want a clean system, but am I going to see any noticeable performance benefits from doing a clean install rather than just uninstalling programs? I know that is a very speculative question, but I am just asking you to give me your recommendation.

 

[Brink]

1. Is it possible to/How can I clone, or make an exact copy of my current system and place it on an external hard drive without messing the data up. Aside from my C: drive, I have 5! other partitions and I'm not sure what contains what. There's a healthy: a EFI system partition , and 4!! recovery partitions; some only half a GB some 20GBs

You could use something like the free program Macrium Reflect Free to create a system image backup with.​

2. I also wanted to confirm that even though I already recovered my encrypted product key, do I still need to enter a generic key upon installation, and activated later with my OEM key?

Your product key embedded in tge UEFI firmware will automatically be detected and entered by the Windows installation if you install either Windows 8 or 8.1, and not the Pro edition since that's not what your key is for.​

Well first off I should probably ask this: Would you recommend doing a clean install in the first place? I can uninstall a lot of the apps etc, but things like Samsung Kies and various other programs do not uninstall correctly and leave archive files all over the place. I run a lot of CPU heavy computation programs and want a clean system, but am I going to see any noticeable performance benefits from doing a clean install rather than just uninstalling programs? I know that is a very speculative question, but I am just asking you to give me your recommendation.

It's up to you, but if you're not happy with a factory default installation, then yeah a clean install would let you start fresh. Just be sure that you have all drivers downloaded from Asus for your PC's model number to have handy to install after Windows is finished installing.​

 

[Mooly]

Just wondering... as you do

Have all the W10 related updates that were forced onto W8.1 users in the run up to W10 launching now been removed from the MS update servers ? In other words would a clean and updated 8.1 install now be as if W10 had never existed.

 

[Brink]

Hello Mooly,

Yes, it should now be so.

 

[Mooly]

Interesting, thanks...

 

[Brink]

 

[Stealth]

How is it possible that there is not one mention of how to get Updates Installed in this Tutorial? This would be the biggest challenge to "Clean Install Windows 8" Please, I'm just trying to find out if there is a faster way to do this. My current way involves about 6hrs of Service Stacks and Convenience Rollups. I devised this myself, and still cannot find one decent piece of info on MS nor the Technet Site!

Thanks, Stealth

 

[Brink]

Hello Stealth,

About all you can do is get the latest version ISO file to use to create installation media with for the clean install. After the clean install, you would check for updates in Windows Update until fully updated.

 

[Stealth]

Thanks for the quick reply Brink, sorry to be so frustrated but MS is driving me crazy. I did get it figured out and will post back as to my Install Time. Last one was about 6hrs, and the OEM's are taking about 7:40hrs and average to good equiptment, does this sound correct to you?
I have a pretty current Image.

I just Updated my Service Stack and Rollup also just in case they have been Updated.

 

[Brink]

It could take that long if you have a lot of updates available to install.

 

[Mooly]

I have reverted my 11 yr old Acer back to W8.1 (done around 1 month ago) because it was struggling with W10 through lack of driver support.

Anyhow, I used my retail W8.1 disc and used the following method for updates.

1/ Turn off updating before connecting to the internet for the first time.
2/ Run a manual update check... zillions to install of course.

What I do now is quickly scroll through them all and select them in three monthly blocks, all those for example within Jan to March 2015 for example. Install those, reboot, select next three months worth and so on. Doing that I actually ended up with zero failed updates... yea.

And yes, 6 hours actually sounds pretty quick tbh. I think I staggered mine over a couple of days. Pure updating, nothing else touched or used, not even opening IE. When it was done, make an image.

 

[Stealth]

I agree Mooly, 6hrs is pretty good.

I think I could have done this one faster, but had a few issues along the way. The 6hr one was with AMD A8-4550M and an SSD on a laptop. This install seems to be going well, will report back, fingers crossed, no help from ms that's for sure. I need to Image Windows 8 and just Deploy it that way in the future. For me, Windows 8 is better than 10, but I'm trying to serve clients also, and they want the newest stuff once their pc's get old.

Looks like I'm all done, so the new Updates I downloaded may be new as seen at the ms site. Looks like it only took about 4hrs. I checked for Updates Twice now manually and nothing coming in anymore. 1,161.5 was the Initial Update total and they failed for some reason. I tried again and they all installed. Then another small round and all was good to go! I'm getting better at this every time. Most I see struggle to do it in a whole day or more. I suspect there will be a little more to come, and I am very surprised to say it was not such a pain this time. Last OEM I did took me like 8hrs.