How do restore factory settings on my SSD?? I need to wipe it clean! Please Help

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Keel0

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Mar 10, 2016
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Hello all! This will be my very first post so bare with me. I am having a huge issue.

I have just bought new parts for a new pc to replace the old pc I have, the only piece from my old pc I want to still use is my ssd that I recently bought as well. The problem is that I have already plugged in and used the ssd on the old pc and used Samsung magician to transfer all the data from my hdd to my sdd so both now have the operating system for windows 10 written on them and all my old data. So after building my new pc and trying the ssd on it, the boot up did not work.. I realized after a bunch of research that you cannot do that, so now I just want a clean install on my new pc since I have a hard copy of windows 8.1 from the old pc build.. So my question is how do I delete everything off of the ssd. ive tried going back on my old pc and reconnecting the ssd and using Samsung magicians Secure erase. but it does not seem to work, when I plug in a formatted usb like it asks, it restarts and reboots entirely the same.. I need everything deleted off this ssd for the new pc
 
Solution
Darkbreeze
You don't need to bother with all that. Since you already have a digital entitlement for windows 10, simply download the media creation tool and create installation media, then do a clean install on the SSD with NO other drives attached to the system so that it doesn't pick up the boot partition from another drive and mistakenly use that instead of creating a new one on a new partition on the SSD.

During the install, choose the custom option, delete ALL the existing partitions on the drive and then install windows 10 to the unallocated space without creating any new partitions or performing any formatting. Windows will do that automatically. Click "skip" when it asks for your product key during the install, as you don't need it...
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Jun 24, 2014
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You don't need to bother with all that. Since you already have a digital entitlement for windows 10, simply download the media creation tool and create installation media, then do a clean install on the SSD with NO other drives attached to the system so that it doesn't pick up the boot partition from another drive and mistakenly use that instead of creating a new one on a new partition on the SSD.

During the install, choose the custom option, delete ALL the existing partitions on the drive and then install windows 10 to the unallocated space without creating any new partitions or performing any formatting. Windows will do that automatically. Click "skip" when it asks for your product key during the install, as you don't need it. Windows will automatically activate once you connect to the internet since your motherboard already has a digital entitlement for windows 10.

You can get the media here to create a USB or DVD installation image:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209


And then as I explained above, do a clean install as follows:

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

 
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Solution
K

Keel0

Commendable
Mar 10, 2016
2
0
1,510
@darkbreeze well I have a windows 8.1 copy, and I upgraded to windows 10 later on for free.... and I'm sorry i did not explain that I also tried putting the ssd on the new pc and putting the install disc for windows 8.1 one and running it. I then chose custom as you said but it says drive 0 partition 1 as the systems storage. and then drive 0 partition 2. And has a list of options like format and stuff at the bottom I tried clicking format but it says I cannot install windows to that disc (which is the ssd) because the selected disc has a MBR partition table
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Jun 24, 2014
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Disconnect the secondary drive from the system, and then follow the instructions for the clean install after you create the Windows 10 installation media. It doesn't matter that you upgraded for free from windows 8, you still now have a digital entitlement from Windows 10 and your Windows 8 license is now invalid as it has been elevated to a Windows 10 license. If you choose to install Windows 8 instead of 10 on that system, you will probably need to contact the microsoft help desk in order to activate Windows 8.

I wouldn't bother going backwards, just create the installer for Windows 10 and then follow the directions including deleting all the existing partitions as explained in the tutorial I linked to. There will be no drive 0 partition 1 or 2 once you delete the partitions. Do not worry about clicking format or anything other than just select each partition one at a time and click delete. When there is nothing left but unallocated space, no partitions, nothing formatted, then just click next and windows will create the necessary partitions and perform the formatting all on it's own.
 
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