Also, when installing Windows using the a W10 image on a USB drive, I do so without being connected to the Internet. During the install process, Microsoft wants you to 'Log In' to your Microsoft Account, or create one. I neither have one, nor do I need/want one. You can click past this point in the installation process and there's no requirement to do it later either.

After the installation is complete, THEN I connect to the internet and run Windows Update.

You also want to be sure to run through ALL of the 'Settings' at first sign on to turn off/disable all of the intrusive Privacy Related settings (pretty much everything) and later access the Settings Menu and turn off anything you deem invasive (again, pretty much everything) under Privacy & Security as well.

If you're doing it with Win10Pro, you can choose Domain Join, which I believe bypasses that step.

All of our company computers are actually joined to the domain, but it's a way to bypass it for a personal as well.

Good luck sincerely. I tried resetting my machine recently. It hung up in the process. I had to call Dell help tech to walk me through.

There's apparently two reset methods: the Windows OS reset and the Boot Reset method accessed with F12 during boot up.

But here's my contribution:
Prior to Reset:
1. Download latest installation versions of software programs of important programs. You might as well install the latest versions after the reset instead of installing the prior versions you have and then making the program update itself.

2. Export settings of important programs. For example, I use Acronis backup. I export existing backup profiles to a file and then after I reinstall Acronis, I import the backup settings. It saves you a lot of work and headaches. Other program settings I save are my OneNote Ribbon Customization and Beyond Compare Session settings. You may have programs which you've tweaked to your own preference or needs.

After I do the above, then I save the data to elsewhere. Then I do the reset process.

Also, shouldn't be a problem with a 4 year old machine, but newer Dell laptops are shipping in a RAID config that prevents you from seeing the partitions on a fresh install.
Have to go into the BIOS & change it off that RAID format to be able to see the partitions & delete them.

Well, I'm dead in the water. Booted to the USB drive. Shows four partition and says on all of them "Windows can't be installed on Drive 0 partion 1, 2, 3 or 4"
."The selected disk is of the GPT partition style
" and now I have an unbootable Laptop.

I usually delete all partitions on the drive then install on the unallocated space that's left over.

If you need more detail, I can spin up one of our machines here & take a few photos

Delete each and every one of those partitions. Then select the one remaining partition and do the install.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Well, I'm dead in the water. Booted to the USB drive. Shows four partition and says on all of them "Windows can't be installed on Drive 0 partion 1, 2, 3 or 4"
."The selected disk is of the GPT partition style
" and now I have an unbootable Laptop.

If you are doing a clean install, during the install you need to delete all partitions and let Windows create the new ones.
It's one reason I suggested to get a new disk to do the install in case you need to fall back during any failure.
Since you have a data backup you can hopefully rely on that data.

Including the one for the USB.

Delete only the partitions on the drive you are intending to install windows on.

Still says Windows can't be installed to the disk because it is of GPt partition style.

You may need to change to legacy boot mode.

You can fix this, and honestly you probably want to install on a GPT partition, NOT on an MBR formatted HD. The easiest way is to run 'DISKPART', an MS DOS program. The commands, in order are as follows:

DISKPART> list disk

DISKPART> select disk 0

DISKPART> clean

After doing this, you should be able to use the Bootable USB to Partition & Format the HDD, and then install Windows 10.

ETA - If you use DISKPART, be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN you know which Disk is which, as you cannot recover from doing this to the wrong drive. If you want to be thorough, you can delete partitions on the HDD, prior to the 'clean' command.

The more difficult option is to pull the drive and reformat it as GPT. Might be able to do it from the media creation tool and open a command window to access diskpart. Let's see what others suggest here...

And just how do I get to a command prompt under these circumstances?

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
You can fix this, and honestly you probably want to install on a GPT partition, NOT on an MBR formatted HD. The easiest way is to run 'DISKPART', an MS DOS program. The commands, in order are as follows:

DISKPART> list disk

DISKPART> select disk 0

DISKPART> clean

After doing this, you should be able to use the Bootable USB to Partition & Format the HDD, and then install Windows 10.

Should he do the convert to MBR here as well?

This is what I do in addition to what you have posted.
DISKPART> convert mbr
DISKPART> create partition primary
DISKPART> select part 1
DISKPART> active
DISKPART> format fs

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
And just how do I get to a command prompt under these circumstances?

You will need to reboot to do this...

Try this:

https://www.tenforums.com/tuto...ot-windows-10-a.html

^^^THIS - Get to the C prompt (C:\) and run 'DISKPART' from there!

I would NOT convert to MBR! Unless you're installing Windows 7, and even then I wouldn't do it! On ANY machine with a modern UEFI Bios, I would want to install on a GPT partitioned/formatted HDD.

NO do not use MBR.

You can delete everything during the install and do not need to use DISKPART.

All of that was correct except format fs needed to format fs=ntfs. Formatting now