Clean install Windows 10

I have googled but can't find a definite answer to my question. All the answers are incomplete.

I want to clean install Windows 10 using USB. When restarting from USB I want to use advanced and format all the partitions and create one partition then install Windows 10 on it.

I bought my HP laptop with Windows 8 and upgraded for free to Windows 10 and activated auto.

Will Windows 10 activate after I remove all partitions and create one partition out of them and then install Windows 10 on it?

I have 2/3 Recovery partitions and windows old folder etc. Before the upgrade I only had one Recovery partition.

Scenario 1:

I have one Desktop with win8 activated, used free upgrade to win10 and activated. Formatted HDD and re-installed win10 with USB media from Microsoft. It did not activate after clean install. I had to install win8, activate it, upgrade to win10 and then it activated.

Scenario 2:

I have one laptop with windows 8 activated, used free upgrade to win10. Now I want to format all my partitions because they are useless and make one partition. This is possible when formatting. Because my HP laptop came with OEM OS, I do not have a serial because it was embedded in the recovery. So I can't use a serial to activate win10 if it does not activate itself. I also do not have the serial in this case to install win8 and activate it and then upgrade to win10 if win10 does not activate the same way as scenario 1.

I need an answer to if I can remove all paritions, create one and install Windows 10 on it so it activates. Or is the hidden super secret spy serial key stored on one of those partitions?

Solution 1:

If you have taken the free update for Windows 10, then Microsoft recorded the activation for your hardware on their activation servers. You can wipe the computer and proceed with a clean install.

During the install, Windows 10 will ask for a key, but you can skip this step. Once you have network drivers installed it will go out to the internet and activate automatically.

Please note, you can only upgrade to the edition of Windows 10 your computer was originally entitled to. So if you upgraded from Win8 to Win10 (home edition), then you cannot load the machine with Win10 Pro. It won't activate. You CAN, however, use the 64-bit edition if your computer only came with 32-bit -- as long as you don't try to go from home to Pro or vice versa.

Additionally, I would recommend you remove all partitions and install Windows 10 to a blank drive. By default Windows 10 will create multiple partitions automatically. Do not try to create one big partition on your own. If your firmware is UEFI, then your disk must be formatted GPT and have at least an EFI partition in addition to the OS partition.

Solution 2:

I went to CMD and typed slmgr /xpr to check if my Windows was activated Permanently. It was so I proceeded with the following:

HP Laptop with OEM Windows 8 upgraded to Windows 10 for free. After that I made the media creation tool provided by Microsoft. Then I went to Start -> Settings -> Update & Security -> Recovery -> Under advanced start-up selected Restart now -> selected the USB that Windows 10 was on and skipped the part where it asks for the key. Then selected advanced and removed all partitions. Then made a new partition and it created 4 partitions. I installed Windows 10 on the primary one, in my case partition 4. After connecting to the internet and using the same Hotmail Microsoft account Windows was activated.

I remember doing the same on my home Desktop few months ago, but then it did not activate and I had to re-install 8, upgrade to 10 to activate it.