Format drive correctly for Windows 10
Solution 1:
It sounds like you have installation media on a USB drive and intend to install Windows 10 using the entire capacity of one internal drive. If that's correct, the following should work:
- (Optional) Shutdown and temporarily disconnect any other hard drives or SSDs that may be present.*
- (Optional) Use Microsoft's "Media Creation Tool" to update your install media before you begin. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15088/windows-10-create-installation-media.**
- Boot from the USB installation media and begin the installation process.
- When you get to the point of choosing where to install, follow the on-screen instructions to delete all partitions on the target drive. (Alternately, you could delete all partitions via Linux before you get here.)
- Select the entire drive (without partitions) as the place to install to.
- Continue as instructed by the Windows installer software.
Using this method, the Windows installer will create the partitions it needs automatically and install to them.
Good luck.
* Regarding optional step 1, some versions of the Windows installer (Win 7 in particular) would write to drives other than the target drive. This resulted in systems that could become unbootable if the other drive was later removed. This may no longer be an issue, but I have not heard confirmation that it was fixed. Having only one drive present is a sure way to know that is the only drive modified during install.
** Regarding optional step 2, Microsoft increased the size of the recovery partition in their 1709 update. So updating older versions of Windows 10 now creates a second recovery partition in the larger size. If you anticipate imaging and restoring the boot drive you are making (for example, to a larger hard drive during some future upgrade), this can create a real hassle. The second recovery partition is only created on updates, so starting with a newer installer avoids the issue. See: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/extra-recovery-partition-after-windows-10-1709/d4ecbd8b-4076-414c-b815-b022035747a5.