How do I get a clean Install of W10?

Question

Hello,

My laptop did an update on Monday 04.01.16, first day back after the holidays. Since then it has not worked.

It seemed it could not access the internet but was otherwise ok, so I was looking for information about this but as time went on it became aparent that the laptop was in a much worse state than that. All my restore points were wiped and it couldn't find the backups that I'd done.

Last night I had got to the pont of no returrn, I saved my files and tried to reset it in W10 - it didn't work.

Tried using the DELL W8 recovery media - it didn't work.

I wasn't surprised, I had read that if these did not work a clean install is required.

So how do I get a clean install and what about the key?

Obviously I have a 2nd machine but I need my W10 laptop to work!

Philip_Yip · Accepted Answer

The Latitude E3540 has a UEFI BIOS with SecureBoot. These technologies would have been enabled during shipping but since you downgraded to Windows 7 you likely disabled these settings. You should update the UEFI BIOS revision to A10 and then you should enable both UEFI and SecureBoot.

See these two videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpQxjpRXrjc&index=1&list=PL1RkaknDn7v-Ucth4gt0U3BHVSY7oNkWr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyut46uoaiI&index=3&list=PL1RkaknDn7v-Ucth4gt0U3BHVSY7oNkWr

http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/latitude-3540-laptop.html

Regarding the Bootable USB it won't show as a boot option unless a Bootable USB is inserted. To make the Bootable USB see here. Since you will have enabled UEFI and SecureBoot use the GPT partition scheme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycGr3MBcAnw&index=5&list=PL1RkaknDn7v-Ucth4gt0U3BHVSY7oNkWr

To install from it see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0F7ZvNsvL8&index=6&list=PL1RkaknDn7v-Ucth4gt0U3BHVSY7oNkWr

After Windows 10 TH2 installation you will need to install the rest of the system drivers see here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C9s-uHFlw8&index=7&list=PL1RkaknDn7v-Ucth4gt0U3BHVSY7oNkWr

http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/latitude-3540-laptop.html

DELL-Todd S · Answer

Hi,

You need to get an iso image of the Windows 10 install program to do a clean install. Here are some links that should help you.

Dell instructions on a clean install of Windows 10 using an iso image

Windows 10 iso image download from Microsoft

iso files these days can be run off flash drives or DVD disks but I think most people use USB now. Either way works fine and the Microsoft page has information on how to do both.

With Windows 10 as long as you did the free upgrade it will register a product key onto your hard drive and when you then do the clean install using the iso file it will read that registration and not request a key.

I hope this helps. If you have more questions or need more help please post those here as well as clicking on my Dell Todd username and sending me a private message with your Dell Service Tag number to help me in troubleshooting or answering any questions.

Good luck. I haven't done a clean install myself but from what I've heard it is pretty simple these days.

Todd

Philip_Yip · Answer

What is the model of Dell? Did it come preinstalled with Windows 7 or Windows 8.1?

See here for a video tutorial on making a Bootable USB and clean installing:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1RkaknDn7v-Ucth4gt0U3BHVSY7oNkWr

See here for a written guide:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-windows-10-oem-and-retail-iso/

Slapkit · Answer

thank you for the info.

I have a Latitude 3540 which has legacy BIOS unsupported and the boot options itemized in the BIOS are HDD / DVD etc / Network - not USB.

Will the bootable USB work on my laptop?

It has a W8 pro sticker but I was running W7 before upgrade to W10.

I've downloaded the iso ( which I notice has a time limit of 24hrs, I hope it's ok to redownload!)

Which is the best way to create a bootable DVD iso, I'm using a vista PC?

Regards

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How do I get a clean Install of W10?

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