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March 27th, 2017 02:00
Reinstall Win 7 or Clean Install Win 10?
I have an Alienware 17 (2013), the version with the GTX880M and the 80GB M.2 SSD. I mucked things up a bit by installing Win 10, adding a 480GB SSD as my boot drive, and (because I thought it was causing problems) wiping the M.2 drive.
I want to wipe everything and start over. I still have the original Win 7 install/recover discs. The question is whether I should start over with the Alienware disks, which will install Alienware drivers, or with the Win 10 clean install package. I suspect that if I try the former, this will not mesh well with my SSD. If I do the latter, Win 10 may have problems.
Suggestions?
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rotational
21 Posts
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March 27th, 2017 06:00
As long as you have a valid Win10 license (either by purchasing Win10 or previously upgrading from Win7/8 while it was free) you can and should skip Win7 and install Win10 cleanly. You will not need a CD key as it's baked into the machine.
Start here for a clean install of Windows 10: Download Windows 10
Natakuc41
86 Posts
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March 28th, 2017 13:00
You can Clean Install Windows 10 using the Windows 7 OEM key. A direct clean installation of Windows 10 will lead to superior performance.
Note that a new build of Windows 10 version 1703 will be available soon.
Tesla1856
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March 28th, 2017 14:00
You can do either.
But even if just using Windows-7 as a stepping stone (for an Overlay-Install or in-place upgrade), you really should finish the build-up (with any and all required Dell Win-7 drivers) because they will migrate over. See my Featured Post.
But I don't think I would bother if clean-install of Windows-10/64bit works (well, after running Windows Update and/or adding any required Dell drivers or course). I say make all devices work but keep it lean. Should not be a problem since that is a fairly new machine.