Clean Windows 10 installation

Hi guys, I want to reinstall windows 10 on my 13R3, but I have yet to understand how to do it.
I know there is alien respawn but I'm afraid that will install all the bloatware I want to remove.
Could I just use a usb drive with windows 10 on it? How would I recover my serial then?

 

Creating a USB flash with Microsoft official tool should be sufficient. You may have to disconnect your other internal hardrives prior to doing the fresh install (otherwise you will get an error message when starting windows installation).
Other than that, the serial number is already integrated into your Bios and it will be automatically picked up by Windows during installation and activated on first connection to the internet.

 

Thank you I did not know about the bios part! Now I've got all I needed to know, thank you.
Btw could I just remove respawn partition?

 

Change from RAID to AHCI if needed.

 

Sorry, to do what? If you're talking about disks I only have one disk inside.

 

I was talking about SATA operation modes ie. AHCI or RAID. Choose AHCI if you're planning to install Linux or other OSes. If you use only Windows use RAID. AHCI ensures max. compatibility than RAID.

 

Ok, thank you.

 

If you are using an NVMe m.2 drive, also ensure you are in AHCI mode. that way you'll be able to load NVME drivers specific to your SSD and get better performance..

 

I'm running a pci-e 256GB SSD drive. Actually I still don't have clear if that's nvme or not. Actually I just don't know what nvme is. Actually I don't even know what m.2 is, and I don't even know how pic-e, nvme and m.2 relate to each other, lol!

 

Change to AHCI only if you are installing a different OS other then Windows or if you are installing a different m.2 such as a Samsung 960 pro as you cannot use Magician without it.
If you are using the stock Dell provided drive RAID and AHCI perform the same and in some regards AHCI will actually be using an old controller. Selecting RAID actually uses the NVMe controller vs the older AHCI controller. However with all that said, several people have done testing that has shown the performance from both modes is right around the same.

Heres a good read. https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/4gke4k/a_closer_look_at_ahci_vs_raid/

 

When I installed my 950 pro M.2 I didn't use AHCI with a clean install. I wanted to use Magician and install the correct drivers and you do have to use AHCI. If you need to switch after you installed windows,
1)Enable a safe mode boot by running the Command Prompt in Admin mode and enter
bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal
2)enable AHCI in the Bios
3)Boot into winodws safe mode, and run the Command Prompt in Admin mode and enter to disable safe mode boot
bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot
4) Reboot into windows normally and install Magician and drivers

 

I'm using standard inbox NVMe driver & yes, practically there is little/no difference whilst running on RAID. The fact is, I'm using Linux and with RAID I wasn't able to get the new drive detected, so switched to AHCI and everything worked right.

 

I did exactly the same thing and these steps must be stickied so that, people can find it easily.