srenovo wrote:
Let me begin with windows 10 has been a disaster for me - so I have avoided it BUT I did buy a windows 10 Beebox to play my music and surf the web. I upgraded the ram to 8gb so that I could see win10 on my 4K TV - and have some headroom. I added a 500gb ssd that was not in use and have my backups sent there and I thought about making it the boot drive but I have to many hobbies so I just muddle along - then I read your post.So my issue is that I am not familiar with windows 10 - if I want to follow your protocol - where do I get a windows 10 key - do I have to use software to extract the key before I reinstall windows10 or does windows 10 come w/o the need for a windows key? If I download the install from the web. I am think that I would just remove the 32GB ssd and use the 500gb ssd then. |
First ... I don't guarantee anything I say is 100% correct ... so proceed at your own risk. I'm happy with win10 ... download Classic Shell or similar to provide a win7 style start menu and, for me, it's as easy to use as XP or win7.
Personally I wouldn't transfer win10 to the 500gb ssd ... probably I could do it but I think much more complicated than making a fresh, clean install on the original 32gb . For me, it would make no practical difference using the PC with the 32/500gb or the 500gb options.
Straightforward to put a fresh, cjean install of win10 on the 32gb. No need for a key ... once win10 is activated on a PC then it will re-activate again with no key. If it worries you, asrock have a small program which can be downloaded here to read the key http://www.asrock.com/nettop/Intel/Beebox%20Series/?cat=Download&os=Win1064 ... look in the Utilities section.
There are several explanations of making a clean install ... one example is http://www.howtogeek.com/224342/how-to-clean-install-windows-10/ . You download a Microsoft official win10 to an 8gb usb drive; alter boot order by pressing f12 on the beebox at the boot screen; boot from the usb; when the win10 install asks which partition to use, delete all partitions to unallocated space and install on that. Everything should work when the install is finished but some of the drivers may not be quite right ... go to windows update in settings and get win10 to update a couple of times ... after that the win10 update should have found and installed updated drivers for you.
With the original 2gb ram, that should give you about 15gb used space and 13gb free space on the 32gb ssd. Microsoft allow for compressing the win10 files using CompactOS ... easy to do e.g. see here http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/22088-compact-os-compress-uncompress-windows-10-a.html . That would then give about 13gb used space and 15gb free space with the original 2gb ram. Because you have upgraded the ram to 8gb you will find that win10 has automatically increased the sizes of the hibernation file and page file therefore you may find the space used is several gb more. It's possible to reduce the size of hiberfyl and pagefile but if you've still got enough room on the 32gb to suit your purpose then it's not necessary.
Maybe that all sounds complicated but if I can do it then it must be relatively easy. That usb drive can then be used to reinstall win10 in future if you get viruses etc i.e. similar to the system discs that used to be supplied by PC manufacturers with a new PC.
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