This means that the entire operating system that’s on there now, whatever that may be, will be gone, as will all the programs you’ve installed, and yes, most importantly, all your precious data you’ve saved to that drive.
Back Up Your Important Data
So the first thing to do, if you can, is to back up whatever data you’d like to keep, like your saved documents, downloaded music and videos, etc. Backing up your actual programs isn’t usually possible, so locate all the installation media and downloaded installation files you used to install the programs so they’re available to reinstall once the clean install is done. Be sure also to back up any data files from your programs, assuming they have any, that might not be located with your other saved files.
Locate Your Product Key
Your next concern should be your product key. This 25-digit alphanumeric code is required during the clean install process. If you’ve purchased Windows 8 yourself, the product key should be included with the DVD media you received or in the email confirmation you received when you purchased it for download. If Windows came preinstalled on your computer, look for a sticker with the product key somewhere on your desktop, laptop, or tablet device.
Disconnect Unnecessary Hardware
Windows 8 should install fine with all of your hardware connected, internal and external, but if you run into trouble, or have had trouble installing Windows on this computer before, removing unnecessary internal components (if you have a desktop) and disconnecting USB and other external devices should help. Once the installation is complete, you can connect those devices one at a time.
Start the Windows 8/8.1 Clean Install
Once you are absolutely positive that everything on the primary hard drive partition you’re about to install Windows on, probably your C: drive, can be removed (i.e., you’ve backed everything up that you want to keep), then proceed on to the next step in this tutorial. Please remember that once you delete everything from this drive, which is done in a later step (we’ll let you know when), you won’t be able to get any of that data back. In other words, if you have a Windows 8 DVD and you would like to install Windows from an optical drive, then boot from the Windows 8 DVD. Alternatively, if you have the installation files properly copied to a USB based drive, then boot from the USB device. There are really three basic steps here: If you don’t press a key during this step, your computer will try to boot from the next device listed in the boot order in BIOS, probably your hard drive, in which case your currently installed operating system will start. If that happens, just restart your computer and try again. It’s also OK if you don’t see one of the above messages but the setup process (see the next step) does being automatically. If that happens, just consider this step over and move on.
What to Do If Your Windows 8 Installation Media Doesn’t Work for You
Considering the facts that Windows 8 can be purchased online and downloaded in ISO file format and that many computers, especially tablets and other smaller computers, don’t have optical drives, it’s possible you could find yourself with the setup files in some format, or on some media, that simply isn’t going to work for your computer. Below are some solutions based on common situations that people find themselves in: Problem: You have a Windows 8 DVD but need to be able to install Windows from a USB device. This is probably the most common problem we hear about. Solution: Locate a flash drive that’s at least 4 GB in size and that you can remove all the data from. Then see How to Install Windows 8 From USB for help creating a disc image of the DVD, and then getting that image properly copied onto a USB flash drive. Problem: You downloaded a Windows 8 ISO File and need to install Windows from a DVD. Solution: Burn the ISO file to a DVD (or BD) disc. This is not the same as simply burning the ISO file itself to a disc, like you would with a music or video file. See How to Burn an ISO Image to a CD/DVD/BD for help. Problem: You downloaded a Windows 8 ISO File and need to install Windows from a USB device. Solution: Find a flash drive of at least 4 GB total capacity that you can erase everything on. Then go to How to Install Windows 8 From USB for help getting that ISO file onto a flash drive properly. Once you have the files on the installation media that you want, come back here and follow the directions as given above to boot from the disc or flash drive. Then you can continue on with the rest of this process. During this time, Windows 8 Setup is preparing by loading files into memory so the setup process can continue. Don’t worry, nothing is being erased or copied to your hard drive right now. That all happens a bit later on. Once your options are selected, select Next. This will get the installation process underway. Nothing to do here but wait. You might see this screen for several seconds but not for too much longer than that. If you downloaded Windows, chances are the product key is in your purchase confirmation email. If you purchased a DVD in a retail store or online, your product key should have been included alongside your disc. If Windows 8 came preinstalled on your computer, and you’re now performing a clean install on that same computer, your product key is probably located on a sticker somewhere on your computer or device. Once you’ve entered the product key, select Next. Read through the agreement, check the I accept the license terms box, and select Next. Select Custom: Install Windows only (advanced). The thing that makes a clean install “clean” is the removal of the partition that the current operating system is installed on, as well as any auxiliary partitions that the operating system was using, usually for recovery purposes. This is what we’re going to do over the next several steps. Windows 8 Setup considers partition management an advanced task, so before we can remove any partitions, you’ll have to choose Drive options (advanced). Over the next few steps, you’ll remove the partition(s) for the operating system that you’re replacing with Windows 8. Remember, it doesn’t matter what operating system is currently on the computer—an old installation of Windows 8, a newer Windows 11 one, Ubuntu Linux, Windows 7, etc. Highlight the partition you want to delete and then select Delete. To be completely clear: This is the point of no return! We don’t mean to scare you, especially since this is a necessary step to take during a clean install. We just want you to have full knowledge of what you’re about to do. If you know there’s nothing on your primary drive you still need to back up, then you should feel completely comfortable continuing. Select OK to delete the selected partition. For example, in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, and some Windows Vista installations, a small recovery partition, labeled here as System Reserved, is created and populated automatically during that operating system’s installation. The same thing will happen behind the scenes as you continue to install Windows 8. However, you no longer need the one installed by the previous Windows installation, so you can remove it. To do so, repeat the same process you followed to remove the primary partition in the last few steps: highlight the partition you want to delete and then choose Delete. Select OK to confirm. If you’re installing Windows on a computer with just one physical hard drive on which you’ve just removed all the partitions from, your Where do you want to install Windows? screen should look like the one pictured above, aside from the fact that your drive is probably much bigger than our 60 GB example one. Select the appropriate unallocated space to install Windows 8 onto and then choose Next. This step is the most time-consuming of them all. Depending on your computer specifications, this process could take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes, possibly more on slower computers. If you happen to catch this screen, which is only there for ten seconds, you can select Restart now to manually force the restart. There’s nothing to do here. Windows Setup has a few important things it still needs to do before it’s done, but none of them require user intervention. You might sit at this screen for several minutes before you see Getting devices ready, which we talk about in the next step. In the background, Windows is identifying all the hardware that makes up your computer and installing the appropriate drivers for those devices, if available. This process usually takes just a few minutes, and you may see your screen flicker and go blank from time to time. During this short stage, Windows Setup is finishing up the last few tasks, like finalizing the registry and other settings. You’re almost done waiting through boring black screens, we promise! Four sections are shown, including Personalize, Wireless, Settings, and Sign in. This screen only appears for a few seconds before moving on to the screen detailed below. The color you choose helps shape the display on your future Windows 8 Start Screen, and in some other areas of Windows. This is easily changed later from the Start screen area of PC settings, so don’t get too caught up on this one. The PC name is just a friendly phrase for hostname, the name that identifies this computer on your network. Something identifiable is always good, like timswin8tablet or pcroom204…you get the idea. You can always change this later. Select Next when complete. Once decided, enter the password if the network is encrypted and requires one. Select Next to continue. For the most part, there’s no problem accepting the express settings. Choose Use express settings to continue. You have two pretty big options here for how to sign in with Windows 8:
Sign in With Your Microsoft Account
If you already have an email associated with a major Microsoft service, then you can use that here. If you don’t, that’s OK; enter any email address and Microsoft will create an account for you based on that email address. The advantage of using a Microsoft account is that you can easily use the built-in app store, you can sync major settings between multiple Windows computers, and more.
Sign in With a Local Account
This is the standard way that previous versions of Windows, like Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP worked. Your account is only stored locally on this Windows 8 computer. Please note though that you’ll still need to create a, or use your current, Microsoft account some time in the future if you plan on using the store to download apps. Our recommendation is to use your existing Microsoft account or create a new one. Assuming you decide to do that, enter your email address and then choose Next. This is what Windows 8 is doing while the Creating your account or Setting up your account message is on screen. Just wait during this short phase. The clean install is almost done…just a few more steps. That, or maybe you’ll see some large messages in the middle of the screen. The background will continually change colors as this progresses, and you’ll see Installing apps at the bottom of the screen. Regardless, this whole series of screen changes and messages should only take a few minutes, at most.
What’s Next?
Most importantly, if you chose not to enable automatic updates (Step 26) then the first step after installing Windows is to head to Windows Update and install all the important service packs and patches that have been issued since the version of Windows 8 you just installed was released. If you did enable automatic updates, Windows will prompt you about any important updates needed. After Windows updates, you should update any drivers that Windows didn’t automatically install for your hardware during installation. You might also want to update drivers for any devices that don’t seem to be working correctly. See How to Update Drivers in Windows 8 for a complete tutorial. You might also want to see our Windows 8 Drivers page, which contains information and links to drivers from some of the more popular computer and device manufacturers in the world. This is an especially helpful resource if this is your first Windows 8 clean install and you’re locating Windows 8 drivers for the various parts of your computer for the first time. We also highly recommend that you create a Windows 8 Recovery Drive, a flash drive that you can use to troubleshoot problems in the future, even ones where Windows won’t start at all. Finally, if the installation media you installed Windows with didn’t include the Windows 8.1 update (it will say on the disc or in the ISO file name), then you should update to Windows 8.1 next.
