Installing Windows 8

After choosing to delete the partition, Windows 8 Setup will prompt you to confirm that you really do want to delete the partition.

Important: As I spelled out in the last step, please be aware that all the data stored on this partition that you're removing will be lost forever. If you have not backed up everything you want to keep, click Cancel, end the Windows 8 clean install process, restart your computer to boot back into whatever operating system you have installed, and backup anything you want to keep.

To be completely clear: This is the point of no return! I don't mean to scare you, especially since this is a necessary step to do a Windows 8 clean install. I 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 backup then you should feel completely comfortable continuing.

Click or touch the OK button to delete the selected partition.
 

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If there are other partitions that you need to delete, like recovery partitions in use by the previously installed operating system, now is a good time to remove them. You probably only have one of these auxiliary partitions, and probably only if you had a previous version of Windows installed.

For example, in Windows 8, Windows 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 clean 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 touch or click Delete.

Note: You might notice that the first partition we deleted appears to still exist. Look closer, however, and you can tell that it's gone. The description now says Unallocated Space and there's no longer a partition Type listed. In other words, this is now empty space, which we're getting close to putting Windows 8 on.

Important: Again, make sure you're not removing partitions you don't really want to remove. One of these Windows auxiliary partitions will clearly be marked as System Reserved and will be very small, probably 100 MB or 350 MB depending on the version of Windows that you had installed.
 

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As you can now see, all the space on my hard drive is listed as Unallocated Space. In other words, I have no partitions setup and my soon-to-begin installation of Windows 8 will be "clean" and "from scratch" on this empty drive.

Note: The number of partitions displayed and whether those partitions are unallocated portions of a hard drive, previously partitioned spaces, or previously formatted and blank partitions will depend on your specific setup and what partitions you've deleted in the last several steps.

If you're installing Windows 8 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 mine pictured above, aside from the fact that your drive is probably much bigger than my 60 GB example one.

Select the appropriate unallocated space to install Windows 8 onto and then click or touch Next.

Note: You do not need to manually create a new partition, nor format one, as part of the Windows 8 setup process. These two actions are completed automatically, in the background, between this step and the next.
 

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Windows 8 Setup will now begin installing Windows 8 onto the partition it created from the free space you selected in the last step. All you have to do here is wait.

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.

Note: This part of the Windows 8 installation is completely automatic and the next step involves a reboot of your computer, which you do not give explicit permission to do. So if you step away, and things look different than above, just continue through the next steps until you catch up.
 

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As the bulk of the Windows 8 installation process ends, your computer will reboot automatically.

If you happen to catch this screen, which is only there for ten seconds, you can click or touch Restart now to manually force the restart.

Warning: Your computer will likely present you with that Press any key to boot from... option as it starts up again and sees the boot information from your Windows 8 installation media again. Do not press a key or you'll end up booting to the installation disc or flash drive again, which you don't want to do. If you accidentally do that, just restart your computer and don't press anything that time. The installation of Windows 8 should continue again as shown on the next screen.
 

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Now that your computer has restarted, Windows 8 can continue installing.

There's nothing to do here. Windows 8 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 I talk about in the next step.
 

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As you're waiting for the Windows 8 clean install to finish up, you'll notice a Getting devices ready indicator that works its way up to 100% in several fits and starts.

In the background, Windows 8 is identifying all of 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.

After Windows 8 Setup finishes installing hardware, you'll see a Getting ready message at the bottom of the screen.

During this short stage, Windows 8 Setup is finishing up the last few tasks, like finalizing registry and other settings.
 

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This screen only shows up for a second, maybe less, so you may not even see it, but as you can see in the screenshot above, Windows 8 setup says Restarting your PC and then promptly does just that. This is the second, and final, restart required during a Windows 8 clean install.

Note: Just as I warned you about several steps back, you'll probably get that Press any key to boot from... option again as your computer turns back on, but don't do it. You don't want to start the Windows 8 installation process over again, you want to boot from your hard drive, which now has an almost-complete installation of Windows 8 on it.
 

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Once again, you're waiting on Windows 8 to start up. This should only take a minute or two.

You're almost done waiting through boring black screens, I promise!
 

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The next screen you see is an introduction to a wizard you're about to complete that helps customize Windows 8 to your preferences.

Four sections are shown, including Personalize, Wireless, Settings, and Sign in.

This screen only appears for a few seconds before automatically progressing to Personalize.
 

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