My current Windows 11 installation is on a malfunctioning M.2 SSD, and I want to install a fresh copy of Windows 11 onto a new SATA SSD. I am not trying to clone the existing installation because I'm concerned the damaged drive may contain corrupted files. Is there a way to perform a true clean installation without using a USB flash drive?
3 Answers
If you absolutely cannot use a USB stick, alternatives include burning the installer ISO to a DVD and using an optical drive, or configuring PXE network boot from another computer. Those options are more involved, though, and buying a cheap USB flash drive is usually the safest and fastest approach. Before changing partitions, verify backups and carefully identify the SATA SSD so the wrong disk is not erased.
The simplest reliable method is to create Windows 11 installation media on an inexpensive 8GB-or-larger USB flash drive, boot the computer from it, choose a custom installation, delete or format the partitions on the SATA SSD, and install Windows there. This is a clean install, not a clone. Disconnecting the old M.2 drive during setup can also help prevent accidentally selecting the wrong disk or placing boot files on the damaged drive.
Without bootable installation media, the normal Windows setup program cannot cleanly install to another internal drive from the running Windows system. Launching setup.exe from an ISO mounted inside Windows generally performs an upgrade and may reuse the existing boot environment rather than giving you a proper standalone clean install. A USB drive is much easier than setting up network boot, a DVD, or a more complicated temporary installer partition.
I only want the Windows installation on the new drive; I don’t need to preserve anything on the old one. I was hoping there was a way to download the installer directly onto the SATA SSD.