Windows 11 (and almost certainly 10, too) - Install from USB from within Win10 & Keep Nothing

[britechguy]

Well, I'm now in the process of putting Windows 11 in on the "junk machine" I got from a client yesterday.

As it turns out, I suspect I may have found one of the root issues, which he never mentioned: The CMOS battery was dead (how this could be in 3 years I do not know). When the machine was trying to boot, if you were paying any attention, the "black and white" first screen that comes up out and out said that there was a CMOS issue, that the battery appeared to be dead, and that defaults could be loaded or you could go into BIOS setup, which I did, so date and time were correct.

For some reason, though, I could not get the machine to boot from the USB drive, even though it was shown as a boot option. If you hit enter on that option in the boot device menu it just shot you straight back to the other option: Windows Boot Loader.

Thus, I just booted into Windows 10 and am doing an update from the USB drive, and where I used the "Keep Nothing" option. What I'm wondering is what "Keep Nothing" means at the level of the system drive. Does this option do the equivalent of a diskpart clean command? It's one I've never used and my normal process would be booting from USB, escaping out into Command Prompt when the language prompt screen appears, and manually running diskpart with a clean or clean all command and a convert gpt (usually) or convert mbr (on really old hardware like the laptop I had a couple of days ago).

I honestly have no idea what sort of "disk cleaning" an install with the Keep Nothing option does. I know that you come up like the machine has just come out of the box, with no accounts, etc., but the documentation I've been able to find is vague about what the nature of the cleaning process for the drive (be it an HDD or SSD) is when this option is chosen. I thought someone, or multiple someones, here might know.

 

[Sky-Knight]

CMOS batteries can die pretty quickly if the machine is left disconnected from main power for a long period, even more quickly if it's done so in temperatures >90F.

The Keep Nothing option destroys the partitions other than the recovery and starts over, so all personal data is gone.

 

[britechguy]

The Keep Nothing option destroys the partitions other than the recovery and starts over, so all personal data is gone.

Not that I'm particularly worried in this case, but if it does that via a simple "clean" these can be reconstructed with ease by a number of recovery utilities (which will matter, of course, only for unencrypted data). I wondered if an overwrite was involved or not.

Test Disk, for but one example, can recover from a drive where a "quick clean," which destroys the partitions previously present, was done.

Since the machine will be in my possession, and I have no desire to deep dive into data that (had I wished to, and I emphasize I did not) I could have copied off with ease. This is more of an academic question.

By the way, this machine came with a 1TB HDD. I'm sure I'll do an SSD replacement at some point, and with a much smaller drive since I can never envision using a desktop regularly again. But it sure will be nice to have a Windows 11 machine in the house.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@britechguy I don't do those often, but the last time I did it, it simply didn't take long enough for a secure erase.

It did however take long enough for a profile erase, which is the same thing you get if you delete a profile via the system properties window. That process is stronger than a normal delete, but not as strong as a proper DOD erase.

Good enough? Probably. But then again I don't trust any of those, I simply don't give hard disks to people where I think the previous data might be put at risk.

 

[Diggs]

When resetting a machine there are additional settings with a switch to "Clean Data". I thought this did a secure wipe of customer data.

 

[britechguy]

I actually have never used the Reset process.

There is no statement during a Windows 10/11 upgrade, when you choose the Keep Nothing option, about how the cleaning is actually accomplished.

It would be interesting to know whether, with the advent of SSDs and the ability to secure erase "with the wave of a hand" compared to HDDs, whether that's being exploited in "Keep Nothing"/"Clean Data" choice situations.

 

[NviGate Systems]

Well it won't. An upgrade always assumes you will continue to be the owner. Reset is another thing all together. In the Reset dialogue Microsoft specifically mentions wording to the effect that if you are giving away the PC "use this option to remove your data".

If you wanted a secure erase, you need to reset it first then upgrade. Or upgrade then reset with secure erase. Chicken/Egg.