I have an ASUS H670 Pro wifi D4 MB with an Intel 12700 processor, and 16GB of DDR4 memory.  I'm running Windows 10 in legacy bios mode after upgrading from Windows 7 some years ago.  I now want to do a clean install of Windows 11, since Windows 10 will no longer be supported shortly (I know I’ll have to reinstall all my programs afterwards, and I’m okay with that).  All my data is on separate hard drives from the OS (and backed up to the cloud).  I’ll admit that I’m not very experienced in these matters, and that’s why I’m reaching out to the many experts in this group, although I’ve done a fair amount of research about this online. 

In running the Win 11 compatibility checker, it fails due to lack of Secure Boot.  TPM 2.0 is enabled.  I’ve created the Windows 11 install flash drive from the MS Windows creation tool website.  I plan to disconnect all my existing hard drives (where all my data is) and the SSD I have Win 10 running on, before starting the install of Win 11, which I plan to install on a new empty 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMe SSD that I’ve recently installed.  I have a few questions about how to proceed:

1.    I believe that before I start booting from the Win 11 install flash drive I need to change the BIOS to UEFI (Windows UEFI mode) under Secure Boot State > OS Type (see attached screen shot).  Is this correct?  Also, should Secure Boot Mode (see screen shot) be set to Standard or Custom?

2.    Before starting the Win 11 install from the flash drive, should I do anything to the 990 Pro NVMe SSD, like create a new simple volume that’s only 400 or 500 GB for Win 11, so I can use the rest of the drive for storage after installing Win 11?  I’ve done nothing to it since I installed it.

3.    Is there anything else I’m missing, or that I should do before starting, like downloading drivers to a separate flash drive in case they can’t be found during the install?  I’ve read some people recommend this.

Thanks for your help in advance.



Windows 11 Clean Install Questions