Of the two install choices, this is the one with no way back. It is also, for the right machine, the cleanest and simplest install there is. The entire skill is knowing which machine is in front of you.
The video performs this exact install onto a fresh SSD - the ideal case. This guide covers the part the camera cannot show: what the option deletes, how to be sure your backup is real, and the situations where erasing is honestly the best answer.
The installer option says Erase disk and install Linux Mint, and it means the whole physical disk you selected: the Windows partition, the manufacturer's recovery partition, and that D drive partition on the same disk where the family photos quietly live. All of it is replaced by Mint's layout in one operation.
Two comforts, stated precisely: a separate second disk in the same PC is not touched, and the installer shows a final summary screen listing what will be formatted before anything happens. That summary is your last honest moment - read it, check the disk model and size match the one you intend, then proceed.
Before an erase install, "my files are backed up" must mean something specific:
Five verification minutes here are the difference between a fresh start and a permanent regret. There is no undo after this installer finishes - recovery software cannot rebuild a disk that a new operating system has been written across.
Erase is not the villain option - it is the right one in clear situations: a spare or retired PC being given a second life (exactly the fresh-SSD install the video performs), a machine whose Windows is already broken beyond sensible repair, or a user who has fully switched and wants a clean single-system disk after a month of dual booting.
During the erase flow you may be offered two extras. Encryption protects the disk if the machine is lost or stolen, at the cost of a passphrase at every boot and unforgiving recovery if you forget it - sensible on a laptop that travels, overkill on a home desktop. LVM adds flexible resizing later; beginners can safely leave it off.
Watch the video's fresh-SSD install to see how calm this option is when the disk truly is spare - then decide if yours is.
▶️ Watch Full VideoRealistically, no - and any tool or service promising otherwise deserves suspicion. A new operating system written across the disk overwrites the space where the file lived. This is why the guide insists on a verified backup before the click: after it, hope is not a strategy.
Yes. The whole disk becomes Mint's layout, including the space where the factory recovery image sat. If keeping a path back to factory Windows matters to you, make the manufacturer's recovery USB from inside Windows before you erase - or choose the alongside install instead.
If the machine is a laptop that leaves the house, encryption is genuinely valuable - a stolen laptop then leaks nothing. The price is typing a passphrase at every start and having no recovery route if you forget it. On a desktop that never moves, most home users reasonably skip it.