Maintenance :: Windows 8.1 Doesn't Optimize Some Partitions
May 27, 2014
I was playing an online game when suddenly I've got a runtime error which froze the screen. I had to push the power button and my laptop restarted, slowly than usually but otherwise O.K. However, when I tried to do the maintenance using the Optimize tool this is what I see now:
The "volumes" (for the lack of a better word) Push Button Reset and ?Volume{9789f0... that have never been showing before are showing now and when I try to force a manual optimization the window just blinks but doesn't do anything. I've had the optimization set to "weekly" but after that I and it changed to "daily" for at least 3 days now but this didn't solve the problem. Highlighting and right-clicking doesn't work.
I installed Windows 8.1 on two computers but got different partitioning on the SSDs...I would like to know which is the best/correct one, and should I tweak the one thats not setup properly?
Is there a way to force any new folder that are created be customized to be 'Optimize this folder for' - General Items no matter the contents (ie video, photos,etc.)?
So recently i bought a refurbished/used Samsung ultrabook (NP540U3C-A01UB )
One of the features is that is has : (500GB with 24GB ExpressCache - Technology) Which I don really understand.
I've also noticed that the system has a lot of partitions that are taking space and are largely unused. I've had the computer for about a month and i use it everyday almost and so far a lot of the partitions havent been used.
I don't see a reason why to have those.
So can i Erase them??
Please notice 2 disks. I know the larger one is used for C: and the other for the ExpressCache???
Also notice that disk1 is empty. Pretty much all of them are, with the exception of 2 (C: and the partition right of it)
What is it used for?? How can i find out?? Whoever installed this system made a mess.
Here is a second part of my question:
For work reasons I have to have a Ubuntu machine and I thought I could just dualboot and use the partitions that are unused. Which is why i care about the unused space.
I have used virtualbox in the past but it was really slow. I need a responsive system and virtualization is no longer an option.
So my question would be how can i accomplish the dualbooting?? Specially taken that i have UEFI/random partitions in my system.
I know there are a lot of tutorials out there but none come close to my drive mapping/situation.
Just don't wanna destroy my system while trying to get the dualboot working.
My SSD (Intel 60GB) was becoming too small to hold my Windows 8 system partition so I found another use for that SSD and went back to HDD. I transferred whole SSD to HDD with Paragon Backup & Recovery 2013 free, and now the system gladly boots from HDD.
But Windows 8 is somehow still thinking that they are running on SSD. For example "Optimize Drives" (Ex Windows Defragmenter) shows "Solid State Drive" as media type and probably because it can't access TRIM functions, it is unable to defragment the drive, so it is yelling that "Optimization is not available":
How do I convince Windows 8 that they are running from HDD again?
I have tried to remove this disk from "Disk Drives" in Device Manager, also I removed/reinstalled everything under "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and "Storage controllers" without any success.
im using Windows 8 64bit and every time I try to defrag or optimize it it goes to pass 2.92% and just hangs there for hours before I just give up. also anylize takes forever to complete
My search feature isn't working. This is the main search that should start with you typing while the metro screen is up. Some time ago it just disappeared. I've tried a couple of things to get it to work, but I can't.
I upgraded my OS to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8 from the store yesterday. Everything seems to be working fine - no lags or freezes, but I noticed that my PC doesn't drop below 30-35% in idle, also it doesn't downclock (balanced power settings) - it used to drop to 0.8ghz in idle and be like 1-4% in idle before the update, and now it's permanent 3.2ghz and over 30% in idle. I noticed that Service Host: Local Services and Service Host: System Services in the task manager are draining over 10% CPU each, something that didn't happen before.
I have a dual boot laptop with Windows 8 and Win7. When I choose to run chkdsk /f from Command Prompt(Admin) on my Windows 8 boot drive, I get the normal message that says disk is in use and to type "Y" to schedule it to run on restart. I type "Y" and hit "Enter", but if I either Restart or Shutdown and turn laptop back on, and choose to boot Windows 8, chkdsk seems to cancel itself. I get the message to "press any key" in 2 seconds if I want to cancel the disk check, but I never press or do anything yet chkdsk seems to cancel itself. When Windows 8 boots I have looked in Event Viewer and there is no sign of any chkdsk or wininit event that says it checked disk for errors.
I have gotten the message in Action Center, to reboot to scan and repair errors which works fine. Right clicking my boot drive, going to the Tools tab and scanning drive for errors also works. My only issue is scheduling to check my boot partition for errors via command prompt.
Must I disable Fast Startup/Hybrid Boot for the scheduled chkdsk to work or something else?
I really like the way Skydrive synchronises my folders between my work and home laptops and I have my Skydrive docs available offline. But why is Skydrive excluded from the list of libraries that are backed up by File History. I want to be able to back my docs up onto an external hard drive. Is there no way of doing this? Same with Backup on Windows 7, Skydrive seems to be excluded.
8.1 installed on SSD, Easeus backup doesn't see my HDD any more, so I can't make an image of it. It only sees the C drive and my external hard drive, but not the internal HDD (Hitachi 500 GB) that I use as a second drive for storing personal data. I tried with Macrium Reflect, and same problem.
I am getting the errors Could Not Enable File History: The System Cannot Find the File Specified and File History Doesn't Recognize This Drive. I tried deleting the File History folders on the external drive and in the AppData folder (although the File History folders never contain any files, they are always empty). I tried sharing the File History folder on the external drive with Everyone. Nothing has worked.
I've also tried to select another drive or reselect the external drive; I get the message "We found some files you previously copied using File History" and asks if I would like to move them. It won't let me choose No, i.e. choosing No has the same effect as choosing Cancel. If I choose yes, I get an error message saying it can't complete the migration. It seems like I need to reset File History somehow and maybe get rid of these leftover files (although I don't know where they would have come from, because I don't think I've ever turned on File History in the past, but I could be wrong there.) At any rate I don't know where these leftover files would be located because I've already deleted every File History folder I could find (in AppData and on external drive).
So recently my windows 7's some system files got corrupt . won't start after windows logo (when the arrow shows up=>always bsod, even in safemode). so I decided to format C and install fresh windows 8.
Then I had four partitions C:windows(7) D:Softwares E:Games F:Mix Stuff.
My plan was to format C (of course for windows 8) and D (as C had only 20Gb space so I thought I would also format D 46Gb and give C 45Gb and D 20-21Gb as it was useless to me and contained only a bunch of crappy softwares ). Well, it FAILED here's how. after formatting C and D I deleted them thinking that boths unallocated space will merge. but it DID'NT.
After deleting I tried creating new partition on D but it FAILED "we cannot create create new partition" . Then I did same thing with C and it WORKED. I had to give it again 20Gb (maximum) - NO CHOICE. Then I installed Windows 8 on C. (thinking I will later format D on desktop)
Now here's the scenario : I DO NOT WANT TO FORMAT E: AND F: AS IT CONTAINS MY PRECIOUS DATA. After the startup config, 'Startup' came up I went to Desktop then Computer and then what????
WHERE THE HELL ARE OTHER PARTITIONS???????? Only C: I found there 7.67Gb free of 19.5GB. Where are others gone .
I went to disk management and saw only (C:) other 138Gb (something) was unallocated space. Then I booted my pc from windows installation usb and on the drive screen I saw C 19.5-20Gb and Unallocated space 138Gb.
recently my windows 7's some system files got corrupt . won't start after windows logo (when the arrow shows up=>always bsod, even in safemode). so I decided to format C and install fresh windows 8. . Then I had four partitions
C:windows(7) D:Softwares E:Games F:Mix Stuff.
My plan was to format C (of course for windows 8) and D (as C had only 20Gb space so I thought I would also format D 46Gb and give C 45Gb and D 20-21Gb as it was useless to me and contained only a bunch of crappy softwares ). Well, it FAILED here's how. after formatting C and D I deleted them thinking that boths unallocated space will merge. but it DID'NT. After deleting I tried creating new partition on D but it FAILED "we cannot create create new partition" (search google 'cause others also sometimes have this ****** error many times). Then I did same thing with C and it WORKED. I had to give it again 20Gb (maximum) - NO CHOICE. Then I installed Windows 8 on C. (thinking I will later format D on desktop) . Now here's the scenario : I DO NOT WANT TO FORMAT E: AND F: AS IT CONTAINS MY PRECIOUS DATA.
After the startup config, 'Startup' came up I went to Desktop then Computer and then wow what?
Only C: I found there 7.67Gb free of 19.5GB. Where are others gone .
UPDATE :. I went to disk management and saw only (C:) other 138Gb (something) was unallocated space .Then just for checking I booted my pc from windows installation usb and on the drive screen I saw C 19.5-20Gb and same Unallocated space 138Gb.
First Of all You Need To Open Control Panel Then Go to System Security-Administrative Tools Then Computer Management
In Second Step You need To Open Storage And Then Disk Management
In Third Step . Now you need a partition which will be added to the targeted one (E: drive will be added to D:). The drive which will be added to another, should be back-up before this major change on disk partitions.
So be Sure that You Done Backup Files Then Delete the Partition Then After Getting a Free Space Partition,Move To partition (D Drive) Which Will Be Extended and right-click on it. Select the Extend Volume and go Next.
Select Next From the Bottom Side And Then It will take a Few Minutes To Merge Two partition Into Single Drive.
Suddenly Win 8.1 (on partition F) can't read anymore my other partions on the same drive, also it coudn't read my external USB drive.
When clicking on the partitions c: or d: it says 'cannot access local device' and 'device not ready'.
I have a dual boot system with Windows 7 and 8.1. I can boot into Windows 7 and read all partitions. I also checked the MBR which looks fine. I also have controlled in Computer Management that all drives have a letter assigned.
However Windows 8.1 can read my USB drives and the installation DVD of Windows 8.
Clicking on properties of e.g. drive c: there is of course no security tab, so it shouldn't be a question of permissions. Also no error codes in event log.
Booting in safe mode does still does not solve the problem. Of course Windows 8.1 can read perfectly its partition where it has been installed.
I know, a repair or refresh might be the solution, but if possible I want to avoid it.
Checked also with my different antivirus and spyware programs. All comes clean.
I have 2 partitions: System Reserved (100mb) and Windows 8 (465gb). Windows 8 is marked as the system partition while system reserved is marked as Active & Boot. Is there any way I can like split windows 8, copy the files onto the new bit of unallocated space and make that partition the system partition instead of the "old" windows 8 partition?
I am using the guide to install Windows 8 over two partitions and I get the error:
Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. The partition contains one or more dynamic volumes that are not supported for installation. I followed all the steps 100%
Found this Get the paid version of EaseUS Partition Master at discount. Magic Partition Manager Freeware for PC/Server users. Upgrade EaseUS Partition Master Free can I use this to copy partitions?
Worked it all out, the software linked above was able to convert my Dynamic drive to a Basic drive for free!
I am currently attempting to dualboot 7 onto my 8 computer. I made my partition got everything ready, and realized... i have way tomany partitions? What do i dackup what do i keep? ...
Currently i have Windows 8 / (blank)win7 / lenovo app / recovery. And 5 other ones!? Are they important? Do i need them? How do i find out?
I have a notebook with windows 8 OEM. In the past I have experimented with dual-booting other OSs, then deleting them and now I have a few extra partitions in my drive. I was wondering if this community could tell me what partitions are safe to merge to my "working" volume (C: or E: ). I have some screenshots of Disk Management and Disk Internals Linux Reader windows. I think there's a better way of showing You the contents of my volumes, but I don't know what program to use.
q8yepU0.png jwI5iAD.png
I also have a few questions: Is my windows 8 OEM inside my hard drive? For example, if I format my whole hard disk completely, would I lose the OEM?
Can I replace my windows 8 OEM with windows 8.1 OEM or even with custom windows 8.1 OEM (for example: fully updated one, if it's possible)?
I have an pre-installed Windows 8 in my notebook. When I first got the PC, I got only C:/ partition so I needed D:/ and for doing this I used EaseUS Partition Manager. This is just a guess but I guess Windows can't find those recover partitions that are in my HDD. I haven't deleted those partitions just created D:/ and here is a screenshot I just take to show you the partitions I have.
I have already tried copying the Install.wim from my BIOS_RVY partition which was about 9GB and I moved it to C:/WinRec and used this command as I saw it from internet : reagentc.exe /setosimage /path C:WinRec /target c:Windows /Index 1 But i still get the error:
"Insert media some files are missing. Your Windows installation or recovery medial will provide these files."
This method didn't worked so any other too. I wonder how can I refresh or some sort of return my notebook to the factory settings from the recovery parts I have.
I recently decided to buy an ultrabook and I got me this one: LG Z360-7416, with a ssd and windows 8 (x64). As usual, it came with a lot of garbage installed which was using almost half of the ssd storage (128GB), so I decided to do a clean install. I got me a msdnaa copy of the windows 8.1 pro (x64). So, i used a pendrive to boot up on UEFI mode and selected custom install and when i get to the select partition, it shows everything fine, i select a partition and when a click on install, it returns an error saying it cannot install on my partition (i dont remember exactly what it says), and when i click on refresh, all my partitions vanishes, even going into the prompt and using diskpart doesnt show my partitions anymore. I tried to load some drivers, but it didnt work.
I was only able to install windows 7(x64), where nothing of these things happens, it installs realy easy. I tried to install windows 8 from windows 7, like an upgrade, but after it restarts, it gets stuck also. My disk is formatted on GPT, as im using EUFI on my windows 7 installation.
Tried almost a hundred times using all solutions i found online, but always the same result. And to get even more weird, some rare times it gets to the installation part, where it says the progress, but stays on 0% of unpacking files...
Its seens to be missing some especific driver to windows 8 be able to work with my ssd, but i cant get it right, but if it came installed with windows 8, it must be a way to make then work together.
Unfortunately i deleted the recovery partitions, so im stuck on windows 7.
I have a Dell XPS-12 laptop. It's pretty standard, and I only use it for school. I'm a Computer Science major (which is incredibly ironic in this situation... wow), and I partitioned part of my harddrive off, about 32 GB, for a CentOS and then Kali Linux install, first to run a configuration and write some custom code for an open source captive portal my work has deployed and second for testing my place of employments security implementation (boy was it easy to gather some scary data with a simple wireshark capture..). I am extremely busy with being a fulltime student and also working 2 jobs and freelancing web development, and I haven't been able to figure out why after reformatting the partition I was using for the Linux installs, I could never reintegrate that partition into my own Windows partition. It's incredibly annoying as I only have a 128 GB SSD and after screwing with it for ten minutes, said screw it and just made it into a backup drive where I keep all my code and larger ISO images for different OS' I have (after just a year of studying CS, I've had to use a total of 6 different Linux OS', as well as messing with trying to get an ArchLinux install up and running correctly... I'm starting to feel like a collector)
why my harddrive is being super lame and finish that matrix for the Software Packaging class' final it's pretty obvious which I'm going to go with. Problem is, now, I'm starting to do a bit of freelance security consulting here and there, and I need to have a portable Kali partition with me. I also need to shrink the partition, but when I do I can never put it back into my main Windows partition so there really is no point.
Also, I'm running windows 8.0 right now, but I've had 8.1 before and the fixes still didn't work.
My Dell XPS One 2710 was delivered with Windows 8 with wrong language. Dell therefore sent me a Windows 8 MUI Recovery Media-DVD, and told me to follow the instructions on this link: [URL] .....
At the first installation attempt I got to a point where a pop up asked for drivers. I didn't know which drivers, and I thought everything was included on the DVD (but even the DVD-ROM wasn't recognized, only "Boot (X:)"). I read a tip in the Dell forum to change the boot setup to legacy. So I did and I got a few steps further to the point where you shall choose the partition(s) under the custom menu. But no partitions were found. Perhaps the reason was the 32 GB mSATA with Intel rapid storage technology.
So I did exactly the following:
1. I downloaded the newest version of the IRST-driver and extracted the files to a USB device. 2. I booted from the recovery DVD (UEFI, safety mode: ON). 3. When it asked for the driver I installed the IRST-driver from the USB device (AHCI, 64 bit, located in the driver-folder - the only words I recognized from the forums... 0:). 4. A total of six partitions were shown: Partition 1 ("ESP", System), partition 2 ("DIAGS", OEM (reserved)), partition 3 (MSR (reserved)), partition 4 ("WINRETOOLS", recovery), partition 5 ("OS", primary), and partition 6 ("PBR Image", recovery). 5. I followed the instructions in the link (above) and deleted all of the partitions. 6. I installed Windows 8 on the new partition, without further complications. 7. I ran Windows Update. 8. I installed the Dell drivers for this service tag, in the order specified by Dell, starting with chipset, card reader, IRST, audio, video, network and everything else, and with a reboot between every single driver installation. The system, including the IRST, seems to work fine so far (no exclamation marks in the Device Manager). 9. I replaced some of the software, including Dell Backup and Recovery.
I started Dell Backup and Recovery and the program initially told me that it couldn't find a recovery partition, and therefore couldn't backup the system. Other programs in the Control Panel, like File History and Storage Spaces, can't find available drives.
The Disk Management tells me the following about my 1 TB HDD:
So finally to my questions: Should I have kept one or more of the recovery partitions during the Windows 8 installation? Could this affect Windows' System Restore (I guess not since Windows creates its own recovery partitions)?
And finally: Is Dell Backup and Recovery any useful? I already have the recovery DVD in case I need a factory reset. For backup purposes I will use a cloud service, and maybe a NAS in the future. Do I even need a recovery partition?
I installed Windows 8/8.1 on a system with a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H MB. When I look at the SSD where Windows is installed I have one partition. I also installed Windows 8/8.1 on an ASRock Z77 OC Formula MB. When I look at the SSD where Windows is installed I have three partitions - 300MB (Recovery Partition), 100MB (EFI System Partition) and 111.27GB (Boot,....Partition). Why did the Windows 8 installer create three partitions on the ASRock system? I think I understand the EFI partition since the ASRock BIOS has a "Load UEFI Defaults" option. The Gigabyte MB does not have this option in the BIOS? Is that because the ASRock MB has truly implemented EFI and uses the EFI System Partition to store boot information?
Why was the Recovery Partition created? I built this system from scratch so there is not any third party involvement. If I reinstall Windows 8 using a new - never used SSD will I get the three partitions? If I format the SSD with one partition prior to Installing Windows 8 what will I get?
I not concerned about the loss of 300MB,why I got different partition configurations on fresh installs of Windows 8 on two different MB's/Systems?
I have Windows 8,W7,Wxp working well in multiboot. But i have Windows 8 instaled in C:but it is the 2nd partition.How can i move it to first partition ?W7 and wxp are probably on the 1st D: partition.
On my Desktop I have one 240GB HD (C:) with XP Home installed and various other programs. I also have 2 other IDE HD of 80GB (D:) and 40GB (E:) which I use to store my backups and other Utilities. I plan to buy Windows 8.1 and install it on this Desktop but I wonder which will be the best option. I would also like if possible to be able to dual boot between the OSs
One is to make an image of the XP Home and then re install it on the 80GB hard disk, then install the 8.1 on the SATA HD. Here I don't know when I install XP on the D: hard disk if the new image will make the changes to all programs from the C: to D:
The other option is to use GPARTED LiveCD and shrink the SATA hard disk to allow me to make 2 partitions. Here I don't know if it is a good idea to have two OS on the same HD but on different partitions.What is your opinion on the above and perhaps there are other better ways?
