Setup Installation :: Which Partitions Should Keep For Restore
Jul 17, 2013
I'm mostly a Linux user, but I recently bought a laptop with Windows 8 on it. After a few days dual booting I decided it wasn't for me, so I decided to delete the windows partitions and usa just Linux. I would like, however, to keep the recovery partition, so to be able to easily reinstall Windows again if I felt like I needed to, but I'm not sure what partitions should I keep. Here's a picture of my hard drive partitions as of now:
Do I need more than the restore partition? Can I get rid of the boot one? What about the recovery one? And the one flagged msftres?
I dual booted win 7 n 8. now i am running out of space in the drive which contains Windows 8.
Win 7 is installed on C drive and Windows 8 on D drive. How can i interchange the OS on the drive. I want to install win7 on Drive D and Windows 8 on Drive C.
At the moment I'm using Win 8 on the MBR HDD and I would like to convert to GPT without losing data stored on partition 2. I'll be reinstalling Win 8 on partition 1 so I can take advantage of UEFI.
I had a 17 GB unallocated partition. I changed it to a Primary partition. It is empty. Can I merge it with the C: partition ? Picture--- edit--- A picture---
using the UEFI install instructions from this forum. I do meet all of the requirements (Windows 8 64-bit iso, ASRock Z87 Extreme4 mobo, blank SSD). When I get to Step 7 in the UEFI guide, I only get 2 partitions instead of the 4 shown(Recovery, System, MSR, Primary). I only get System and Primary. I decided to delete all partitions and just run the setup on the unallocated drive...everything worked fine. I am just wondering what the consequences are of not having those 4 partitions. I still have the UEFI interface when I boot up so it appear that is working.
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?
Why windows 7 and windows 8 introduced a limitation when using Disk Management, and is NOT possible to create more than 3 Primary Partitions? However, using DiskPart from command line it is VERY possible, no warnings or notices.
Code: C:Windowssystem32>diskpartMicrosoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.On computer: PAINKILLERDISKPART> listMicrosoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600DISK [code]....
As far as I know, there is a maximum of 4 Primary partitions on a hardisk, or 3 primary and one extended, and IN the extended partitions more that 4 logical drivers.However, from any disk utility like the old, deprecated, and buggy Partition Magic, acronis disk partition utility, gparted Linux, parted, cfdisk, fdisk, or even on the older Windows like Xp, nt, 2000, 98, me, ms-dos, freedos, I WAS ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO CREATE 4 PRIMARY PARTITIONS, but with the new WINDOWS 7 and the new WINDOWS 8, it appears this limitation of only 3 PRIMARY PARTITIONS instead of 4. Don't know about Vista as I have skipped that version of windows on every PC that I have build or worked.
Or is working like this because of some hidden reason which I can't figure out by myself what could It be, and the only thing that I can observe is that while technology is evolving (hardware and software), we have limitations like this, to create only 3 primary instead of 4 primary while using Disk Management from administrative tools or right clicking on the computer and "manage" console.
Personally I am a little irritated/annoyed that now the disk management is having "handicap" and I can NOT find a serious reason for this idiocratic limitation. As we are "evolving" the normal path It would be more normal to be able to use more that 4 primary on a hardisk, from my point of view, not limiting to ONLY 3 Primary.
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 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 very peculiar issue; after using various disk imaging tools such as Macrium and Paragon, my boot partitions seem to be strangely corrupted. The effects of this corruption are:
1) Plain-text boot menu instead of the new graphical boot menu, 2) Long delays before the boot menu is shown, 3) Even longer delays when doing native VHD boot, after choosing the boot entry from the menu.
I have done a lot of testing and experimentation, and on a virgin fresh installed system from the Windows 8.1 setup ISO, these symptoms do not appear. Only after I have imaged the system using the imaging tools above, do these symptoms start appearing. Unfortunately, just copying my main Windows C: partition using the same imaging tools re-creates the same issue. So I cannot rely on these partitioning tools.
I need a way - a set of commands - to re-create the boot partitions, re-initialize their BCD stores, etc. so that I can normally boot from my C: partition, as well as native VHD boot.
Needless to say, I want to avoid having to completely reinstall Windows on my C: partition, as that would be extremely time and effort prohibitive, if I only knew how to re-create and/or re-initialize just the boot partitions in question.
Recently I got my new laptop running under Windows 8.1 and was surprised with how the partitions were sized.
Here is the screenshot from the DiskManagement:
So I shrank the size of C: disk as you can see and got unallocated space. I want to attach that space to D: disk. I thought that is possible to extend recovery partition to unallocated space, then shrank recovery partition, and newly appeared unallocated then attach to D:/ disk. But failed with that.
I don't think that I really need those 900Mb and 350Mb recovery partitions and that they are useful, but it would be unwise to delete them while I don't know what are they for. Latter 20Gb recovery partition at the picture at least has the significant size to store something
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?
How to hid all the partitions in the factory installed HDD for Lenovo Y580.
This is the scenario. Firstly, i successfully migrated all of the following partitions: OEM/Hidden partition, C partition: boot drive/ program files and data drive & D partition: containing drivers
from my Lenovo factory installed HDD to the SSD and to use the SSD as the primary boot drive . Now, i plan to use the factory installed HDD as my data drive. (I am using a caddy tray for this whereby i plan to swap out the optical drive and pluck in the Lenovo factory installed HDD). However, for "safety reasons" i do not plan to re-format the entire factory installed HDD but rather to keep those partitions just in case if my SSD fails.
Hence, how do i turn all the three partitions above (in the Lenovo factory installed HDD) to become dormant? I want the computer to boot up from the existing SSD but then to treat the factory installed HDD as the data drive and not to read from any of the three partitions in the factory installed HDD.
I am planning to use EASUS as my disk partition freeware.
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.
I am having problems installing UEFI & a Error 0x80004005 with Windows 8.1 OEM saying it can't create partitions for UEFI then creating 2 partitions for MBR installation instead. This using a 400 TB, hard drive, setup with a GPT system & nothing else & ready for Windows 8.1 to create the partitions.
The first time it happened I used MiniTool Partition Wizard Professional, to delete the partitions created by Windows 8.1 & convert the MBR to GPT, then used Wipe Disk function to erase all data and set all the bits to a 1.
The only thing that I can think is upsetting the installation is that I have left the other drives in the system including 1x3 TB drive, 1x2 TB drive and a second 4 TB drive.
The 2 TB drive has "Win 7 Ultimate" installed using MBR, the 3 TB drive is empty but ready to install Windows 8.1 setup with GPT, and the other 4 TB drive has a UEFI Windows 8.1 installed but broken.
I have also tried to install UEFI Win 8.1 on the 3 TB drive but it failed with the same error code as above.
This UEFI takes a lot to get ones head around dose't it, and me being much older than I once was makes it even harder. I have tried this installation at least 3 to 4 times now and doing these "Wipe Disk Functions" every time has so far lost me 3 whole days just in wasted time.
I have a USB HDD for my laptop (About 1TB). If worse comes to worse, is it possible to restore from System Image that I create on that USB HDD, or does it have to be a USB flash drive?
Final steps in my recovery process. I'm running a Windows 8 recovery disc off of a USB, and I'm trying to restore, refresh, reset, anything at this point.
But I go into all the troubleshooting options and advanced options and it doesn't allow me to "choose a target operating system" as nothing appears such as my Windows 8.
I'm on an Asus laptop, I've backed-up my files to an external hdd, so at this point I just want to get my laptop running again.This all started with the "automatic repair loop" to which I've used EasyRE to purchase a recovery disc, backed up my files, and now I'm at this point where I can't finalize the process.
Also how should I be booting from a USB properly?I hold F2 on start up, switch to "Boot" and set "Launch CSM" to Enabled. Then switch to "Security" and set "Secure Boot Control" to Disabled. Then restart and hold Esc for the Boot menu and boot from the USB.
I'm willing to do whatever to simply reset my laptop. Tried everything that I've found, text in that black command box (I'm really not too flash with computers) like the chkdsk and it all came out fine. It's just when I go to try to recover/restore/reset ANYTHING when I've booted from the USB it tells me there isn't an operating system to do so from.
I have dual booted my lappy with win7 ultimate and Windows 8 pro using vhd.i have installed windows8 on vhd,but due to that i can't use the fast start and system rating in Windows 8.so i want to restore my Windows 8 vhd to my hardisk. I have 4 partitions on my hardisk i can use any one of them to recover win 8.
I would like to reinstall Win 8 on my ASRock UEFI motherboard in the UEFI mode. I have Win 7 OEM and the downloaded Win 8 Pro upgrade. I have the Win 8 Pro upgrade burned to an ISO disc. I also have the hard drive backed up to Acronis 2013 and have an Acronis WinPE rescue disc to boot with to restore.
Several questions. (1) If I convert to UEFI and format the drive to GPT, will Acronis restore to the GPT (from MBR)? (2) If Acronis won't restore, will converting to UEFI/GPT affect installing or activating the Win 7 OEM and/or the Win 8 Pro upgrade (I assume I'll have to install Win 7 and then upgrade to Win 8). (3) Will a UEFI system read other hard drives that are MBR formatted?
the hard disk of a Samsung Ultra 5 crashed. I have got a new hard disk. How do i restore windows 8 and Samsung drivers to the new hard disk? My friend has an exact notebook. How do i copy the recovery partition from his pc and use it on mine?
I have 10 computers with identical hardware that all have their own oem license. What I want is to have the same setup on all 10 computers. What I remember from previous Windows versions is that you had to activate Windows individually with its own oem key for every computer you restored with a preferred disk image. From what I read the product key procedure is a bit different in Windows 8 and that the key is stored in the bios? The activation should also be handled automatically by Windows, is that correct?
So what I really wonder is: Do I still have to activate every restored pc manually or will Windos 8 do this for me?
A second related question: Are there any imaging/cloning software that can be set up to promt me for a new computer name in the restore process?
Although I have been able to make a full disk image using the built in "system image" option, I can not find any way to restore it. The recovery options only point to system restore and refresh PC. I'm navigating to <control panel> and then <file history> to access the recovery options. I can not find any restore from system image option anywhere.
Am I missing something, or is it deliberately missing in the Enterprise editions ? If so is there any way I can restore the backup image ?
I used to use Windows Easy Transfer to backup my settings and files before reinstalling/reimaging...etc - now that doesn't exist, and File History really doesn't cut it when it comes to apps and settings.
A system image really won't work either, as I need to reinstall windows 8.1 on a new system with different partitioning...etc.
Are there any Windows 8.1 native tools that will do it? If not, are there any freeware apps that perform the equivalent?
I have checked out Paragon Backup and Recovery (more all-or-nothing) and D7 (freeware version doesn't have automated restore - but it does create registry dumps...hmmm) but neither seems to work as simply/well as WET used to.
I have tried just saving the User profile folder, but unfortunately, that doesn't save anything that's in the registry (outlook profiles, app settings...etc).
my OS is Windows 8.1 64-bit. It boots just fine, but I suddenly found out that something wrong happened with my BCD store. Tried more workarounds but none worked. The last I found How To Restore Windows 8 Boot Options Menu ended on bcdedit error mentioned below. The problem indicates with following signs:
- bcdedit /enum prints error "The boot configuration data store could not be opened."
- bcdboot C:windows prints error "BFSVC Error: BcdOpenSystemStore failed with unexpected error code, Status
= [c000015c]"
- msconfig's boot tab shows empty OSes list (nothing on the tab is clickablle)
- the same with System Properties, Advanced tab, Startup and Restore dialog (OS dropdown has no entries)
- Trying to enter diagnostic boot by Shft + Restart doesnot seem to offer full recovery menu. It boots to GUI boot menu offering Continue or Troubleshooting, Troubleshooting submenu offers Manage UEFI options (this brings me to BIOS setup after reboot) and Shut down. No manage boot options, no other choices.
All of this point me to that my booting configuration is somehow ill (I wonder a bit that Windows still can start).
