Fresh Windows 8 Install without Lenovo Drivers/Software

jaib9990

New Member
Messages
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I have a Lenovo Edge 15 on Windows 8.1

The new laptop came with preinstalled software and drivers. However I prefer to do a fresh Windows 8.1 install without the Lenvo drivers/software. After doing fresh install, I prefer to go to Lenvo's support site and download and install the drivers manually.


How can I do a fresh install? The OneKey feature will for sure will install the drivers/software from the hidden partition which I don't want. I know Windows 8 has the reset feature, however, I am unsure if it will also install the drivers/software from Lenovo.

Also, I want to ensure that the reset feature won't damage/delete the hidden OneKey partiation.

Is it possible to do a fresh install without doing it from USB?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8
the onekey (recovery) partition contains the factory out of the box image.. And yes doing a Reset with onekey will rewrite all the factory software, drivers and bloatware..

If you wish to keep the factory setup for future use - Create a Recovery Drive - first..

Then you can do a clean install of windows 8.1 from USB or DVD and install the MFG's Drivers..

You can download 8.1 here > Create installation media for Windows 8.1 - Windows Help
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
the onekey (recovery) partition contains the factory out of the box image.. And yes doing a Reset with onekey will rewrite all the factory software, drivers and bloatware..

If you wish to keep the factory setup for future use - Create a Recovery Drive - first..

Then you can do a clean install of windows 8.1 from USB or DVD and install the MFG's Drivers..

You can download 8.1 here > Create installation media for Windows 8.1 - Windows Help

When reinstalling Windows 8.1 with a USB, how do I ensure I don't destroy the OneKey partition. I want to ensure I don't damage it in case I have to use it in the future.

Also after doing a fresh install of Windows 8.1, can I install my own programs and drivers and then setup Windows 8 such that every time I do Reset feature, it install my choice of programs/drivers?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
I see seven partitions, I am unsure what each of them. Which partition am I suppose to format and install a fresh copy of Windows 8 on.

1) WINRE_DRV 1000MB (Recovery)
2) SYSTEM_DRV 260MB (System)
3) LRS_ESP 1000MB (OEM Reserved)
4) 128MB (MSR REserved)
5) Windows8_OS 888.4GB (Primary)
6) LENOVO 25GB (Primary)
7) PBR_DRV 15.7GB (Recovery)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8
Even if you leave the one key partition untouched, it likely won't work anyway after doing your clean install. When you press the key to access it nothing will happen. Changing the order or number of factory partitions breaks the link to it. One option is to buy a second hard drive and swap them out. Put the original factory drive in the package the new drive comes in and put it in a safe place. Then do your clean install to the new drive. If you ever have to send the laptop in for service just swap in the factory drive and do a factory reset. You may want to do the factory reset just before you remove the drive. Then once the warranty is up, put the factory drive in an external enclosure and use it for external storage or backup.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
Partition 1 "WinRE" = 350Mb
Partition 2 "EFI" = 100MB
Partition 3 "Reserved" = 128MB
Partition 4 WinOS" =
Partition 5 "PBR" = 15.9GB

The first 4 of these Partitions would be created by windows setup - the last partition (PBR) has your factory recovery image..

Now you have 7 partitions and 6 of them use more space then needed.. As these are Production Partitions..

IF you "Create a Recovery Drive" it will be able to write the proper partitions and allocate the partition sizes..

That recovery drive media is known as "Bare Metal Reset Media" meaning it will write to a blank hard drive..

It will write all 5 of the required partitions for PBR (Push Button Reset) (basically the 4 system partitions and the PBR recovery partition)...

You want to see the difference in the Disk Layout and Partition Sizes from a production machine and an aligned partition layout.

Create recovery media, boot from that media, select reset pc and reset partitions, select keeping this computer..

When it finishes - open disk management..

I was able to gain 10GB of usable space on a 32GB drive - just using PBR on a new system..

Windows 8/8.1 comes with it's own recovery tools - OEM's like to add their own crap..
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
If you "Create a Recovery Drive" it will be able to write the proper partitions and allocate the partition sizes..

That recovery drive media is known as "Bare Metal Reset Media" meaning it will write to a blank hard drive..

That is not working as it should on all OEM computers.

When you see the question "Do you want to repartition the drives on your PC? All your files will be removed." (see screenshot below), click on "Yes, repartition the drives".



But if you receive the following error message: "Unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing." or "Unable to reset your PC. The system drive cannot be found.", then the Windows 8 recovery USB flash drive is not able to automatically install Windows 8 to a blank hard drive.



 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo G580
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-3230M
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, standard user account
    Other Info
    UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8 product key.
look on the recovery media for a PBR*resetconfig.xml file and PBR*Diskpart.txt

UEFI recovery media creates these two file in the sources folder - Bios recovery does not

You should also find Install.wim or install*.swm(s) in the sources folder..

If it has a registered recovery image the recovery image is written to the recovery media - if the recovery image is not resistered then the recovery media is nothing but a startup disk..

I no longer install windows via windows setup - but rather apply windows images by recovery media.. I just swap the install.wim and boot.wim which is (winRE.wim)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
Based on the following referesnce, it seems if I do a a format/fresh install of the Partition 5 (Windows8_OS 888.4GB), then I shouldn't have any issues. It is my understanding the Lenovo OneKey method will work even after that...

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo...n-partitions-Help-identify/m-p/1154103#M44848
Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 Partition Cleanup

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Also, I am curious, does installing Windows 8 using UEFI method automatically create the the WINRE_DRV, SYSTEM_DRV, Reserved, Windows8_OS partiations (1,2,4,5)? In the past, I only installed Widnows 8.1 using USB in Legacy BIOS mode, not UEFI. SO these partitions were never created.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8
you posted a Nice Link and Good read regarding recovery and partitions, that fully explains your PC mfg's production partition setup and the wasted disk space

Create a Recovery Drive
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
you posted a Nice Link and Good read regarding recovery and partitions, that fully explains your PC mfg's production partition setup and the wasted disk space

Create a Recovery Drive

So does this confirm that I can format Windows8_OS partition and do a clean install without it breaking the OneKey recovery.

I am curious which image is used when I do a Windows 8 reset. I did a reset and it loaded the same Lenovo drivers and software. Thus is it loading the image from the last partition?

How can I create my own custom image to be used for "Reset". The previous guide or link you posted said that that method can only be used for "Refresh".
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8
right now when you reset or refresh - yes it uses the factory image for both.. Because you do not have a custom refresh image...

and yes when you clean install windows 8.1 it will break the factory recovery link..

if you create recovery media - you will be able to restore the factory recovery image and the recovery link..

I would rather know that you created recovery media FIRST - so that way we can manually restore the recovery link later..
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
right now when you reset or refresh - yes it uses the factory image for both.. Because you do not have a custom refresh image...

and yes when you clean install windows 8.1 it will break the factory recovery link..

if you create recovery media - you will be able to restore the factory recovery image and the recovery link..

I would rather know that you created recovery media FIRST - so that way we can manually restore the recovery link later..

Damn. I didn't have a 16GB USB to creative a recovery media. I formatted the the Windows8_OS partition (Partition 5), and did a fresh install. The label "Windows8_OS" also disappeared after formatting.

What can I do now? I did a fresh install, should I make the fresh install with manually installed drivers as the customer recovery image? http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/3610-refresh-windows-8-create-use-custom-recovery-image.html

Is there a no way to fix the Lenvo OneKey feature or the Lenovo recovery?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8
What's the big deal with having to have a recovery partition? Not trying to be a smart @ss, just wondering? If you order a set or recovery disks from Lenovo for that model you should be able to restore it to factory state with that. For what it's worth, I made a Recovery Thumb Drive (16 GB) on my ASUS laptop when I got it. After swapping in an SSD, it was useless. All I got was "a required partition is missing" and other errors when trying to reset to the new drive. It seemed like a big waist of time. For me, it's no big deal not having a recovery partition. My two desktop PC's are home built and wouldn't have one anyway. My Laptops came with OEM Windows 8.0 and that's been replaced with clean installs of 8.1. I wouldn't want to use the recovery feature even if it still worked. Still, If you do make your own custom recovery partition, I would be very interested to know if it works.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
Still, If you do make your own custom recovery partition, I would be very interested to know if it works.


Since I do a lot of one up pc's, I always create a recovery image partition and it works just fine for Reset and Refresh and it is just 4GB..
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
I'll have to have a look at the tutorial. It's not something I'd do on one of my systems but it might be wroth while doing on a system I have to resurrect for somebody. Somebody that doesn't have a clue as to how to install Windows the next time they hose their system. ;)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Education 64 Bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Deneb 3.7GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS M4N68T-M V2 µATX Motherboard
    Memory
    8GB 4GBx2 Kingston PC10600 DDR3 1333 Memory
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Geforce GT640 2 Gig DDR3 PCIe
    Sound Card
    VIA VT1708s High Definition Audio 8-channel Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LG E2242 1080p and 2 19" I-INC AG191D
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024 - 1920x1080 - 1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD and 500 GB WD Blue SATA
    PSU
    Thermaltake TR 620
    Case
    Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Stock heatsink fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wireless K350 Wave
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Trackball and T650 TouchPad
    Internet Speed
    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    HP DVD1040e Lightscribe - External USB2
I have a Lenovo piece of junk.. and they are.. i don't care what you think.. (don't make me prove it)

anyway, forget your stupid onekey recovery.. its completely pointless.. its' full of bloatware and crap to slow down your computer.

-if you are worried about your puny little drivers when you clean install windows.. well guess what? lenovo doesn't even keep your drivers updated anyway on their own support site so you have to go get them from each individual manufacture of the peripherals in your computer anyway.. ( i already did it i'ts not that bad.)


-lenovo has rubbish drivers... crap support and cheap chinese crap..

1. install fresh clean windows 8.1 whatever version you had when you bought the crappy lenovo..

I completely threw out my original hard drive.. it was slow crappy and full of bloatware..

I paid $120 and you can pay even less.. wake up.
Amazon.com: Samsung 850 Pro 128GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-7KE128BW): Computers & Accessories

make sure that hard drive is exactly what you need before you buy..

point is. lenovo sux.. don't ever buy again.. and always go ASUS.

oh just for fun! read this! so you will never buy lenovo again right? and if you want to know, the answer is ASUS computers..

chineselvono.JPG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 (HOME not Pro) 64bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    (So not very nice) Lenovo Y410P
    CPU
    i7 quad 2.4Gig
    Memory
    16G ram
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 2gig 755m
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 840 Evo

    supercache2 m2. mini card.
    Antivirus
    Win Defender
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