Windows 8.1 and Surface Pro

[theog]

By clean install I mean booting ISO from USB not that I will simply just kill whole HDD, just windows partition.

Just found smth about recovery partition

"As long as you keep that flash drive safe, you’ll be able to boot from that drive and restore Windows 8 exactly as you had it when you first turned on your Surface Pro. "

A fresh install would make the Recovery Partition & USB Recovery drive unusable.

Updating from the MS App store, the Recovery will still be usable.

 

[alphanumeric]

Will not do a clean install, only overwrites the OEM manufacturer's install.

What's the difference, I believe in both ways it formats windows partition?!?

Clean install has no partitions, no windows install, no Recovery partition.

A clean install using UEFI puts a recovery partition on my drive. A 300Mb Recovery Partition, plus a 100Mb EFI System Partition and then the partition Windows is installed to..

 

[theog]

What's the difference, I believe in both ways it formats windows partition?!?

Clean install has no partitions, no windows install, no Recovery partition.

A clean install using UEFI puts a recovery partition on my drive. A 300Mb Recovery Partition, plus a 100Mb EFI System Partition and then the partition Windows is installed to..

A fresh install would make the Recovery Partition & USB Recovery drive unusable.

 

[alphanumeric]

Clean install has no partitions, no windows install, no Recovery partition.

A clean install using UEFI puts a recovery partition on my drive. A 300Mb Recovery Partition, plus a 100Mb EFI System Partition and then the partition Windows is installed to..

A fresh install would make the Recovery Partition & USB Recovery drive unusable.

The original recovery partition would likely not be usable but the new recovery partition would still be usable, you won't be able to do a factory restore but you can do a reset or refresh of Windows 8. Why would the USB recovery drive be unusable. It's bootable and is supposed to restore the original partition layout?

 

[benko]

What's the difference, I believe in both ways it formats windows partition?!?

Clean install has no partitions, no windows install, no Recovery partition.

A clean install using UEFI puts a recovery partition on my drive. A 300Mb Recovery Partition, plus a 100Mb EFI System Partition and then the partition Windows is installed to..

Well, currently I have 2 recovery partitions, so one would be deleted, (the first one) but the main should be untouched in my opinion. Here is mine disk management screenshot

 

[theog]

A clean install using UEFI puts a recovery partition on my drive. A 300Mb Recovery Partition, plus a 100Mb EFI System Partition and then the partition Windows is installed to..

A fresh install would make the Recovery Partition & USB Recovery drive unusable.

The original recovery partition would likely not be usable but the new recovery partition would still be usable, you won't be able to do a factory restore but you can do a reset or refresh of Windows 8. Why would the USB recovery drive be unusable. It's bootable and is supposed to restore the original partition layout?

The OEM manufacturer's USB Recovery drive, only overwrites the OEM manufacturer's install.

 

[alphanumeric]

Clean install has no partitions, no windows install, no Recovery partition.

A clean install using UEFI puts a recovery partition on my drive. A 300Mb Recovery Partition, plus a 100Mb EFI System Partition and then the partition Windows is installed to..

Well, currently I have 2 recovery partitions, so one would be deleted, (the first one) but the main should be untouched in my opinion. Here is mine disk management screenshot

Yes but the hook to access the second one is in the boot sector. The manufacturer has linked it so you can run it. A clean install will break the link. Windows 8.1 likely won't see it or access it. If that happens doing a reset or refresh will just refresh or reset Windows 8.1, not your old 8.0 install.

 

[theog]

Clean install has no partitions, no windows install, no Recovery partition.

A clean install using UEFI puts a recovery partition on my drive. A 300Mb Recovery Partition, plus a 100Mb EFI System Partition and then the partition Windows is installed to..

Well, currently I have 2 recovery partitions, so one would be deleted, (the first one) but the main should be untouched in my opinion. Here is mine disk management screenshot

If you delete any of the partitions, this will make the Recovery Partition & OEM manufacturer's USB Recovery drive unusable.
You will need the Microsoft official OEM Recovery disks to do a clean install.

 

[alphanumeric]

A fresh install would make the Recovery Partition & USB Recovery drive unusable.

The original recovery partition would likely not be usable but the new recovery partition would still be usable, you won't be able to do a factory restore but you can do a reset or refresh of Windows 8. Why would the USB recovery drive be unusable. It's bootable and is supposed to restore the original partition layout?

The OEM manufacturer's USB Recovery drive, only overwrites the OEM manufacturer's install.

OK fine, but that's what the OP wants it to do? It will restore the original factory 8.0 install. You're saying it would be unusable?

 

[theog]

The original recovery partition would likely not be usable but the new recovery partition would still be usable, you won't be able to do a factory restore but you can do a reset or refresh of Windows 8. Why would the USB recovery drive be unusable. It's bootable and is supposed to restore the original partition layout?

The OEM manufacturer's USB Recovery drive, only overwrites the OEM manufacturer's install.

OK fine, but that's what the OP wants it to do? It will restore the original factory 8.0 install. You're saying it would be unusable?

Updating from the MS App store, the Recovery will still be usable.

 

[alphanumeric]

The OEM manufacturer's USB Recovery drive, only overwrites the OEM manufacturer's install.

OK fine, but that's what the OP wants it to do? It will restore the original factory 8.0 install. You're saying it would be unusable?

Updating from the MS App store, the Recovery will still be usable.

Ok, that's fine, let me rephrase the question. Why does doing a clean install make the USB recovery drive unusable? If I misunderstood what you said please forgive me?

 

[theog]

OK fine, but that's what the OP wants it to do? It will restore the original factory 8.0 install. You're saying it would be unusable?

Updating from the MS App store, the Recovery will still be usable.

Ok, that's fine, let me rephrase the question. Why does doing a clean install make the USB recovery drive unusable? If I misunderstood what you said please forgive me?

The OEM manufacturer's USB Recovery drive, only overwrites the OEM manufacturer's install.

 

[alphanumeric]

Updating from the MS App store, the Recovery will still be usable.

Ok, that's fine, let me rephrase the question. Why does doing a clean install make the USB recovery drive unusable? If I misunderstood what you said please forgive me?

The OEM manufacturer's USB Recovery drive, only overwrites the OEM manufacturer's install.

As far as I know it will overwrite what ever is on the disk and recreate the original file structure and original partitions. That's the whole point of making it. The one I made had those options. I had swapped my original disk for a smaller SSD drive so mine didn't work.

 

[benko]

So alphanumeric, what you want to say is that if I save recovery to USB I should have no problem?

 

[theog]

As far as I know it will overwrite what ever is on the disk and recreate the original file structure and original partitions.

Only if they are all there, your SSD did not have the original file structure and original partitions as you did clone HDD over to the SSD.


How to clone your HDD drive to a SSD drive.
http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/17083-how-migrate-os-new-hard-disk.html

 

[alphanumeric]

So alphanumeric, what you want to say is that if I save recovery to USB I should have no problem?

Yes that's what I am trying to say. I haven't actually done it myself but I don't see why it wouldn't work. For my ASUS laptop according to ASUS, making the recovery drive and copying the recovery partition to it, is supposed to be the equivalent to making a recovery disk set. I did it but never actually tried it. Well I did try it in a way. I swapped my original 750 gig factory drive for a 128 gig SSD and tried to do a recovery. It didn't work, the original partition structure wasn't doable on the smaller SSD.

 

[alphanumeric]

As far as I know it will overwrite what ever is on the disk and recreate the original file structure and original partitions.

Only if they are all there, your SSD did not have the original file structure and original partitions as you did clone HDD over to the SSD.


How to clone your HDD drive to a SSD drive.
http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/17083-how-migrate-os-new-hard-disk.html

OK, forget about my SSD for the time being. Lets say you had to replace your hard drive with a new blank drive, same make and size as the original. Are you saying the USB recovery drive cannot restore the original factory install to that drive?

 

[theog]

As far as I know it will overwrite what ever is on the disk and recreate the original file structure and original partitions.

Only if they are all there, your SSD did not have the original file structure and original partitions as you did clone HDD over to the SSD.


How to clone your HDD drive to a SSD drive.
http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/17083-how-migrate-os-new-hard-disk.html

OK, forget about my SSD for the time being. Lets say you had to replace your hard drive with a new blank drive, same make and size as the original. Are you saying the USB recovery drive cannot restore the original factory install to that drive?

You would need the Microsoft official OEM Recovery disks.

Staying with your ASUS:
You can order the Microsoft official OEM Recovery disks from the ASUS OEM manufacturer's website.
Essentio Recovery Software

 

[alphanumeric]

Only if they are all there, your SSD did not have the original file structure and original partitions as you did clone HDD over to the SSD.


How to clone your HDD drive to a SSD drive.













http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/17083-how-migrate-os-new-hard-disk.html

OK, forget about my SSD for the time being. Lets say you had to replace your hard drive with a new blank drive, same make and size as the original. Are you saying the USB recovery drive cannot restore the original factory install to that drive?

You would need the Microsoft official OEM Recovery disks.

Staying with your ASUS:
You can order the Microsoft official OEM Recovery disks from the ASUS OEM manufacturer's website.
Essentio Recovery Software

So is that a yes or no answer to my question? "Are you saying the USB recovery drive cannot restore the original factory install to that drive?" If you don't know the answer just say so? Forget about my ASUS laptop. I have no need nor do I want to ever restore the factory install.

 

[theog]

OK, forget about my SSD for the time being. Lets say you had to replace your hard drive with a new blank drive, same make and size as the original. Are you saying the USB recovery drive cannot restore the original factory install to that drive?

You would need the Microsoft official OEM Recovery disks.

Staying with your ASUS:
You can order the Microsoft official OEM Recovery disks from the ASUS OEM manufacturer's website.
Essentio Recovery Software

So is that a yes or no answer to my question? "Are you saying the USB recovery drive cannot restore the original factory install to that drive?" If you don't know the answer just say so? Forget about my ASUS laptop. I have no need nor do I want to ever restore the factory install.

Reword.

You would need the Microsoft official OEM Recovery DVD, to reinstall to a new blank drive