I installed W8/8.1 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 W8/8.1 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 W8 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 W8 using a new - never used SSD will I get the three partitions? If I format the SSD with one partition prior to Installing W8 what will I get?
I not concerned about the loss of 300MB, I just need a little help understanding why I got different partition configurations on fresh installs of W8 on two different MB's/Systems?
Why was the Recovery Partition created? I built this system from scratch so there is not any third party involvement. If I reinstall W8 using a new - never used SSD will I get the three partitions? If I format the SSD with one partition prior to Installing W8 what will I get?
I not concerned about the loss of 300MB, I just need a little help understanding why I got different partition configurations on fresh installs of W8 on two different MB's/Systems?
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- W.8.1 Pro Update 1
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- Custom
- CPU
- 3770K
- Motherboard
- ASRock Z77 OC Formula
- Memory
- GSkill 2400-10
- Graphics Card(s)
- None
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Samsung S27B350
- Screen Resolution
- 1920X1080
- Hard Drives
- Mushkin Chronos DX-7 240GB, WD Raptor 250Gb, 3 -WD Raptors 500GB
- PSU
- Seasonic X750
- Case
- Corsair 800D
- Cooling
- Swiftech Apogee HD 3X120 Rad
- Keyboard
- Microsoft Sidewinder X4
- Mouse
- Microsoft Exporer 2.0
- Browser
- IE11
- Antivirus
- Malwarebytes