Solved Question on Windows 8 Reserved Partition?

[whs]

I think that you do not get the extra sytem partition when you install into a predefined active primary partition (which is what you have now where your Windows 8 is installed) - at least that's how it works in Windows 7. I have never tried that with Windows 8 though.

But why would you want to reinstall anyhow. Make an image of your current Windows 8 installation and if something happens, just recover the image. And make new images from time to time so that you do not have to go back too far in time and redo all the updates and program installations that were done in the meantime - not to speak of your user data that may get lost unless you put that into a seperate data partition.

 

[znod]

When I did what I mention in my post #20, I got the 350 MB system-reserved partition. Note that doing what I did is essentially the same as in the installation procedure in Clean Install - Windows 8. Check out the discussion of the 350 MB partition in this tutorial. I hope I did not misinterpret what you said.

Edit: I think I see the problem. In my post #20, I originally said "if you do a clean reinstall of Windows 8 and start with one partition on a drive with only unallocated space, ...." I meant to say "if you do a clean reinstall of Windows 8 and start with no partition on a drive with only unallocated space, ...." I fixed my original post.

 

[melabones36000]

I was talking about if I wanted to do a fresh install in the case of wanting to clear out the clutter from my computer but if I were to have a failure do to a virus I'd Just restore my pc via a backup. That's why I was asking about the partitions windows creates and if windows will create two separate ones or just install all of it on my current partition. I just wanted to know beforehand so I don't have to go through all the process I just went through again. But I believe Znod answered my question.

 

[whs]

So what do you think is the answer.

 

[melabones36000]

I think the answer is that if I were to do a fresh install via the option in Windows 8 that it would install everything to one partition due to the fact it is the only active partition now. But if I were to do znods process of a fresh install with a partition of unallocated space then Windows 8 would create the necessary partitions needed. I'm only basing this on the fact that when I had the 100mb partition from windows 7 which was the active par that windows 8 just installed the boot file on that instead of editing the partitions before installing everything.

 

[whs]

I think you are right. That's the way it ought to work.

 

[znod]

I think the answer is that if I were to do a fresh install via the option in Windows 8 that it would install everything to one partition due to the fact it is the only active partition now. But if I were to do znods process of a fresh install with a partition of unallocated space then Windows 8 would create the necessary partitions needed. I'm only basing this on the fact that when I had the 100mb partition from windows 7 which was the active par that windows 8 just installed the boot file on that instead of editing the partitions before installing everything.

Yes, except it's a drive, not a partition, that would have only unallocated space for the 350 MB partition to be created. If the drive had a partition, then that would not happen. See the note in step 8 of Clean Install - Windows 8:

"... If you want to have (recommended) the 350 MB System Reserved partition in addition to the Windows 8 C: partition on a HDD or SSD after installation, then you would need to make sure that all partitions on the drive have been deleted until it is only unallocated space. Next, select the unallocated drive to install Windows 8 on. If there are no partitions on the disk, you will get the 350 MB System Reserved."

 

[melabones36000]

Ok I got it now zero partitions and unallocated space will get me the proper partitions needed for windows 8 with the fresh install well I thank you all for your help and I think I understand partitions a little more now.

 

[znod]

Yes, you've got it, and you are very welcome. Glad you got it all worked out.