Question regarding reinstallation and partitions

[WillThGreat]

Hello,


My PC recently took a dump, and I've been trying to "Refresh" it all day. Unfortunately, many problems have arisen. When one was resolved, another would pop up, so I decided to just reinstall Windows entirely.


I have two 1TB drives in RAID 0, with a 64GB partition for the OS, and the rest for Data. My question is, if I boot into my Windows 8 Installation USB device, can I simply format the 64GB partition and install Windows right on that? The goal is to leave the Data partition unaffected.


An extra question: I've been wondering this for a while. Does it make a difference if you install Windows on an Unallocated Space versus a partition created in the advanced boot options? Is it necessary to format the partitions as well?


Thanks in advance,
Will

 

[Edwin]

You should be able to format and install to that 64GB partition but I would give it about 100GB.
You can't install to Unallocated Space but it will prompt you to create a New Simple Volume.

 

[WillThGreat]

You should be able to format and install to that 64GB partition but I would give it about 100GB.
You can't install to Unallocated Space but it will prompt you to create a New Simple Volume.

Thank you. It was actually 128GB, not 64. And as for the Unallocated Space, I believe I confused it with the leftover (data, in this case) partition. What's the difference between formatting it versus creating a new partition or volume?

 

[Edwin]

[/QUOTE]What's the difference between formatting it versus creating a new partition or volume?

Formatting clears the volume of all data leaving a clean volume, Deleting the Volume leaves you with Unallocated Space and a new Partition would be the creation of new Space from an existing Disk Partition.
You're good to go just formatting it.