Solved Unpartitioned hard drive; Can I install windows 8?

[bobkn]

My comment was a bit loose. I wanted OP to know, in response to his claim that he has an unpartitioned drive (yet showing his used/free space and that be is running Win7 in his system specs), that he actually has one partition and that he had to have a partition to have an installed Win7. Your potshot was pointless because it provided nothing useful to the OP and did not attempt to clarify matters--i.e., why my comment was misleading even though it was true.

Sorry. A bit too much literalism here, mostly on my part.

Apparently Bilkal11 calls a drive with one partition "unpartitioned". Perhaps he or she will confirm that.

Windows must be installed in a formatted partition, which is clearly what you meant by "You can't install on an unpartitioned drive."

Maybe no one else would mistake that for stating that you had to somehow partition the drive before using the Windows installer (which can automatically partition and format the drive, without requiring any user action).

I apologize for dragging this farther away from the original topic.

 

[znod]

No problem here. I shouldn't have replied to you as I did originally. I should have said what I said some of what I said in my last post or nothing. So, I apologize too.

 

[Bikal11]

All right, so does that mean I can install Win 8 in my laptop which has only one partition i.e. C drive with all my 527 Gb (out of 581) data in it and will not lose them all?

 

[znod]

You should be able to do an upgrade install probably with either type of disc you may have. If you do, then your compatible programs, settings, and data should be left alone. But, improperly working things from your current install may be carried forward to your new install.

Several of us have recommended a clean install regardless of the kind of disk you have. After doing a clean install, your settings will be factory fresh, your programs will be gone, and your data will be gone (assuming you format--which I recommend). If you do not format, then you should end up with a Windows.old folder containing your data and many other things from your prior install (but, don't count on this folder being present).

No matter what kind of install you do it is imperative that you back your data up on an external source for safety. I recommend that you use an external drive formatted NTSF.

 

[Dave76]

All right, so does that mean I can install Win 8 in my laptop which has only one partition i.e. C drive with all my 527 Gb (out of 581) data in it and will not lose them all?

It is possible, but if you want to be sure you don't loose any of your data you should back it up first, best to backup to an external hard drive.
It is highly recommended to make a backup of your data before starting any Upgrade and definitely if you do a Custom or Clean install.

All the information you need to review, in order to make an informed decision, is on theog's post #14.
Click on the links to the tutorials and will explain everything in detail.

Most of us recommend a Clean install, but you do have an option of doing an Upgrade install.
How to Upgrade from Windows 7, Vista, or XP to Windows 8
Use Option Two.
This will take a long time due to your data being in the C partition, you may not have enough free space in the C partition to allow an Upgrade to run. You only have 10% free space, which is the minimum for an OS to still function correctly. You may have noticed your system slowing down already.

I recommend to get an external hard drive, at least 1TB, transfer all you personal data.
When you get your C drive down to a reasonable 25-30 GB, then run the installation of your choice.
Then you can keep one partition for your OS and make another partition for your data.