UEFI newbie: How to wipe the whole disk?

essenbe said:

I've used it before, but I've never seen anything I couldn't do with the installer. Call me old fashioned, if you want to. It's true, I am. I've never denied it. I just fail to see the necessity.

One warning I do give people when "inside of windows" or online then only use Windows own tools. I would never use GParted to extend or shrink an active Windows partition. Just to nuke it.
Back to the original post though, why couldn't Kari just nuke and let Window installer repartition for the clean install?

1. How do I proceed with clean installing Build 10547 wiping the whole disk? I tried it, got to disk tools in setup, removed all other partitions but the dialog didn't let me to delete the partition C: (yellow highlight)
2. Essentially I would like to start from this situation (screenshot from this TF tutorial), whole disk unallocated space, partition it as I want to and install Windows. If this was a BIOS system I could easily do it, the Windows Setup Disk Tools dialog creating the System Reserved automatically when I create the first partition in that unallocated space, but UEFI seemingly lets me to delete all other partitions but not the C:

Kari said:

1. Why three recovery partitions (white highlight in screenshot above). I understand the last one, it's the manufacturer's recovery partition which allows me to restore the original OEM German Windows 8.1. But why the two others?

Any insight greatly appreciated, please help me to understand the UEFI. Please notice that I have recent system images allowing me to restore this functioning system anytime I want to, making experimenting easy.

Kari for the answer to this part see this msdn library: Windows and GPT FAQ

Edit: Have you turned on GPT partitiong in BIOS by setting boot to UEFI?

essenbe said:

I have never had trouble from install media. The install media has no 'permissions' issues, so I can't understand the problem. If this were typical, you could never do true a clean install without Live Linux media.

The thing was, whatever I did, I could delete / remove all other partitions but not the C:. Boot from install media, start Windows installation, the Drive tools dialog, deleted all partitions but selecting C: partition, the Delete option was disabled.

Anyway, I got this solved. I booted with a live Linux disk, used GParted removing all partitions and continued clean installing Build 10547 which of course was automatically activated when finally after customization with Sysprep I arrived to desktop.

Kari

Good to hear

Something weird happened at some point to make it so Windows couldn't handle that partition. Sorted now though. Just one of those you may never know situations.

Kari said:

Anyway, I got this solved. I booted with a live Linux disk, used GParted removing all partitions and continued clean installing Build 10547 which of course was automatically activated when finally after customization with Sysprep I arrived to desktop.

Kari