Clean install with WIMBoot & delete recovery partition

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  1. Posts : 46
    Win10 Home 64 bit
       #1

    Clean install with WIMBoot & delete recovery partition


    I bought a 2nd hand Lenovo Idea pad 100s netbook. It has 32gb eMMC storage. It has WIMBoot.

    It came with Win10 but has the old owners profile so I want to reinstall a clean copy of windows 10 from usb that I downloaded from Microsoft.

    2 questions:
    1. Can I delete the recovery partition when I do this? I don't need wasted space and can always reinstall off usb in future. There is warning about doing this with EMMC drives, see below...

    My concern is that the user guide has a big warning :

    Do not delete or modify the Recovery Partition on a WIMBoot-enabled computer.
    If the Recovery Partition is deleted or modified, you may not be able to restore Windows to the factory status. For computer models on which WIMBoot is enabled, deleting the Recovery Partition may cause Windows to fail to start.

    2. Do I need to do anything special when installing a clean copy on a WIMBoot drive?

    Thanks
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2

    Use Macrium Reflect Free to make an image of the existing EMMC and a rescue USB flash drive. Then you are 99% guaranteed to be able to restore it if you need to.

    I would also suggest creating a folder on a USB flash drive or SD card - I call mine DriversW10. Then in an elevated "run as administrator" command prompt run:

    DISM.exe /Online /Export-Driver /Destination:D:\DriversW10

    The path in red will be to the folder you create. This will save all the non-Microsoft drivers for the hardware that you might need to manually install through device manager in control panel later.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 46
    Win10 Home 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks for the reply.

    So are you saying after I create the image and driver backup I should then be ok to delete the recovery partition, or not?

    My understanding of wimboot (from what I read) is that it is needed for install files in which case I would have to keep it, assuming win10 runs off that.

    What confused me is this was upgraded from win7 or win8 so not sure if upon upgrade the recovery partition then also got updated?
    Last edited by larrens; 27 Feb 2016 at 14:45. Reason: Not finished question
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #4

    All wimboot means is that Windows is stored in a compressed state in the eMMC memory. It does not require the recovery partition to load and run. The recovery partition is only required to restore the tablet back to factory software, which will be Windows 7 or 8.

    This is my experience with clean install of Windows 10 on my Nextbook 32GB tablet:

    Came with Windows 8.1 Bing. First thing I did was make an image of the entire eMMC with Macrium Reflect to a USB flash drive. Then I exported the drivers to a micro SD Card. I upgraded to Windows 10 to get the free upgrade and digital entitlement.

    Then I boot from a Windows 10 install USB flash drive, selected custom install, wiped all the existing partitions from the eMMC memory and clean installed to the unallocated space.

    In device manager were a whole bunch of "unknown devices". Right click each one, select upgrade drivers, search my computer, point it to the saved drivers folder on the microSD card, loaded all the drivers for each unknown device.

    Screen would not auto rotate. Discovered there was an accelerometer that needed a device driver that was nowhere in device manager, not even "unknown device". So I manually installed that driver. Screen rotated but was either 90 or 180 degrees off. Discovered I needed a registry entry to correct it. So, I made an image of the Windows 10, restored the image of the Windows 8.1/Bing, exported the registry entry that I needed. Restored the image of Windows 10 and imported the registry entry and all was right with the world again.

    When I wiped the eMMC memory before the Windows 10 clean install, the factory recovery partition went with it. But I still have it in the image stored on my external backup drive.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 15,444
    Windows10
       #5

    Before you do anything, it is a really good idea to create a "barebones" usb recovery drive in Windows 8.1 as well as the Macrium image (just in case Macrium fails). You cannot use standard MS iso to recover without getting a new licence.

    If you create this drive, you can safely delete recovery partition and free up limited space.

    To do this

    Control Panel, Recovery, Create Recovery Drive, and click checkbox to copy recovery partition.

    As NavyLCDR says, export drivers as well - tablets use some special drivers not in standard MS iso.

    This is a good tool that exports the 3rd party drivers.

    http://woshub.com/how-to-export-driv...indows-8-1-u1/

    I actually recpommend you upgrade rather than clean install first, as it is easier.

    One issue you may get with a clean install is that the touch drivers rarely work during the install, so you need a usb hib, usb mouse and usb keyboard as well as the usb stick, and perhaps an otg cable to connect hub to tablet.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 4,132
    Windows 3.1 to Windows 11
       #6

    All wimboot means is that Windows is stored in a compressed state in the eMMC memory. It does not require the recovery partition to load and run.
    Sorry, but this is totally wrong assumption.....

    Wimboot uses the Recovery Partition and Recovery Image (Install.wim) as its file source....
    The only thing on the C drive are the pointers to the files contained within the install.wim..
    So on a Wimboot PC removing the Recovery, Removes the OS..

    Windows 10 does not support wimboot and with a 32 GB drive not really required either...

    I would also suggest creating a folder on a USB flash drive or SD card - I call mine DriversW10. Then in an elevated "run as administrator" command prompt run:

    DISM.exe /Online /Export-Driver /Destination:D:\DriversW10
    Without Question - do as suggested above about the drivers

    then

    YES, You can remove every partition and Clean Install windows 10 .
    As that tablet is no longer using wimboot anyway, since the win10 upgrade
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 4,132
    Windows 3.1 to Windows 11
       #7

    What happened when the wimboot PC got upgraded to windows 10, is the pointer files on C where copied into windows.old
    and then the NEW OS was installed on C..

    thus knocking out the prior wimboot OS and the recovery partition is no longer needed or used as a reference point..
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #8

    This is my tablet:
    Clean install with WIMBoot & delete recovery partition-capture.jpg

    Clean install with WIMBoot & delete recovery partition-capture1.jpg

    Clearly Windows 10 does not require a recovery partition to run the OS in compressed state.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 1,524
    Windows 10 Pro (32-bit) 16299.15
       #9

    NavyLCDR said:
    Clearly Windows 10 does not require a recovery partition to run the OS in compressed state.
    ...because Windows 10 doesn't use WIMBoot any more.
    It's only Windows 8.1 that uses WIMBoot - OS compression in Windows 10 uses a different technique.
    But deleting the recovery partition on a Windows 8.1 device with WIMBoot would be a problem.


    Edit: I'd forgotten that some OEMs might still be using it while deprecated. A more correct version would be:

    ...because Windows 10 doesn't support the use of WIMBoot any more.
    (From here:
    Technet article on the DISM command used to deploy Windows said:
    /WIMBoot: Windows 8.1 only: to apply the image with Windows image file boot (WIMBoot) configuration. This only applies to Windows 8.1 images that have been captured or exported as a WIMBoot file.
    Important
    This feature isn't supported in Windows 10.
    It's only Windows 8.1 (and apparently some OEMs that are using it on a deprecated basis) that uses WIMBoot - OS compression in Windows 10 uses a different technique.
    But deleting the recovery partition on any device with WIMBoot would be a problem.
    Last edited by DavidY; 28 Feb 2016 at 06:50.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 15,444
    Windows10
       #10

    DavidY said:
    ...because Windows 10 doesn't use WIMBoot any more.
    It's only Windows 8.1 that uses WIMBoot - OS compression in Windows 10 uses a different technique.
    But deleting the recovery partition on a Windows 8.1 device with WIMBoot would be a problem.

    The latter point is crucial - that is why any 8.1+Bing user should backup OS to a recovery usb drive BEFORE upgrading and also recommend an image backup AS WELL (not instead of).
      My Computer


 

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