Fresh Install Windows 10 - Recovery Partition

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

  1. Posts : 8
    Windows 10 Home
       #1

    Fresh Install Windows 10 - Recovery Partition


    Hi,

    I have an ASUS which came with 8.1 OEM. I upgraded to Win 10 and now am about to do a fresh install of Win 10 (using this tool: Windows 10) on it.

    It has 2 recovery partitions 20 GB and 500 MB.

    Q1. During fresh install, do I need to delete both recovery partitions?

    Q2. Just to confirm, recovery partitions only keep the newly installed OS backup right? I.e. wondering if I can keep older OS recovery on that?

    Thanks :)
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 107
    Windows 10
       #2

    crazyfool said:
    I have an ASUS which came with 8.1 OEM. I upgraded to Win 10 and now am about to do a fresh install of Win 10 (using this tool: Windows 10) on it.
    How to clean install Windows 7/8/8.1/10 64-bit in UEFI Boot Mode.

    If you want to do a complete clean install and if you have backed up your important files.

    Normally, you do not need to turn Secure Boot off to install Windows 8/8.1/10 in UEFI Boot Mode. You only need to turn Secure Boot off to install Windows 7.

    You do not need to change the boot order of drives in your UEFI firmware (BIOS) settings.
    - Connect your Windows 7/8/8.1/10 USB flash drive (Note: FAT32 file system) or insert your Windows 7/8/8.1/10 DVD.
    - Restart the computer.
    - Press the correct key to enter the boot menu (see this link for help). Or, if you have a Lenovo computer, you can also press the NOVO button when the computer is turned off and then select "Boot Menu"
    - Select to boot from the "UEFI: USB/DVD device name".

    On the Which type of installation do you want? screen, select the "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)" option.

    On the Where do you want to install Windows? screen, you'll need to delete all of the partitions (see screenshot below). Select a partition and click on the "Delete" option for each partition.

    Fresh Install Windows 10 - Recovery Partition-where-do-you-want-install-windows.png

    Once you have deleted all of the partitions, you only see Drive 0 Unallocated Space (see screenshot below).

    Click on the "Next" button. The installation of Windows will begin. All the required partitions are created automatically during the install.

    Or, if you know what you're doing, you can click on the "New" button and create a separate data partition.

    Fresh Install Windows 10 - Recovery Partition-drive-0-unallocated-space.png

    Other instructions.

    - How to download and clean install Windows 8.1 if you have an OEM computer with UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8/8.1 product key. -> link
    - Here is info about UEFI Boot Mode (installing using the GPT partition style) and Legacy BIOS Boot Mode (installing using the MBR partition style). -> link
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 119
    Windows 7 (reverted back)
       #3

    The Recovery Partitions are a lazy way of providing you with an option to re-install Windows (8) when your system does not work anymore for whatever reason except of course you fried the Hard-drive

    Be aware that Asus does NOT provide you easily with a backup or that you can easily download a recovery file.

    In my personal opinion it would be best to keep the Asus recovery partition to make sure that if your system crashes, you can go back to the original OS that was delivered with the PC.

    Good Luck
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 4,131
    Windows 3.1 to Windows 11
       #4

    I for one went back to 8.1 - 10 still has to many permission issues for me at this time..

    That 20GB partition has your factory setup (OS, Drivers and apps)

    you can keep that partition (if it is the last partition) delete all other partitions then install windows 10 to unallocated disk space
    you can copy all the files on that partition to a USB and removed partition completely
    or remove partition completely, and/if > then clean reinstall 8.1 and Asus drivers and any apps
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 10
    Windows 10
       #5

    In the process of upgrading to and clean installing Windows 10 on our family PCs, I did not go through the process to delete recovery partitions shown above. Generally I wound up with multiple small but empty (100% free) recovery partitions on the hard drives of the PCs. In some cases, the 16-20 GB recovery partitions also now show as being empty. And they are not always mapped as D: anymore. I went through the process described in the tutorial 4287-reset-recovery-image on one of the PCs so far. This seemed to work. Can I simply delete all the other empty recovery, EFI and OEM partitions? Or are they not really empty?
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 1,579
    Windows 10 Pro
       #6

    Carousel said:
    In the process of upgrading to and clean installing Windows 10 on our family PCs, I did not go through the process to delete recovery partitions shown above. Generally I wound up with multiple small but empty (100% free) recovery partitions on the hard drives of the PCs. In some cases, the 16-20 GB recovery partitions also now show as being empty. And they are not always mapped as D: anymore. I went through the process described in the tutorial 4287-reset-recovery-image on one of the PCs so far. This seemed to work. Can I simply delete all the other empty recovery, EFI and OEM partitions? Or are they not really empty?
    They may or may not be something you want to delete. I'll bet you they are NOT empty. They may look empty when you view them in Disk Management. However, if you look up how to use the diskpart command (carefully) from a command prompt (don't remember if it needs to be an admin/elevated command prompt), you will find they are not empty. There are ways to get rid of those from the older OS install using diskpart or third party partition tools but you really need a tutorial or guide on exactly what you're doing if you want to retain all the recovery/bootability features of you newer (or even older) OS.

    Don't know about ASUS but ACER and DELL provide ways of creating factory restore media which would serve the same backup purpose as the factory restore partition, in which case you may then opt to create recovery media first and then just blow that multi-GB partition away to allocate to your clean OS install.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 68
    Windows 10
       #7

    If you want to keep the recovery partition information just run the tool to make a Windows 8 recovery drive. Then during your windows 10 clean install you can nuke the partitions.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 1,249
    Windows 8.1, Win10Pro
       #8

    Mansome said:
    If you want to keep the recovery partition information just run the tool to make a Windows 8 recovery drive.
    OP clearly said they upgraded to Win10. So how are they now supposed to make a Windows 8 Recovery Drive? Not challenging what you said, just want to know how to do this.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 1,579
    Windows 10 Pro
       #9

    crazyfool said:
    <SNIP>
    It has 2 recovery partitions 20 GB and 500 MB.

    Q1. During fresh install, do I need to delete both recovery partitions?

    Q2. Just to confirm, recovery partitions only keep the newly installed OS backup right? I.e. wondering if I can keep older OS recovery on that?

    Thanks :)
    I would recommend you consider using ASUS Backtracker to create separate media on a 16 GB flash drive from your restore partition with original drivers (the 20 GB one) BEFORE you do a clean install. This should enable you to restore your laptop (I assume this is what you're talking about based on your other thread) to its out-of-the box state. Go ahead and make a Windows 8.1 recovery drive if you want but would you not have the manufacturer's own factory store in addition at the expense of a $10 flash drive?

    Hopefully, ASUS Backtracker works as well under your current Win 10 upgraded status.

    If it interests you, you can have a look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_haVpUtE7ck (again, specific to the model of laptop you posted in your other thread). Read the 2 boxes at the top of the start of the video and follow link in second box on the video if you want (or need) to see making Windows 8/8.1 recovery media rather than ASUS' factory restore media - BUT, like Mark said above, you're not going to be doing that from a Win 10 upgraded system.

    Once you have this separate factory restore in hand, you should have no qualms about blowing away EVERY partition in the clean install you're asking about.

    Any chance you made and kept a full disk image from before the Win 10 upgrade?
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 10
    Windows 10
       #10

    Hello All, I left the recovery partitions are they were. Indeed they were not empty. And, although I see no need to keep the OEM Windows 8 files from 2013, I can delete them later. We do not use our whole hard disks anyway as we have our media on a NAS server.

    What I have done though was to follow the tutorial from DavidY about creating provisioning packages. I then made new recovery USBs using 32GB sticks. For PCs with quite a number of Steam games on them, the 32GB was not enough. So I had the family members delete games that they were not using anymore until I could get the recoveries onto the 32GB sticks. I guess I could have procured some 64GB sticks. But it was time for some clean-up anyway. Thanks for the advice / help.
      My Computer


 

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 10 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 10" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:57.
Find Us




Windows 10 Forums