Delete or Format Partition before installing Windows 8

[Scar]

Greetings Neowin,

 

So I finally went for a clean installation of Windows 8 a few days ago after years of Windows 7 and I completely forgot an important step. The step I got confused by was "Where do you want to Install Windows", I easily located my C drive but forgot what to pick exactly from the menu below. "New", "Format" and "Delete". I just selected the hard drive I wanted to install Windows on and clicked "Format" and then proceeded with the installation. After successfully installing Windows I have read from various sources that I should have picked Delete. Will I expect any problems with the OS for picking Format all alone?, did anyone install similarly?

 

Thank you for your time and help.

[zhangm Supervisor]

If you're happy with the parameters of the existing partition setup, then I don't see why you'd need to delete them and create new ones. Ghosts of ones and zeroes past won't hurt you. :)

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

It is going to format your HDD eitherway so there's no difference unless you had multiple partitions on the drive and left some old ones around from the Win7 installation. Just check the partitions you have to be sure. Win8 has two by default.

[psionicinversion]

I don't think it really matters tbh, I don't think either technically removes any files it just marks the sectors as being free and existing data just gets over written I think

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

I don't think it really matters tbh, I don't think either technically removes any files it just marks the sectors as being free and existing data just gets over written I think

 

Neither zero out any bits. The only difference is that you'd only need to do the delete to clean up things if you had multiple partitions on the drive

[Thief000]

Isn't it the case if you remove the volume, that the bad sector file is removed as well?

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

Isn't it the case if you remove the volume, that the bad sector file is removed as well?

 

bad sectors are handled and remapped by the firmware, not at the volume/file system level

[Scar]

Thank you all for the responses so far.

 

It is going to format your HDD eitherway so there's no difference unless you had multiple partitions on the drive and left some old ones around from the Win7 installation. Just check the partitions you have to be sure. Win8 has two by default.

 

My C drive(where Windows 7 was previously installed and later replaced with Windows 8) didn't have multiple partitions.

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

Thank you all for the responses so far.

 

 

My C drive(where Windows 7 was previously installed and later replaced with Windows 8) didn't have multiple partitions.

 

You are good then. Whether you clicked delete & then formatted, or just format would translate into the same operations by the installer then.

[Scar]

You are good then. Whether you clicked delete & then formatted, or just format would translate into the same operations by the installer then.

 

By having multiple partitions you mean separated memory within the same hard disk itself?, here's a screenshot of my partition as it was after installation without any changes. The other hard drives have nothing to do with my Windows files. C is the one I install Windows on.

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

I meant your C: drive (Disk 2) would have multiple partitions showing (something like Disk 0 is showing) if you messed it up. It isn't, so are fine. I guess Windows didn't bother split up the boot partition from the operating system either in your case so it is all on one partition on C:.

[Scar]

I meant your C: drive (Disk 2) would have multiple partitions showing (something like Disk 0 is showing) if you messed it up. It isn't, so are fine. I guess Windows didn't bother split up the boot partition from the operating system either in your case so it is all on one partition on C:.

 

Thank you.

[+BudMan MVC]

"The other hard drives have nothing to do with my Windows files. C is the one I install Windows on."

No not really.. Your H is active and system.. So if you pulled H, your windows is not going to work ;) So while your disk 2 is where C, if you H or disk 0 was removed your system would not boot to windows.

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

"The other hard drives have nothing to do with my Windows files. C is the one I install Windows on."

No not really.. Your H is active and system.. So if you pulled H, your windows is not going to work ;) So while your disk 2 is where C, if you H or disk 0 was removed your system would not boot to windows.

 

You are right, good eye. That's why he doesn't have a separate system partition in C:! I bet this was also the case with the Win7 install also.

[+BudMan MVC]

This is system seems really odd - these disks are all so small? Are they SSD, or just that old? All of them seem FULL!! Since he clearly has moved on from what the system came with for OEM.. He has little use of the OEM part and what I assume is some sort of recovery partition. I for one would blow those away, get almost 5GB of space to use.

I would prob suggest get say a 1TB disk and remove all these tiny disks.. I have to assume these disks are quite old at those sizes?

[HawkMan]

"The other hard drives have nothing to do with my Windows files. C is the one I install Windows on."No not really.. Your H is active and system.. So if you pulled H, your windows is not going to work ;) So while your disk 2 is where C, if you H or disk 0 was removed your system would not boot to windows.

Ummm not necessarily. His C drive is also set as the boot disk according to that. Which seems to indicate it's also set as the first boot volume in bios and that the other partitions on his other disks are just old unused remnants.

[+BudMan MVC]

Yes is C is boot, which is actually the OS, while system is where the BOOT stuff is.. Not sure my MS named this way they are basically opposite of logically looking at the name ;)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-are-system-boot-partitions#1TC=windows-7

System partitions and boot partitions are names for partitions (or volumes) on a hard disk that Windows uses when starting. These terms can be confusing because the system partition actually contains the files used to boot Windows 7, while the boot partition contains the system files. Understanding these concepts is important if your computer is configured in one of the following ways

He only has 1 boot listed and 1 system listed. And H is also set as active..

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mark-partition-active#1TC=windows-7

Marking a partition as active is an advanced task that should only be performed by advanced users. Marking a partition as active on a basic disk means that the computer will use the loader (an operating system tool) on that partition to start the operating system.

I can assure you if he pulled H his system would not boot. He would need to boot from media and repair to the the system up.

[HawkMan]

Ah, didn't notice the system partition.

[snaphat (Myles Landwehr) Member]

Yeah, budman is definitely on the mark here. That being said, for the OPs purposes, it doesn't really matter from a usability perspective and definitely isn't an issue that would require a reformat to fix if he ever did decide to remove the first device.

[+BudMan MVC]

No doesn't really matter in the long run, other than understanding how its setup if he ever decides to pull the H and replace with something bigger say.

[Scar]

This is system seems really odd - these disks are all so small? Are they SSD, or just that old? All of them seem FULL!! Since he clearly has moved on from what the system came with for OEM.. He has little use of the OEM part and what I assume is some sort of recovery partition. I for one would blow those away, get almost 5GB of space to use.

I would prob suggest get say a 1TB disk and remove all these tiny disks.. I have to assume these disks are quite old at those sizes?

 

You are right, they are prehistoric actually and I really just leave them there for old files, movies and so on. Most of what I download/save are online stored. The C drive is an SSD drive, that's where Windows is installed.

[Scar]

Yes is C is boot, which is actually the OS, while system is where the BOOT stuff is.. Not sure my MS named this way they are basically opposite of logically looking at the name ;)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-are-system-boot-partitions#1TC=windows-7

System partitions and boot partitions are names for partitions (or volumes) on a hard disk that Windows uses when starting. These terms can be confusing because the system partition actually contains the files used to boot Windows 7, while the boot partition contains the system files. Understanding these concepts is important if your computer is configured in one of the following ways

He only has 1 boot listed and 1 system listed. And H is also set as active..

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mark-partition-active#1TC=windows-7

Marking a partition as active is an advanced task that should only be performed by advanced users. Marking a partition as active on a basic disk means that the computer will use the loader (an operating system tool) on that partition to start the operating system.

I can assure you if he pulled H his system would not boot. He would need to boot from media and repair to the the system up.

 

H was actually hidden without a hard drive name(a letter) when I first booted into Windows 8, I had to edit that and name it H for it to appear in my "This PC" folder. There is nothing in that Hard drive other than movies, old files, 100% junk and so forth. You might be right though and I wouldn't be interested in unplugging that.

 

All I worry about is that I might have messed up with the installation by only clicking "Format" rather than "Delete", I really don't remember the step I followed when I installed Windows 7 since that was in 2009 and I didn't need to format ever since. My only move to Windows 8 was out of boredom and wanting to try something new. I hope I didn't screw myself due to that one possibly silly mistake during installation.

[+BudMan MVC]

No its not a big deal.. What I suggest for simplicity when installing a new system is to disconnect all but the drive you want to install too. This makes sure no mistakes are made, and stuff like your system being on an older drive like what you have.

[Scar]

No its not a big deal.. What I suggest for simplicity when installing a new system is to disconnect all but the drive you want to install too. This makes sure no mistakes are made, and stuff like your system being on an older drive like what you have.

 

Will do, thank you.