Partition question and Win 10

[Compusmurf]

After all the insider previews, etc and upgrades.

I now have 5 partitions on my surface pro 3.

Recovery
EFI
OS
Recovery
Recovery

Other than the EFI and OS, which of these are needed still and did Win 10 upgrade any of them of if I do a factory rollback will I get 8.1 again?

 

[GreyFox7]

See here
Upgrade observations and post upgrade Recovery Options

Doing the Return to Factory settings will take you back to 8.1 via the Recovery Partition.
You can also go back to 8.1 very quickly using the Go Back... option

AFAIK the First and Fifth partitions are not essential unless you go back to 8.1.
HOWEVER I don't know for sure IF the First Partition has any special significance because it's "First"
1. Recovery
2. EFI
3. OS
4. Recovery
5. Recovery

4 is a new partition created during the Upgrade.
2. Was modified and contains boot files.
3. Sorta obvious but also contains directories $Windows.~BT & Windows.old for going back and that also requires $Windows.~BT which I believe is used for W10's in-place recovery and the source during Upgrade.

Note: between 2 & 3 there's actually a hidden reserved raw partition that's unlabeled & unformatted. What lurks therein shall not be disclosed unless you can answer questions three.

 

[Compusmurf]

I have a recovery env setup on my USB drive. I think I might blow away partition 4 and 5, leaving the first 3.

 

[GreyFox7]

I have a recovery env setup on my USB drive. I think I might blow away partition 4 and 5, leaving the first 3.

No no no... id not mess with 4, I suspect its used during W10 refresh and reset operations 450mb is nothing. yeah maybe with a USB you'd be safe... but why?

 

[Compusmurf]

Ok. Deleted the bigger one, will use par magic and rearrange or something to reclaim the space.

 

[jackpine]

Same question, am going to do a clean install of w10 and want to wipe partitions 1 and 5. Is it possible to do this before the clean install (I'm already on w10) and does it matter?

Also since I'm no longer on 8.1 and can't use the 'create recovery drive' tool to create an 8.1 image in order to get to the delete recovery drive option, how should I delete it?

Do I need to use partition magic or something on #1 to move the space around to be reclaimable?

Thanks!

 

[GreyFox7]

Same question, am going to do a clean install of w10 and want to wipe partitions 1 and 5. Is it possible to do this before the clean install (I'm already on w10) and does it matter?

Also since I'm no longer on 8.1 and can't use the 'create recovery drive' tool to create an 8.1 image in order to get to the delete recovery drive option, how should I delete it?

Do I need to use partition magic or something on #1 to move the space around to be reclaimable?

Thanks!

See here http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/wiping-surface-pro-3.16431/

 

[jackpine]

Thanks! That's helpful. Only thing is, I'm not sure whether that guy deleted EFI?! as far as I know you don't want to do that ever.

I have:
350 MB Recovery (8.1)
200 MB EFI
C
450 MB Recovery (10)
D
5.37 GB Recovery (8.1)

so similar to what the other guy had, but he ended up with this, which is what I want:

450 MB Recovery (10)
200 MB EFI
C
D

Would I need to wipe the entire drive, including EFI, in order to get this? What do you think would be the best way to go about this?

 

[GreyFox7]

I do not believe W10 setup will expand that first partition from 350 to 450 as it would have to move everything else up, so the only way to get that is delete it all (with the possible exception of D see below) which is what he said he did.

"I did the complete drive wipe and install windows 10 and all good"
​

That's also the guidance in the online clean install guides and if you think about it... what if you were replacing your drive... there's nothing on it... Windows setup will take care of it. At the end of the day a Surface is a PC that the engineers smashed flat.

I'll ask you the same question I asked him... You made a FULL Image Backup with Macrium Reflect right?

He didn't elaborate about what we did with or for the D partition. There are several possibilities since he already had one
1. He wiped his drive complete including D and then shrank C after the install and recreated D or restored D.
2. He wiped everything except D and selected the unused space for the install.

 

[jackpine]

That's ok, I can figure out what to do with D. I'm mostly just worried about the EFI.

I guess you're right that if it was a completely new HDD it would install the EFI. The instructions here also seem to tell you it's fine to wipe everything: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

Would you happen to know if using the diskpart -> clean command would do the same as deleting all partitions through the install interface GUI?

lastly - I'd just like to confirm I've understood correctly and that you're saying it's ok to wipe EFI? A Microsoft tech told me the install will not recreate the EFI partition, but she may not know.

No, I haven't made a backup with Macrium, I'll look into that. Not sure I have enough storage space.