Win 10 or Win 8 install into single partition

[Kisianik]

Hi
I had enough headaches with current OS state (Win 8.1) when last Summer I upgraded to Win 10, but reverted back to Win 8.1 within 30 days, now Win 8.1 is all broken and it got on my nerves and I am planning in near future install Win 10 (already previously activated) or put back Win 8.1. From Win 10 I need only DX 12, nothing else.
I have Samsung 850 500GB SSD as OS drive, is it possible to preformat SSD into single partition prior to installation of Win 10 (my laptop upgraded to Win 10 from Win 8 has total 4 partitions, crap). If yes, how to do so?
Can I do this in existing PC or I need another one (I have a secondary PC as backup) and what tools to use (I have Aomei and like it).

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Martell1977]

Boot from the Windows 10 USB or DVD, when it asks where to install it, you can there delete all partitions and then install it. Just make sure you have backed up all files you can't stand to lose, this will delete everything on the drive. You can't do this as an upgrade, has to be a fresh install, which is good for stability reasons anyways.

If Windows 10 doesn't install all the hardware, you should be able to download drivers from the manufacturer(s). You should be able to sue drivers for 8.1 if they don't ahve Windows 10 driver available, but being an 8.1 machine, there likely will be.

 

[Rhinofart]

Drop to an administrative command prompt.
Type diskpart and press enter
type list disks
determine which disk is the SSD you want to preformat into 1 partition.
type select disk (number of disk you want to work on) and press enter
type clean (This will wipe any data and partition information on the disk)
type create partition primary and press enter
type select partition 1 and press enter
type active and press enter
type format FS=NTFS -quick and press enter
Voila. Brand spanking new disk ready and waiting for OS install.

 

[Kisianik]

Drop to an administrative command prompt.
Type diskpart and press enter
type list disks
determine which disk is the SSD you want to preformat into 1 partition.
type select disk (number of disk you want to work on) and press enter
type clean (This will wipe any data and partition information on the disk)
type create partition primary and press enter
type select partition 1 and press enter
type active and press enter
type format FS=NTFS -quick and press enter
Voila. Brand spanking new disk ready and waiting for OS install.

Thanks both of you.
@Rhinofart: But for this I need another PC, correct? My current 8.1 is installed on SSD.

Boot from the Windows 10 USB or DVD, when it asks where to install it, you can there delete all partitions and then install it. Just make sure you have backed up all files you can't stand to lose, this will delete everything on the drive

Will Win 10 create 2 partitions in this case, one for OS and the other for System Files?

Is there any tools I can run from Disc to wipe SSD and create ONLY ONE PARTITION? Similar to WD or Seagate bootable discs? Anything for Samsung SSD?

Thanks for a quick response.

 

[Martell1977]

Will Win 10 create 2 partitions in this case, one for OS and the other for System Files?

Is there any tools I can run from Disc to wipe SSD and create ONLY ONE PARTITION? Similar to WD or Seagate bootable discs? Anything for Samsung SSD?

Thanks for a quick response.

When in the Windows 10 setup, you can delete or create partitions. If you want the entire disc to be 1 partition, all you have to do is delete the shown partitions (except the small system one that the setup is using, it's less than 100mb). Once everything is deleted, it will be labeled as "unallocated space" and you just select it and continue with the install (it will format and use the space as Windows needs it, but will not create any extra partitions.).
Everything on the drive will be deleted when you do this. No need to create any other boot media, Windows 10 setup will let you do all this as needed.

 

[Kisianik]

Will Win 10 create 2 partitions in this case, one for OS and the other for System Files?

Is there any tools I can run from Disc to wipe SSD and create ONLY ONE PARTITION? Similar to WD or Seagate bootable discs? Anything for Samsung SSD?

Thanks for a quick response.

When in the Windows 10 setup, you can delete or create partitions. If you want the entire disc to be 1 partition, all you have to do is delete the shown partitions (except the small system one that the setup is using, it's less than 100mb). Once everything is deleted, it will be labeled as "unallocated space" and you just select it and continue with the install (it will format and use the space as Windows needs it, but will not create any extra partitions.).
Everything on the drive will be deleted when you do this. No need to create any other boot media, Windows 10 setup will let you do all this as needed.

I am trying to avoid the following:

As explained here.
By default installation will create 4 partitions - and I want only 1.
Need investigate this thread.

I can use my secondary PC to wipe SSD clean and create only one partition in the worst case scenario - it is not easy to remove SSD from the connection, very crowded there.... Trying to avoid this.

Thanks for help.

P.S. I have UEFI BIOS on Asus Maximus Hero VII.

 

[Rhinofart]

No matter what you do, windows installer will create 2 partitions on the drive. A small (roughly 100 MB) for the boot files, and the rest of it will become your C: drive. When you're in windows, you will see only the 1 partition. That screenshot you showed above looks like an OEM partitioning scheme with their recovery software stuff so you can wipe your computer back to new "full of the OEM software junk they load on".

 

[Martell1977]

If you don't care to ever go back to "factory settings" you can delete Partition 1 and Partition 4, they will become the "unallocated space" to install on. The other 2 are temporary partitions and wont show anywhere. You will see the C drive and that is all from the SSD, unless you leave the "recovery" partition, however, with that small of a drive, you wont have a whole lot left after Windows is installed.

 

[Kisianik]

No matter what you do, windows installer will create 2 partitions on the drive. A small (roughly 100 MB) for the boot files, and the rest of it will become your C: drive. When you're in windows, you will see only the 1 partition. That screenshot you showed above looks like an OEM partitioning scheme with their recovery software stuff so you can wipe your computer back to new "full of the OEM software junk they load on".

I will try to avoid this.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zAQIKEoZ1k"][/video]

I am doing all this for simplified Whole Disc Image Backup. Picture shown was from TenForums Guide for a Clean Windows 10 install (link was also provided).

Martell1977 said:
If you don't care to ever go back to "factory settings" you can delete Partition 1 and Partition 4, they will become the "unallocated space" to install on. The other 2 are temporary partitions and wont show anywhere. You will see the C drive and that is all from the SSD, unless you leave the "recovery" partition, however, with that small of a drive, you wont have a whole lot left after Windows is installed.

This picture was an example, my SSD is 500GB. Space is not an issue, as my older games and non essential programs will be installed into WD Black 1TB HDD. And I planning to dedicate one WD Red NAS 3TB HDD for image backups only, I have plenty of those. No RAID however.

Will start preparing to do those things maybe next week (it is time to back up all crap I have), we will see, which approach will work.

Any opinions about the Video? Will this work with UEFI BIOS?

 

[Kisianik]

I found the answer I was looking for!

I don't need Bitlocker for encryption.

Job well done.

Too bad I can not award Best Answer to myself 🙂

 

[Martell1977]

So you found a way to manually do what the setup would have done for you. Glad it worked.

 

[Kisianik]

So you found a way to manually do what the setup would have done for you. Glad it worked.

Setup will create at least 2 partitions, one for OS and the other, reserved, for boot files. Deleting reserved partition later is not advised.
I will check all possible ways next week, will report back with results (will try first with SSD in the system, if not going to work, will remove and format on the other PC).

 

[mjslakeridge]

When you do get around to installing the OS on your SSD, disconnect any other drives in the computer so Windows does not try to install some boot files on the other drives. It happens, and then if the other drive is removed or re-formatted or fails, you won't be able to boot up from the SSD.

 

[Kisianik]

When you do get around to installing the OS on your SSD, disconnect any other drives in the computer so Windows does not try to install some boot files on the other drives. It happens, and then if the other drive is removed or re-formatted or fails, you won't be able to boot up from the SSD.

Thanks for a friendly reminder, I seen this recommendation in many places, I guess Win 10 is really screwed up. Win 7 setup never done this to me.
Just a reminder to myself, disable Cortana, turn off all location options, disable Defender and other similar crap, and not to forget to disable forced Windows updates, it is actually possible, I have done it already on my laptop (PRO version is easier to tweak, on Home version group policies must be created).
As I stated in the beginning, I need only DX 12 from Win 10, nothing else.

Thanks all for suggestions.

 

[Martell1977]

So you found a way to manually do what the setup would have done for you. Glad it worked.

Setup will create at least 2 partitions, one for OS and the other, reserved, for boot files. Deleting reserved partition later is not advised.
I will check all possible ways next week, will report back with results (will try first with SSD in the system, if not going to work, will remove and format on the other PC).

Those partitions will be created when you install Windows regardless. The recovery partition I was saying to delete was the one shown in that pic for the factory reset partition. The partition Windows creates is necessary and will never be see in Windows and is of negligible size.

What you did with Diskpart is the same thing you could have done during the setup, it's just that you did it manually through the command prompt.