install 8.1

Nice new look.

In re- installing 8.1 with the generic key to install and my 8 key to activate, I noticed when I checked to bring nothing forward that there was no opportunity to partition or create a reserve one either. It just plowed right through with the installation. is this ok and the way it should be?

There was a change or I did it wrong.

does everything work like it did before? F keys for example give same menu's and choices, if so then i'd say every is just fine and you did it correctly with nothing to worry about.

biggest mistake anyone can make when installing an os is to delete the restore partition in my opinion but even this is not a problem really if you have an os install disk anyway.

and if you want a separate data partition you can always create that from inside windows if you failed/forgot to create it during os install.

I liked the old way better b/c you had the chance to create the recovery partition. I know the drive was formatted because Office would not install unless it was removed.first. Everything is different from the 64 bit office to the printers software. But it is good learning.

But this new way was very streamlined. All is working and a new image is ready in case Win 10 just updates and I want to do it.

It seems most upgrades have newer ways to do things and increased security. however there some drawbacks like  compatibility .

At least I have a clean install of 7,8 and 8.1 for the lap and desk on both external drives.

My friend is leaving his UEFI pc here which will give me the chance to learn ho w to boot from cd even though I have WinPE 5.0 by Macrium.

I had to report back that the new way did create a recovery partition.it did all the work for you.

it doesn't actually create a recovery partition, the recovery partition is always there from the time when the pc was purchased and that is where it gets the data from to do the os install.

you can erase it tho if you don't know what your doing especially if you use an install disc and delete and format the complete drive.

I understand and thank you. I am fair at working within disc management.

biggest mistake i ever made!!

when fixing a friends laptop i assumed all the windows software on it was on the restore partition, so she had windows office installed and running but when i did the factory reset using the recovery partition it didn't re-install office.

getting office installed again was not a problem but actually registering it again was, of course she never had the key 

so i needed to repurchase a copy for her.

can't remember the price now but i can tell you it wasn't cheap.

you can bet i never made the same mistake again and i always now make sure i first make a drive image and second note down all software licensing keys before making any changes to a pc.

First, this new look is terrific.

I have images of all I need.

What is bothering me is that with this new install, when I run disk cleanup it is ok but when I click the cleanup system files it does not complete the action.

I am hesitant to image an OS if it is faulty. Why would the system files cleanup not complete running and leave a few MBs behind?

what new look? you using win 8.1 or win 10?

now not having used windows for years myself, i can only make a guess but in my opinion when a system is running it is always creating and using temp files so i assume when you run the cleanup system files the few MB's of data still there are either files it was using and couldn't delete or they are new ones that got created again as soon as the old ones where deleted in the cleanup because the pc still needs them.

When I log in with Any browser there is a nice new look to the forum. A mod thanked me for the comment on another thread.

I waited it out and sure enough after about an hour it completed the program as it should. It was explained to me that unlike used OS's the new installs take forever with both "Cleanup system files" and "Defender".