How to create a New Partition within Windows 8?

Hello There!

Its been 3 months since the puchase of this Win 8 Desktop based All-in-One PC from HP. My Hard drive has a plenty of Free space available to run an alternate OS too!

I would like to ask, Can I use Win XP alongside Version 8 by creating a separate partition? Iam also contemplating on adding UBUNTU as well! Is it possible to have 3 OS?

OR.. Can I have a combination of Win8+Ubuntu+Anderoid on a single machine? How do I create new paritions to allow an entry for an alternate OS?

Do I need to wary of any Complications that might arise after this attempt? Do we require a separte software to allow the Boot Screen to make a choice among the installed OS?

Please suggest. Thanks.

How do I create new paritions to allow an entry for an alternate OS?

http://www.technorms.com/8438/windows-8-create-hard-drive-partition

Hello saurabhdua - I would suggest that you should first prepare a way of reinstalling or recovering your Windows 8 operating system before thinking about installing other operating systems on your hard drive. Your HP All-In-One probably has a Windows Recovery Partition (labelled WinRE) as the very first partition on the drive, and a partition labelled Recovery as the very last partition. The WinRE partition allows you to boot into the Windows Recovery Environment and the Recovery partition contains the image files necessary to reinstall Windows 8. This is good to have, but if either of these partitions are lost or corrupted, you will lose the ability to reinstall Windows 8.

If you have not already created recovery media for your HP system, please read this link: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03481733&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en#N1180 You have a choice of using either 4 DVDs or one 32GB USB flash drive to do this. This is important because it provides a way to reinstall Windows 8 that is independent from your hard drive.

Another good way to backup your Windows 8 installation is by imaging. I use Macrium Reflect to create backup images of the Windows partitions on my hard drive. You can download it here: http://filehippo.com/download_macrium_reflect

The instructions for imaging are here: http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50074.aspx

The instructions for creating a bootable Windows PE USB stick: http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50165.aspx

Note: The USB stick with Windows PE is necessary for two reasons, it allows you to boot into a rescue environment in order to restore your saved images, and it can also be used to fix boot problems if you find that you cannot boot into Windows 8 from the hard drive.

I like using Macrium Reflect for this simple reason: It can restore your Windows 8 system to it's present (or near present) condition, as opposed to reinstalling it and starting from scratch with your system in "day one" condition. This is up to you if you want to take the extra time and effort using Macrium.

Now onto other operating systems. I think that trying to install Windows XP and dual boot with your current Windows 8 system is going to be very difficult if not impossible. For one thing, I don't think Windows XP or Vista can be installed on a system that uses UEFI boot. I know that Windows 7 does support UEFI boot, but installing it and having it boot successfully is a little tricky to do. Another thing is this, even if you were successful with installing Windows XP, you may have a very difficult time finding all the XP compatible drivers that support the newer hardware in your HP All-In-One. Some XP drivers just may not exist for your current hardware.

As far as installing Ubuntu 14.04, here is a fairly good guide explaining how it is done: http://itsfoss.com/install-ubuntu-1404-dual-boot-mode-windows-8-81-uefi/ HOWEVER, at the very end, he misses one very important step. If you look closely at the very last screenshot he provides, you will notice "Device for boot loader installation:" and "/dev/sda" is selected. THIS IS NOT CORRECT. Doing this would result in the boot loader, or Grub, being installed to the MBR area of your hard drive, and you would find you cannot boot Ubuntu. The boot loader MUST BE installed to the same partition that Windows 8 uses for UEFI boot. You will find the correct partition by examining the partition table at the top of that panel and finding the small FAT32 partition (about 260MB) labelled EFI System Partition(in Windows) or simply EFI boot(in Linux). You must select the correct partition for boot loader installation before hitting the "Install Now" button.

Please note there are alternative Linux operating systems that are based on Ubuntu. Two that I like are Linux Mint 17 and the soon to be released Zorin OS 9. Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop is my personal choice, but I recommend Zorin OS to people transitioning from Windows to Linux, due to the fact you can configure the desktop to look like Windows XP or Windows 7, as well as using the traditional GNOME desktop. Another bonus with Zorin OS is the fact that it has WINE already installed. If you are interested in installing and running Windows XP apps from within a Linux OS, this might be a good choice for you, and probably much simpler than trying to install Windows XP.

As far as installing an Android operating system on your machine, I am clueless. Perhaps another forum member can advise you on how to do this.

+1 on the difficulty level.

From the outset, I'd not even go down the path of multi-boot OS's anymore - use a Virtual Machine instead.

Personally I use Oracle VirtualBox on my Win8.1 rig to run a XP and a Win7 virtual PC.

In the distant past I played with dual and tri boots of Linux/XP/Vista and Win7 and found I had to reinstall all the OS's I wanted at least twice as it often came down to the order in which they had to be installed so that one didn't screw up the previous.

With a virtual machine, that all fades into obscurity.

+1 on the difficulty level.

+1 on making the restore disks.

+1 on using a virtual machine instead.

Couple of years ago I put win xp it on a UEFI win 7 machine.

I put it on a separate hard drive in the win 7 machine, not a partition.

So the UEFI issue is not an absolute barrier.

BUT . . .

Hardware drivers for that machine simply did not exist at the time, they may exist now, don't know.

Nobody told me that at the outset. I don't think the folks at HP forums knew it.

Eventually I had to use a custom made driver found on another forum.

EasyBCD did not work with UEFI and GPT formatting at that time. That info was not easy to find.

I have to select which hard drive to boot from the BIOS menu if I want to boot win xp.

A thread about it with links is here:

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=36949

Dear all,

Thank you so very much for an earnest time & effort invested to my requirement. On reading, it turns out to be all the more 'apprehensive' to even think of making the System Dual boot (though with my Prev. XP Desktop, Ubuntu's alongside installation used to be a Breeze!, & have used it till they stopped shipping the Free CDs :-) ).

Now going through the Kroozer's post, my "diskmgmt.exe" has retrieved the attached screen. Iam confisued to see a 2 identical listings of Recovery Partitions & a no preview of any Unallocated space!?......Is it Normal?

The reason Iam asking so is.....it do not feels like a Fresh machine from the very start! There are sporadic stucks, everything going for a Freeze for a considerable interval...I mean, Iam not able to experience that 'Gliding feeling' that is generally expected of a new PC!

Yesterday, The installation of a Windows Update too turned out to be Painful, as the Screen went stuck during the course of its Installation!?

That's what reminds me of the golden days of Ubuntu & XP....

Did I become too Senti...? :-)

Thanks...Please pool in your inputs. Yes, Derek 891, No Recovery DVDs have been made yet.

post-69563-0-71482100-1403862409_thumb.png

By all means make those recovery disks. :)

Also, if your machine is under warranty you can access the online chat help and maybe find out if there is something wrong with the hardware.

I will share a personal experience.

When I bought my new HP win 7 computer it failed 4 or 5 times while making the recovery DVDs.

I thought it was defective DVDs but it was not, the DVD drive was defective from the factory.

Also, there is some sort of problem with the hard drive, I don't remember what, but it came from the factory that way.

When I sent it back to get the DVD drive fixed, they did not fix or replace the hard drive but did replace the DVD drive.

The point is, if there is something wrong with your hardware, get it fixed while you are under warranty.

I agree completely about the smooth old days of win xp, although many knowledgeable members don't.

It will never be that easy again.

Thanks!

Will immediately follow your advise. But, have you gone through the attached screenshot? Is it OK to have duplicacy of Recovery Disk (D:)?

& finally, why can't I see an unallocated space? I mean, 413 GB of space still sits free against my Primary Drive(C:)..?

free space is not the same as unallocated space.

free space is allocated space you have not yet used.

unallocated space is yet to be formatted and you cannot use it.

Yes I looked at it.

First, sorry to say I just don't know about the duplicate entries. Since i don't know I won't comment. Other members may know.

Second, free space is not the same as unallocated space. Free space is just space on partition which is not occupied by files.

It is usually formatted and is located in a partition. Unallocated space is a part of the hard drive that is not assigned to a partition.

For example, if you had a 100 gb HDD, and had only 3 partitions of 25 gb each, there would be 25 gb of space which was not part of any partition. That would be unallocated space.

That is a simplistic explanation, but it is the limit of my understanding. Others may be able to explain better, and may know about the the duplicate entries.

Edit: Ninja'ed by MTA. Actually is a great relief to see i got that right. :P

Any Other Member Please!...How may offer a better explnantion in context to Duplicate entries of Recovery drive as shown in the Screenshot attached above?

I notice two different files systems shown in your screenshot. One reveals it's NTFS, the other doesn't. Maybe look for a freeware hard disk inspection tool to see if it also lists two recovery partitions.

Any Other Member Please!...How may offer a better explnantion in context to Duplicate entries of Recovery drive as shown in the Screenshot attached above?

Against your two duplicates the status only reads "Healthy(..."

For consistency with the others it ought to show "Healthy(O..."

They really ought to read "Healthy (OEM Partition)" if they are duplicates of what is shown on the Disk 0 as following Windows (C:)

Please try again and expand the Status column to display COMPLETE information, and send a new screenshot.

They may both have the status "Healthy (OEM Partition)",

but the one that is not NTFS might show something different to give a clue on what is happening.

The small non-NTFS partitions are the boot partitions that go with a UEFI / GPT system.

Recovery Image (D:) non-NTFS is the partition used by HP to restore the OS. Those are FAT32 format.

Still doesn't help explain why there is one extra NTFS entry for D:/. Sorry.

edit:

I am beginning to suspect that the duplicate entries might have something to do with making the HP recovery disks.

Just a wild guess.

The folks at HP support might be able to tell you more.

Hello Members!

Please have a re-look at the Fresh Sceenshot attachment, & help scour for... what seems to be an apparent anomaly with the "Factory Default" partitions!

I read somewhere that Win 8 boasts of 2 distinct features::: Refresh your PC & probably, Rejuvenate your PC.!? Will any of these of some help to correct such an ambiguity?

Thank you...Waiting keenly to hear words of Wisdom:-)

post-69563-0-88562200-1403981036_thumb.png

Possibly member login123 gave you the best advise which was to ask about this 'anomaly' on the HP forums to see if they know anything about it.

Using Windows Explorer, select drive D:\ and right click for the context menu, and select Properties.

Does this show the File System as NTFS or as something else

Using Windows Disk Management select the top-most volume D:\ which is not NTFS and right click for the context menu,

and then select Properties - a screen shot of its properties might be very informative.

I am using Windows 7 Ultimate, and see that Windows Disk Management will allow me to select a volume on an external removable Flash Drive

and "Add a Mirror" upon any one of my internal HDD's for "Data Redundancy by maintaining multiple copies on different disks".

I have never used that and do not know what it would like like with Windows 8 Disk Management,

but wonder if Windows was per-installed via an external drive and a mirror was established and now your computer is prepared to mirror if it ever sees that external drive again.

This tells you more about making mirrors ( and breaking mirrors - which is alleged to bring you bad luck :angry: )

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784048%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

WARNING - I cannot predict whether your computer would survive the following test,

and personally I would only perform if I had full confidence that I could restore with a boot recovery CD from external image backups.

I suggest you refrain from this test unless some one with more experience confirms that no harm would occur :-

Using Windows Disk Management select the top-most volume D:\ which is not NTFS and right click for the context menu,

and then select "Change Drive Letter an Paths" and click "Change" and select an alternative letter.

It will be interesting to see if both volumes in Windows Disk Management, and also the Drive shown by Windows Explorer,

and change to the same new letter, or whether one or more remain as D:\

If your computer is new enough to be under warranty, and I think it is,

- do not do anything to it unless you can predict the results.

- do not do anything to it that might void the warranty, regardless if you can predict the results.

The warranty conditions usually sound very complicated, but the bottom line is that you do not want to give HP an excuse to void your warranty.

If I had the same questions as you, I would consider the following: (I have actually done this. . . twice)

HP installs some sort of management software, I forget what it is called, but it will help you determine if your warranty is still in force.

If it is in force, you can contact a warranty representative using a live internet chat session.

That person can help you figure out if everything is OK with your partitions.

If there is really a problem, that person can tell you how to get repairs done at no expense to you under the warranty.

When I did that here, the HP company even sent me a box to use to ship the computer back for repair, and paid for the postage.

Also, the HP chat session helper is very different from the HP forum helpers.

The HP forum helpers don't always get the solution right, and if they don't, you are stuck.

The chat helper has access to HP repair persons who know quite a lot, and can help you get your warranty work done if all else fails.

I almost feel messing around with the recovery partition is only going to cause severe grief if you don't know exactly what you're doing, and cost money to get an installation disc if something goes wrong.

why not just leave things as they are?

it's not causing any issues is it?, apart from the 'why is it so?' factor.

personally, I'd be curious enough to chase it down - but only up to the point where the effort to resolve it is less than the angst to just leave sleeping dogs lie.