How to create a New Partition within Windows 8?

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21

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.

+1.

I agree with mta, except that I would want to know if any real problems exist before the HP warranty runs out.

I actually did exactly that here, ignored the problems on the new win 7 machine until it just wouldn't work any more.

Lucky for me, though, I got it diagnosed and fixed before the warranty ran out. So do lthink about that.

But MAKE THOSE RECOVERY DISKS. Ooops, did I shout that? :P

Just go ahead and do that, it costs very little, and will restore the OS to factory original if need arises.

22

+2 on the recovery, or backups, or cloning the system - whatever you want to do.

Even without this 'issue' hovering over your head, you should be doing those things anyway.

Our Systems Analyst lecturer drummed into us the CYA principle. (Cover Your A*se)

23

Saurabhdua,

I think I was wrong in post #14 about the format of the recovery partition.

I just don't remember which format it should be, but this topic over at HP forums says that it is NTFS. 

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Recovery/HDD-partitioning-and-preinstalled-windows-7/td-p/1112533

Make your backup disks and don't change, delete, edit, or mirror anything until you have tried to talk to HP, OK?

24

Got the Point!

Thanks all for the valuable feedback.

For Alan_B::: Under Diskmgmt, a Right Click for the Context Menu, only yields "Help" as the sole option showing up for both Recovery Partitions.

When the same steps are followed through Explorer ( My Computer>>Right Click the D:), the properties does indicate NTFS partition.

For Login 123::: Yes you are Right, the Forum Guys are not at all agile, unlike your Team which respond everything with a Lightning quick speed:-)

Now, I would certainly like to give a try to the Chat Session as you opined.

Thanks again for the valuable time!

25

Got the Point!

. . .

For Login 123::: Yes you are Right, the Forum Guys are not at all agile, unlike your Team which respond everything with a Lightning quick speed:-)

Now, I would certainly like to give a try to the Chat Session as you opined.

Thanks again for the valuable time!

You're welcome. Sorry for being a pain in the neck saying the same thing over and over. :lol:

To be fair to the HP forum members they may be limited by the forum owners as to what they can post.

Some are very knowledgeable, some not, same as any group of volunteers.

The best thing about the Piriform Forum is that members know where to suggest to get specialized help.

The kind of thing you are dealing with has many possibilities for fatal error, and if the guys at HP warranty mess it up they have to fix it.

I would be very interested to learn what you find out, if you would be so kind as to share that information.

I too have a win 8 laptop, and sooner or all the members here would benefit from your researches.

26

Well......for now..I think, it would be appropriate to the follow the advice to turn a Blind eye as long as the sky do not comes crashing over your head!

Iam sorry for being too "Mean" in this regard, but PC aka "Personal Computer" connotes a sense of comfort, peace, solace after a hectic work schedule at the Office!

I would definitely like to spare a Weekend hunting out for the reasons behind such a anomaly. You know....Iam going bereft of "Spark" to even invest a due diligence for making the Recovery Disks out of the newly purchased PC.

Like somebody well said......In India, they WAIT for the Disaster to happen! Gimme some time....& I'll return a deserving gratitude for the efforts of Team Members!

Thanks for being patient!

27

In India, they WAIT for the Disaster to happen! Gimme some time....

Problem with waiting for a computer disaster is you lose all your cherished files, music, etc., and it takes allot of time to put things back exactly as you had them before. You only have to lose all your files once or twice before you start diligently making good thorough backups.

What I'd do:

1. Make two sets of those OS restore discs, and then put them away somewhere safe as a last resort to undo disaster.

2. I'd use a disk imaging software which can quickly re-initiate the OS to a fully working order with all of your software ready to use, which completely prevents having to re-install everything. Should that disk imaging software ever fail there's the OS restore discs to fall back on as a last resort.

28

MAKE THE BLASTED DISKS AND BACKUP IMAGE.

And post back how it goes so we don't worry. :lol:

29

Hello saurabhdua - Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, but I've been away for the last week and a half. I had a look at the screenshot you provided back on post #6 and #15, the one showing Windows Disk Management on your machine. I have the very same anomaly on my HP Envy DV7 laptop, where the Recovery partition is listed twice in the upper panel, but only appears once in the lower panel. I would not worry about it. I have examined my hard drive using several other independent partitioning tools, and have found that there is only one Recovery partition, located at the very end of the drive. So the error is in the upper panel, and why this is, I do not know. It is just Windows being Windows as far as I'm concerned, and I don't lose sleep over it.

As far as having no unallocated space available on your hard drive, it is up to you to create it by shrinking your C:\ partition. See here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg309169.aspx

30

Hello Derek 891 & all those Friends out there! :-)

I would like to express my wholehearted gratitude for a great deal of lucidness portrayed all across the submitted posts, & that too with a great level of Patience.

I would like to confirm... that I have now with me a USB Flash drive based Recovery backup! The link posted earlier by Derek were of Great help! Thank you:-)

I would like to ask a couple of questions too, & cooperation in this regard will be sincerely appreciated.

>> I have always observed installation of OS through CD Disks. Do I need to make any special provision (like enabling First Boot device) to make use of this USB based Recovery when required? How do we access the options for making the "First Boot Device" with HP AIO machines?

>> Now since Recovery Media can be made only once, is there a way to create Discs out of the Recovery backup stored on the USB Flash drive?

>> Is the purpose of a Disk Imaging Software (like Macrium Reflect) goes similar to creating a no. of Restore points on your machine, generally what is achieved by turning on "System Protection" or "System Restore"(Prev. version of Windows)? Will the installation lead to any kind of slowdowns?

>>On the basis of the attached screenshot( & the ones attached earlier), can I make way for Ubuntu's installation too within the existing setup?

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31

Hello saurabhdua - I'm glad to hear that you have created a recovery USB flash drive for your system. This is one of many steps on the way to installing Ubuntu and having a dual boot machine.

>> I have always observed installation of OS through CD Disks. Do I need to make any special provision (like enabling First Boot device) to make use of this USB based Recovery when required? How do we access the options for making the "First Boot Device" with HP AIO machines?

I'm operating under the assumption that your HP AOI machine and my HP laptop have similar BIOS settings and use the same keys to access and change these settings. So please be aware that there may be differences between what I describe here and what you may actually have to do on your machine. Your user's manual and HP's support website are helpful in describing what the exact procedure is for your particular machine. This is what I do to initiate system recovery on my system. With the machine powered down, press the power button and immediately start tapping the Esc key. If successful, you will see a start up menu similar to this:

F1 - System Information

F2 - System Diagnostics

F9 - Boot Device Options

F10 - BIOS Setup

F11 - System Recovery

Now press the F10 key to enter BIOS Setup. Use the left/right arrows on the keyboard to scroll over to "System Configuration" and press Enter. Now use the up/down arrows to scroll down to "Boot Options" and press Enter. Scroll down to "Secure Boot" and press Enter. Now select "Disabled", then press the F10 key to save the change and exit BIOS. The next screen you see will ask you to confirm this change by entering a four digit code. Do this and press Enter. Now your machine will reboot. Power it down and insert your USB recovery flash drive. Now power up and immediately hit the Esc key. This time, press F9 to select Boot Device Options. Look for the USB flash drive and select it. From this point onward it's a matter of following the on-screen instructions to initiate a system recovery. Once initiated, it's then a matter of waiting for the process to complete.

>> Now since Recovery Media can be made only once, is there a way to create Discs out of the Recovery backup stored on the USB Flash drive?

I have no idea if this is possible. I suggest that you treat your USB recovery flash drive as if it were gold. Put it in a safe place and do not let anyone else near it. This is simple - when you need it, you want to be absolutely sure it will work. You don't want to find that a family member or friend reformatted it to put pictures or music files on it!

>> Is the purpose of a Disk Imaging Software (like Macrium Reflect) goes similar to creating a no. of Restore points on your machine, generally what is achieved by turning on "System Protection" or "System Restore"(Prev. version of Windows)? Will the installation lead to any kind of slowdowns?

I take this approach - I like to have as many options as possible to repair or restore my operating system. I have System Restore activated and make a habit of creating a new Restore Point prior to installing any new software or making major changes to my system. I have the recovery partition on my hard drive and all of it's options available to me. I have the recovery USB flash drive available so I can re-install Windows if necessary. And I have created backup images using Macrium Reflect. There are two advantages to using Macrium: I can restore my system in about 35-45 minutes, and it is restored to the exact same condition as when I created the images. This is a huge time advantage compared to re-installing and then updating Windows using either the recovery partition or the recovery USB flash drive, either of which can take 4-6 hours.

>>On the basis of the attached screenshot( & the ones attached earlier), can I make way for Ubuntu's installation too within the existing setup?

Absolutely. Just be aware of this - you want to do this by shrinking only the Windows C: partition. You do not want to alter any of the other Windows system partitions on your hard drive. How much shrink to apply depends on you and what your intentions are regarding Ubuntu. Do you want to install it just out of curiosity or just to see if you like using Linux? Do you intend to use it as a secondary operating system? Or are you planning to use it as your primary operating system and have Windows playing a lesser role?

Trying Ubuntu - This is hard for me to suggest because I have no idea how much memory is installed on your system. At the minimum, you need to create a root and a swap partition for installation, and you want to make the size of swap equal to the size of your installed memory, otherwise you will not be able to hibernate the system. I'd say to be safe, shrink the C: partition by 32GB (=32768MB). This way if your have 16GB of memory installed on your system, you will end up with both root and swap at 16GB each. This is adequate for a minimal installation if you just want to try out Ubuntu. If you have less than 16GB of system memory, then swap will be correspondingly smaller and root will be larger by the same amount.

Ubuntu as secondary - I'd say go a bit further, maybe shrink C: by 80 GB(=81920MB) to 120GB(=122880MB) to make a decent amount of room for Ubuntu.

Ubuntu as primary - Again, hard to suggest. You do not want to shrink the Windows C: partition excessively only to find out later on that you went too far! Because then you would have to delete your Ubuntu partitions, extend the Windows C: partition accordingly, then re-install Ubuntu. I'm only making a suggestion here - you really need to decide this for yourself - if you leave Windows with 120-150GB, that would provide Ubuntu with 300-330GB of available disk space.

Please refer to the guide I provided in post #3. http://itsfoss.com/install-ubuntu-1404-dual-boot-mode-windows-8-81-uefi/

This is a pretty complete installation guide. There are two things to note: Do not make swap 1.5 times system memory as the author suggests, making it equal in size to system memory is more than enough. And when you get to bottom of the Installation screen, be sure to select dev/sda2, your existing EFI boot partition, as the place to install the bootloader!!! DO NOT use the default setting, which is dev/sda!!!

Edit: I just noticed on one of your screenshots that you made a note in red mentioning Ubuntu 10.10? If you're going through all of this trouble to install Ubuntu, I would suggest installing the latest version, Ubuntu 14.04 "Trusty Tahr". Version 10.10 is no longer supported and you will not be able to download/install updates from the repository! Please read here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/253594/say_goodbye_to_ubuntu_linux_10_10_maverick_meerkat.html

32

Hello Derek!

Thanks for the Comprehensive explanation again! You do that with such an ease:-) (I suppose so...)

For your Update, Yes, Iam using an HP AIO Desktop Computer that came with a 2GB of System Memory (RAM) installed by default.

& I intend to use the Ubuntu as my Secondary OS. Does a shrink in the C: partition will result in the formation of an unallocated space or a free space?

& lastly, in the wake of an information of a 2GB of installed system memory, what values would you like to update for "Amount of Space to Shrink" referred to against the screenshot attached in the prior post?

Thanks.

33

Hello saurabhdua - In response to your first question, shrinking your Windows C: partition will create "unallocated" space on your hard drive. The term "free space" applies to the unused areas on a formatted partition.

In light of the fact your system has 2GB of installed memory, and the fact that Windows C: is just under 450GB in size, why not try this: shrink Windows C: by 61440MB, or 60GB. This will allow you to have an Ubuntu root partition of 58GB(59392MB) and a swap partition of 2GB(2048MB). Considering the fact that Ubuntu installs using about 4.5-5GB of the root partition, you will have plenty of room to install applications and save data files.

A side note: I downloaded the Ubuntu 14.04 .iso the other day and installed it to a USB flash drive, then ran it live on my machine. I haven't used Ubuntu since version 12.10, and noticed a significant change when running the installer. It no longer detects that Windows is already installed on the hard drive and no longer offers you the option to install Ubuntu alongside Windows. (I noticed a similar situation occurred between Linux Mint 15 and 16, which I am more familiar with.) This means that you will have to choose the "Something Else" option when installing or you will risk overwriting your Windows 8 installation. The link I provided to the tutorial describes how the "Something Else" option is used for installation. Please read it first, just to familiarize yourself with the process, the screenshots, and what to expect. Going at this blindly is asking for trouble, trust me when I say this. If you have any further questions about installing Ubuntu, or any other Ubuntu-based version of Linux, please ask me first.

34

Iam absolutely "stunned" with your sense of taking an "Ownership"! Kudos to your efforts. Trust me, the Original issues have now become secondary for me. In fact, Iam left with all "Praise" for you! & this is no false imitation. For the very first time in my life, I have seen such a forum where Members like your goodself leave no stone unturned to bring out that ultimate "Awe" within you! Amazing.....!!

I'll surely keep you abreast with every inch of progress in this regard, & Thank you so very much for letting me know the exact values to be punched in for shrinking the Volume.

Thank you. :-)

35

Hello saurabhdua - I'm going to share a bit of my personal philosophy with you. A forum like this exists for one thing above all else: Knowledge. Those who understand how to do things share this knowledge with those who are willing to learn. It's that simple.

36
Hello Derek!
Following your instructions, I created a unallocated Space of 60 GB, & ran Ubuntu's 10.10 Installation over it. It went successfully, & asked me to Reboot the machine at the end.
Now, Iam unable to see the Boot Menu that use to offer us a Choice to select the desired Operating System to run. My Windows Installation is Intact, & Iam directly able to Boot on to it, automatically.
Surprisingly, diskmgmt.msc still shows 60 GB of space as Unallocated! although the size of C: has reduced proportionately (as obvious).
Now is there a way to correct this issue? During the Ubuntu's Installation, I chose Manual allocation over "Alongside" option as the latter were allocating 161GB for Ubuntu's Installation that caught me apprehensive. During "Manual allocation", I even created a Swap space of 4MB using a quota of an available Free space. For "Boot Loader" Installation I preferred the default setting of dev/sda.
Lastly, Is there a way to reclaim 60GB lost over to unallocated space? What if I wish to intermingle it/ or Unshrink it to the previous state?
I feel Iam lost, as there were no option to send you the Installation Screen's screenshot. Nevertheless, Windows 8 appears intact.
37

Hello saurabhdua - I can see two places where you have gone wrong. But first, I'd like to ask you to post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management showing what your hard drive currently looks like. I'd like a clear picture of this before offering any advice how to fix things and get you back on the right track.

Number 1 thing you did wrong: Why did you insist on using Ubuntu 10.10 when I previously advised you not to? Go back to post #31 and re-read what I said in the edit at very the end. Version 10.10 is no longer supported and you cannot update it from the repository. Also, be aware that only versions 12.04.2 and up support EFI boot, which is what your system uses to boot. Please download the latest version of Ubuntu, 14.04 "Trusty Tahr", before attemting another installation.

Number 2 thing you did wrong: You chose to install the bootloader to dev/sda when I advised you to install it to dev/sda2, the existing EFI boot partition. I mentioned this twice, all the way back in post #3, then again in post #31. In light of the fact that Ubuntu 10.10 does not support EFI boot, it is a moot point, but you do not want to repeat this mistake when installing Ubuntu 14.04.

I've been offering you this advice for one simple reason: I have made similar mistakes myself in the past and am trying to help you avoid making the same mistakes. But if you do not follow my advice, guess what happens? You repeat the same mistakes!

38

Well Derek Yes! You have every right to confront me on this arbitrary kind of approach followed in this regard. Well... Iam enrolled to 2Mbps of Data Download Plan that remains effective upto a Download limit of 3GB. Post that, it goes throttled down to 512Kbps. Although, its an "Unlimited Data Download" Plan, but Iam short of that Patience to leave my PC ON for the whole night, & to screw up my Golden 3GBs for the sake of a Single mammoth Download!:-)

The reason I insist upon 10.10 is that because it is the only last version available with me got in the form of a "Free" Shipment. You must be very aware of Ubuntu's Shipit Programme, which has been discontinued now.

Please have a look at the latest position of the Hard Disk as shown against the attached Screenshot.

My apologies are extended to the attached Screenshot as well :-)

Hope, you'll be able to guide me still on what remains BEST possible for my case. Thanks.

In India, we are still running too short to usher in an era of Broadband Revolution. 2Mbps is widely construed as a decent available option among the offered plans. I went to an extent to even attempting to Purchase Ubuntu's latest version, but the inclusion of the Shipping Cost betrayed my idea of a fair bargain at the very end! Will try & approach the Ubuntu's Local Community, & see if they can make it a fair tradeoff somehow?

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39

Hello saurabhdua - Now I understand your situation in regard to your internet service. There are times I have to remind myself that not everyone has the same broadband connection that I have. I guess you'll have to find some way of getting a DVD version of Ubuntu 14.04 instead of downloading it.

I took a look at the latest screenshot you have provided. Regardless of any messages you might have seen when you did the installation, Ubuntu 10.10 was not installed on your hard drive. If it had succeeded, there would be two new partitions displayed in Windows Disk Management, one for the root partition of Ubuntu, and one for the swap partition. Both would be described as "RAW" format, since Windows does not recognize Linux formats like ext2/ext3/ext4 or Linux swap.

For now, if you wish to reclaim the 60GB of unallocated space and make it part of Windows C: again, it's just a matter of right clicking the Windows C: partition, then selecting "Extend", and using the amount that is listed. This will restore the C: partition back to it's original size.

I would suggest not to try installing Ubuntu 10.10 again. It's not compatible with EFI boot, and the Ubuntu repository no longer supports system updates.

40

Thank you so very much for yours "Relentless" Patience in this regard. I somehow couldn't do Justice to yours Child-like Nurture evident across this entire Thread. My sincere apologies for the same, & I wish you all the Very Best for all yours future endevors! :-) May God Bless you:-)

Oh I didn't want to do that...but somehow couldn't keep it to my self...

One last help::: Now since Iam equipped with Recovery Media based Thumb Drive, do we still need Recovery Partition? Is there a way to "Reclaim" it too?...or simply flush it out to dole out some "More" Free Space!?

I promise to end my last Correspondence for this Thread with a simply "Thank you":-) Trust me....:-)