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I am installing a fresh copy of Windows 10 on a PC which currently has Windows 7. My question is, do we need to delete both primary and the system reserved partitions? Some people say delete both but I don't know why we need to delete the system reserved?
I went ahead and deleted only the primary partition and left the system reserved alone. I got a fresh install.
My question is, is deleting system reserved parition recommended? does it really make any difference? Because I still got clean installed without having to delete it.
zar
Posted 2018-03-30T20:11:43.193
Reputation: 873
If it is really a fresh installation, where you don't want to preserve anything, you should delete everything and let the installer create the partitions it needs. – AFH – 2018-03-30T20:18:15.977
@AFH I was thinking the reserved partition might have some stuff to restore it to factory settings? – zar – 2018-03-30T20:20:06.627
I agree with @AFH. Delete all the partitions and start from scratch. I doubt that the Windows 10 installation routine will resize any existing partitions, and the System Reserved Partition has to be a certain minimum size in order to be able to install major updates. – BillDOe – 2018-03-30T20:21:27.467
This is only a consideration if you want to restore to Windows 7, and it's so long since I had a W7 system that I can't recall which partitions are used for recovery, if I ever found out. The OEM partition is possibly more valuable, as it contains software issued by the manufacturer, some of which may still run on W10. – AFH – 2018-03-30T20:23:22.003
Its probably down to a matter of preference. I'd probably delete it, but it will be written to as needed, so you may end up with some vestigial stuff in the partition. its primarily used for boot configuration (especially for bitlockered disks). – Frank Thomas – 2018-03-30T20:24:09.667
I could be wrong on this, but doesn't a clean install mean there's no restore? And also, if you don't do a clean install, the restore data is kept (as I recall) in a separate directory, not in a separate partition. – BillDOe – 2018-03-30T20:25:36.013
@BillDOe From my perspective, a clean install is one without any trace of previous windows and old files. I didn't want to mess with restore option but if I don't lose restore by my deleting system reserved partiation as well than that sounds better. I mean if it will restored to windows10 than that's good. – zar – 2018-03-30T20:31:47.480
The factory restore was introduced when manufacturers stopped supplying installation media. Now that you have a W10 install disc, you can always do a clean install from there without reserving a partition for it. – AFH – 2018-03-30T20:39:00.263