I have a problem with my laptop. What I did was I messed around with Windows 8.1 registry and know my computer won’t boot into Windows from the ssd installed into my laptop. I had my laptop check by a local repair show and they instructed me to go ahead and reinstall Windows 8.1.
I tried to but my problem is the partition I want to install windows on doesn’t have enough free space on it to install Windows. I can get to the command prompt and I have been trying to remove enough of the files on the partition so i can reinstall windows. I can up with an idea that would make the job go faster if I could somehow get Windows 8.1 installed on a usb drive and then setup my laptop to boot into windows I could then clean up enough hard drive space to reinstall windows.
Why can you not just format the partition? That would clear all the available space in it.
It sounds like you are trying to only use a little on the space of a partition for the install but windows will always take all of what ever space you give it wiping whats in there first any way.
Is it that you are attempting to preserve what is still there but inaccessible so you can install on a free portion of the disk remaining and then doctor the original registry with the new install to get the old one working again?
I have an 250 GB SSD drive that is divided into two logical partitions or logical drives C: and D: . Each logical drive has bout 125GB of total disk space. The files I want to keep are on the Logical drive D: So that only leaves me Logical Drive C: to reinstall Windows on which has 120GB of used space on it leaving only 5GB of free drive space to install Windows on.
Every time I try and install Windows on the Logical drive C: I keep getting an error from the install program telling me than if I want to install Windows on the Logical drive C: I have to free up another 4GB of hard space. So since I can get to the command prompt I have been spending the last 3 days deleting files from the logical drive C: I was wondering if anyone had an idea that would remove files from the drive I want to that would be faster than just typing the command prompt command by hand. I tried to use a program called Win To Usb which is suppose to create a Windows live USB drive so I could boot into Windows and then select the files I want to delete. I followed the steps talked about in the video I posted above but it wouldn’t boot into Windows like it suppose to instead get a message that there is a problem with windows.
That is very odd. Usually during install it will list available partitions and will have 8 or so options across the bottom of the screen. one should be format which would clear the partition and let you install there.
Sorry but beyond that I have no idea. I was just trying to figure out why you could not just install as normal with windows, sounds like an odd problem, I have never seen it complain about not enough space on a partition as it usually just wipes it all any way at install time.
EDIT: Why could you not just load up a linux live with NTFS support and wipe the files that way? Someone round here made a linux recovery image recently that can do that.
So, is there any reason why you cannot just reformat the partition you are trying to reinstall windows onto if the only files worth keeping are already separated?
shift + F10 to bring up a command prompt
Either 1) format /? format C: /fs:ntfs /q /x
or 2) diskpart
help
list disk
sel disk 0
list part
list volume
sel part 1
format fs=ntfs quick
Modify the sel part 1 command above to select the right partition from the right disk.
The GUI installer should work after that.
If it does not, then you could always apply the image manually using dism /? and make it bootable using bcdboot /?.
I have learned since my last post the logial drive C: is subdivided into 5 sepreted partitions. One of the partitions is the one the manufacture put the system restore files which I thought I had erase but it turns out I might not have. Which is the reason I don’t want to take the risk of reformating the logical drive C:. I think I am going to try creating a Linux live usb drive boot into Linux mount the SSD and than create more free space on the SSD that way.
I finally got Windows 8.1 reinstalled on my Laptop. I finally got it reinstalled by reformatting the partition Windows 8.1 was originally installed on.