Right section to asking about partitions?

[ExoMale]

basically I reset my computer to factory settings as I've been trying to sell it couple weeks or so now, but with the need to still use it as it's my personal computer and only real working windows device I started to put certain programs and games on it without worrying if they mess up, but few days ago my windows(8.1 not an upgrade) failed to boot and have been having issues with recovery, hell even putting the media disc in doesn't do much, if it doesn't show a blue screen it loops to the bios where I have to keep selecting what I need in the boot menu, in the end I had to use a smaller drive and install windows 7 which worked after a 2nd attempt so eventually I've been able to transfer what I put on my 8.1 drive to my storage ones, but now I still face the issue thinking cmd would work when I could access it via recovery option.

Cut the long story short, it's a 1tb drive and trying to get as much money for my computer as I can so at the moment I got this win 7 on a 500gb drive lol plus it originally came with the computer so factory rest is easier than fresh install from disc especially when I lost the key sticker and question whether key finder found the correct key and so looking at it in computer management I notice it has 3 partitions??

300mb recovery
260mb EFI system partition
6.35gb recovery image

Now the mb ones don't have a file system, but I have 2 identical of the image one apart from one has no file system and the other says NTFS, I also got the reserve one, but only says that in the list and not squared off.


What I want to know is what ones can I try to delete even if it needs to be forced and if I can salvage the drive without the need to format? I've only ever deleted partitions if they appeared from formatting storage drives.

 

[jpaul]

If computer originally came with win 7 on a 500GB disc and it is working, I would think that would be more attractive to a buye,
than a 1tb drive and a retail 8.1 license, which you could probably sell separately (7 could also be updated to 10 if h/w permits)
if the genuine win 7 sticker is not there that might be a concern to buyer

Now the mb ones don't have a file system

what do you mean by mb ones ?
if there is no large Gb sized boot/page/primary, partition then 1tb disc seems wrongly installed ??

I do not see why you want to delete 300mb recovery or 6.35 gb recovery before selling (unless you were cocerned it still had your private data) they are small compared to total disc size

 

[ExoMale]

Thanks for reply.

No my system is a prebuilt that has undergone some changes over the year and came with Windows 8.1(I have the disc also)'. The Windows 7 is just an ISO I had in usb stick (not activated it yet) and the 500gb was a drive that I salvaged from another computer, my computer(sig) is completely original apart from the 2nd 1tb drive, 750gb, extra 8 gig ram and the case/psu oh and I have a better version of the 750 than I did.

I copy and paste everything from the main 1TB drive before I factory reset, but people have been messing me around and I still need use of windows I have been using it again, but not for personal details other than signing in to my MS to use computer which I have managed to put anything I installed on my other drives so there's no issue of loss of data, I just wanted to put it back to factory and leave it at the 8.1 setup screen as if it was new and no MS account of mine created simply because it came as a 8.1 computer so if I sell it I want it to still be a 8.1.

I think something between installing a game or something and windows update corrupted the system which put me in the predicament I'm in, the error I got is something like the drive is locked or missing /32 of something and when I press the F keys even with the disc in it just flashes and I have to power off with the button.

Mb is megabytes, I'm using iPad so quicker to use initials, it would be easier with a screenshot, but I keep having issues with photobucket on mobile devices, so trying to explain best I can, basically when your in the management you see the list of drives and it will either give a file system NTFS/FAT32 where as in my instance the small MB partitions don't have such code and the 6.35gb are identical in appearance on the list, just the one doesn't have a file system code and I'm not sure if trying to fix with bootrec I have created those partitions as I went through the commands, but nothing fixed the boot issue.

 

[ExoMale]

Oh yeah as a 2nd drive I scanned the 8.1 drive for bad errors/sectors and it did come up with some and fixed, but didn't solve and boot issue and 2nd scan was fine.

 

[jpaul]

if you have he win7 500gb disc working/bootable can you then re-format/re-install win 8 on the 1Gb in 2nd drive slot
(sounds as though you just need to be able to re-format the 1Gb by any means - inside the computer or external caddie)