Win8 partition advice

freebooter · 30 Jan 2013 at 11:25

I am going to update my XP install to win8 but I am not sure how much space win8 will need.

I currently have XP installed in a 30GB partition with another partition for programs. Also complicated by having linux installed on ohter partitions.

demonix · 30 Jan 2013 at 15:51

You'll need a lot more then 30GB as you'll 2GB for the download of the upgrade, about another 2GB when performing the upgrade, around 20GB for the install and whatever the size of your current XP install without the documents (if your keeping all that) as that will be dumped into a windows.old folder in case something goes wrong during the upgrade and it has to revert back to the original OS (The old OS data, upgrade download and the folder and data within that is created during the upgrade process can be removed after the upgrade is done but the first and third items can only be removed by using the cleanmgr (I think that's the correct program) and selecting an option after the first chack has been competed).

freebooter · 30 Jan 2013 at 16:34

Thanks for the reply. I have a dvd so won't need to download win8. I am hoping to get as close to a clean install as possible as I want win8 64 whereas XP is 32 bit.

Is it possible to tell the update program to not keep the old install?

demonix · 31 Jan 2013 at 15:31

Even if you select the keep nothing option, it'll still backup the old OS.

The only way to get a clean OS (and since you want the 64-bit version and not the 32-bit version) would be to nuke the whole partition and do a clean install which can be done on upgrade media, but you'll have to do a few things before it'll allow you to activate it.