Windows 10: Is it safe to delete the DELL created partitions when upgrading OS

My DELL Latitude laptop came with Windows 8.1 Pro x64 on it. I decided that I want to upgrade it to Windows 10 Pro x64.

Before I did anything I used DELL Backup and Recovery to create a flash drive so I can always restore the PC back to factory if anything goes wrong during the upgrade process.

After creating the recovery media I used the Windows 10 upgrade wizard to upgrade to Windows 10 carrying over all of my existing files. I primarily did this so my Windows 8.1 Product Key which is injected into the motherboard would officially become a Windows 10 Product Key.

Now I would like to do a 100% clean install of Windows 10 through a bootable Windows 10 USB flash drive that I just got done creating but have a few questions:

I booted from the flash drive and went to Custom (Advanced) install and I am currently viewing all of the partitions:

Drive 0 Partition 1: "ESP" type: (System)
Drive 0 Partition 2: "DIAGS" type: (OEM)
Drive 0 Partition 3: "" type: MSR (Reserved)
Drive 0 Partition 4: "WINRETOOLS" (Recovery)
Drive 0 Partition 5: "OS" type: (Primary)
Drive 0 Partition 6: "" type: (Recovery)
Drive 0 Partition 7: "PBR Image" (Recovery)

Which of these are DELL related and which of these are just the additional partitions Windows automatically installs?

Can I just delete them all and fresh install Windows 10 on Unpartitioned space?

Is there any that are non operating system related and might be worth keeping like the DIAGS one?

Will my DELL Backup and Recovery media rely on any of these if I delete them and then try to use it later on?

Is there any use for any single one these anymore now that I have backup recovery media and will be going to Windows 10?

:)

 

is it safe to delete windows.old after upgrading to win 10?

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

As per your enquiry, I would suggest that you create a backup of the folder "Windows.old". This folder contains all the programs, files and folders that you have saved from your previous OS.
Delete the folder only if you are sure that, the information inside the folder is not useful to you.

Also this folder contains the ISO image of your previous OS. If you delete the folder you will be unable to Roll back to the previous OS version if you want to.

However you cannot use the Roll back feature after 30 days of installing Windows 10.

Your reply is very important for us to ensure a proper resolution. Please get back to us with the above information in order to assist you accordingly.

For further assistance, you can post your query in Microsoft Community



Regards

Vanessa

 

is it safe to delete windows.old after upgrading to win 10?

Thank you lady Vanessa

your message gave me the information i needed, and helped me know what actions to take.

your reply was very helpful.

And again thank you very much

 

Hi, Blake, and welcome to TenForums. I've responded to your questions within the quote block, in red.

 

This was a phenomenal response! I ended up wiping everything and fresh installing. Everything was 100% successful!

 

Wahooo! Good job, Blake! *Thumbs

P.S. - As the Original Poster, you should mark this thread as solved if you're good with all of this (or after awhile if you want more time to be sure), so other readers can see it's resolved.

 

I have a Dell laptop with a W10 hard disk (HD) installation having a similar Dell partition layout. I've just bought a 500MB SSD to replace the HD. I'm planning to do a clean install on the SSD on a clean disk and don't see the need to keep the Dell specific partitions. I'll have Macrium backups of the current W10 installation and the new clean W10 installation. I'll also have the W10 installation on the old HD but I intend to use that as a backup external drive mounted in a disk caddy eventually. I also have the Dell factory install Windows 8.1 USB but I don't envisage having to use it!

 

Hi!

hope someone still reads this old thread. However, yesterday I had to restore a Windows 10 image on a Dell laptop. Unfortunately something went wrong and the Windows recovery tool had to format drives before restoring the image. Little did I know that it also deleted my data partition without asking *Mad Cost me whole night to gather the most important things from backups and syncs I luckily have. Anyway, it also removed the DIAGS-partition that is mentioned in this thread. Logical, images are only made of the system and EFI partitions. Windows 10 runs fine again now, but there is a nag in the back of my mind. Is DIAGS necessary, does Windows do anything with it? I guess nit, because this laptop originally came with Windows 8.1. Last year I did a clean install of Windows 10. I actually didn't even expect that the DIAGS partition would survive it. Anyway: should I be worries about the deleted DIAGS-partition in relation to the stability of Windows 10 or are they in no way related?

Follow-up question: the diags-tool from the bios is still working fine. What is actually he difference between both tools?

Sorry to break in this old discussion, hope someone reads it though,

greetings,

ronald.

 

I didn't bother with the Dell diagnostics partition or any Dell utilities when I clean installed Windows 10 on a new SSD. You can run the built-in diagnostics by pressing F12 on boot or running the Dell diagnostics online - see What Dell diagnostic tools can I use to diagnose and fix hardware problems? | Dell UK

 

Use Macrium Reflect to create an image of your C partition, and if you have to reimage someday it will just reimage that partition.

Use it slowly and read each window carefully.

Macrium Reflect Free