Windows 10: System HDD (Drive 0) Partitioned. Can I lock it??

OK, my perfect little world is about to take shape I've got everything ready to fix my foul-ups from the past week and a half but one thing I hadn't really thought of. The physical drive that is my system drive--the one onto which Windows will be installed--has several partitions at the moment. During the install process, the two hidden partitions will be deleted as will the partition that was and will be C. Onto that unallocated space, Windows will do it's magic and create the recovery partition and the C partition and the Milk'n'Cookies partition. Familiar with the process, cool with it, woo hoo. There is an additional partition on this physical drive. We'll call it....uhmmmm.....the XXX drive on which resides a media collection which is quite dear to me.

In previous builds a whole boat load of crap has been installed onto that partition and it was anything but easy undoing Windows's dirty work (pun intended). SO...my last question is this:

• Can I somehow LOCK this partition during the install process (or prior to the install process), insuring that it is not accessible to SYSTEM or anyone else for that matter?? At my disposal is Paragon 15, Disk Manager (duh) and a few other nifty tools--none of which I'm all that familiar with. Paragon is the one package I'm most experienced in and comfortable using--however I am not sure what path to take. Hints? Suggestions? Help?

Hopefully I'll get a quick answer because...well, because I'm honestly probably too impatient to wait, will jump the proverbial gun and go down some cockamamie avenue of HDD doom just 30 seconds before a power user here posts something that begins with, "WHATEVER you do...DON'T DO ________"

:)

 

Installing Windows 10 on free DOS from beginning

thanks a lot friend,

agreeeed, I think so.

I mention the question below: (aslo to @BossDweeb)

A) In the section to choose the drive, to install windows 10, I see three parts: Drive 0, partition 1, 60 GB (system) - Drive 0, partition 2, 60 GB (primary) - Drive 1, partition 1, 1.81 TB (primary). I can format
primary drives to install windows.

B) I decided to make a 128 GB (SSD) drive to be used as C, to install and run windows and some other software. & two HDD drives; 500 GB [maybe install some s.w. if any..!] and 1.3 TB.

Question) the ASUS hardware drivers CD was came with the laptop so I am not worry about that. to make 128 GB drive its necessary to format drive 0, partition 1, (system) but:

- What is its content ? (drive 0, partition 1 (system))

- Can I format/delete this drive (drive 0, partition 1 (system)) to merge it with the other? does it harm my laptop & important files or Not ?

 

System Reserved Partition on Disk 1 not Disk 0

My PC was dual-boot with the 500 MB System Reserved and Primary System partitions on Drive 0 and the Secondary (2nd on added) on Drive 1. Then I started having boot problems which apparently were caused by Disk 0 errors. I would often get "Scanning and repairing
drive" notification during bootup. Then Windows went through some extensive repairs during one boot attempt and added a 500 MB Recovery partition in an unallocated area of Drive 1 after the System partition. I think it was called Recovery. Eventually the computer
wouldn't boot at all.

Now I've replaced the Drive 0 HDD with a 500 GB SSD drive and completed a clean install of Windows 10 on a New 200 (195.31) GB partition on Drive 0 with the intention of the System Reserved partition being added by the Windows installer before the System
partition on Drive 0. That's not what happened, the 500 MB Recovery partition on Drive 1 was replaced with the System Reserved partition. So, I repeated the Windows 10 clean install on SSD Drive 0 and deleted all partitions on Drives 0 & 1 before adding a
New 200 (195.31) GB partition on Drive 0 and selecting Drive 0 for the Windows 10 install. Windows again placed the System reserved partition on Drive 1.

Why is Windows insisting on installing the System Reserved partition on Drive 1?

What do I need to do to get Windows to place the System Reserved partition ahead of the System partition on Drive 0 leaving Drive 1 completely unallocated?

Thanks.

Bill

 

The absolute certain way is to copy partition to USB external hard drive and then unplug the USB hard drive.

 

I'll repeat NavyLCDRs recommendation. Definitely backup the partition to an external hard drive. The during the clean install of Windows 10, delete all partitions except that one and see what happens. The installer should create the partitions it needs and leave that one asis. The key word being "SHOULD".

Having it backed up means you won't lose it, no matter what.