Maximum PC

I recently upgraded a Dell laptop from Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro, doing a clean install. I then created a system recovery disk. Disk management shows the OS partition, a recovery partition, and an OEM partition.

When I use the Windows 7 restore utility, I can successfully backup files. However, when I try to create a system image, it fails indicating it can't find one of the partitions - though it shows the OS and the recovery one as the ones it will create an image of.

I'm trying to save over a network, btw.

Does anyone know how to fix this? Should I try to delete the recovery partition? Is that safe to do?

Ah this. I found out while upgrading my Dell laptop from an HDD to an SSD that they partition things in a kind of sort of stupid way.

The Recovery Partition has the bootloader. Windows probably is getting confused because it thinks you already have a system image, but you kind of sort of don't. So here's what I suggest:

• Make an image of the Recovery Partition as a backup, just in case.
• Completely wipe the disk, including all partitions. The OEM partition boots to FreeDOS or something and I got rid of mine.
• Reinstall the OS. The install process should create a small 100MB partition.