Hello,

I bought a dell laptop with Windows 7 OEM version. Later I upgraded it to windows 8 beta version and then followed by a windows 8.1 version.Now I am trying to migrate the windows partition to SSD without reinstalling. I have a few questions. 

1. My question is what does my recovery drive hold. A backup for version 7 or is the recovery drive also updated during the OS upgradation.There are 3 partitions in my case 1. (102 MB OEM partition unnamed) 2. RECOVERY (19.53 GB NTFS) 2. OS (344 GB NTFS)

2. I am trying to delete the recovery drive but the delete drive option is greyed out. I also tried the diskpart method to unlock the drive and then delete. even that did not enable the deletion of the drive ?

3. what is 102 MB OEM partition doing. If I only do a partition copy of C drive of 344 gb to ssd? will that work? Will i be able to boot from my ssd after this migration process or do i have to partition copy of 102MB partition and RECOVERY and OS ?

Please help. Thank you

1. You should read something about Windows and OEM license. Without some knowledge you will do more harm.

2. 100MB is systm partition and contains configuration information for start (to say it simply). This partition is characteristic for Windows versions 6.x.

3. The best procedure for you is buing upgrade kit that contains special program for transfer (Acronis in my case).

4. Do nor erase original disk. Insted put it into USB adapter that comes with upgrade kit. After you made successful upgrade, you can safely delete third partition (344GB). Do not delete systm and recovery partition on old disk. You may need to return to previous operating systm one day.

5. Ask someone knowledgeable for help among your friends. This forum can not give step by step advice in this procedure.

6. Better forum for this kind of question is answers.microsoft.com

Regards

Milos

thanks milos.

will post this question in answers.microsoft.com