Windows 8.1 Update Issues and Discussion

Update 21 Apr 2014 - Update finally seems safe for most

This thread was created almost immediately after the release of Windows 8.1 on 17 Oct 2013, with the title WIN 8.1: DON'T upgrade until Samsung has updated drivers, prompted by an avalanche of problems caused by Samsung users trying to update.

Some users were able to successfully update with few or minor issues, while others experienced severe breakdowns and, in a few cases, even bricking. Owners of models with discrete GPUs and switchable graphics generally had a more difficult time with the update. But as the hundreds of posts up until today illustrate, the issues were broad, and the frustrations of users were great.

The problems were caused by Microsoft breaking backwards compatibility with Samsung's existing Win8 drivers, and Samsung not having updated its drivers ahead of Win8.1's release. I speculated in this post that there may be some politics behind this, not just blatant oversight by both companies.

Now, over six months later, the situation has finally changed enough that we consider it safe to proceed with the update for most users. During this time, Samsung has released a number of driver updates for most models, as well as BIOS updates that presumably improve Win8.1 compatibility. Also, Microsoft has provided updated drivers through Windows Update, along with several OS updates addressing backwards compatibility. And finally, with the release of Windows 8.1 Spring Update 1 earlier this month, it appears that Win8.1 can finally be installed (or updated to) safely on most Samsung laptops.

Please still note that Samsung does not officially support Win8.1 on all models. The page here provides a list of supported US models along with general update instructions. Similar pages should exist for other countries. Several members have found that some models NOT officially supported (including my own NP700Z3A) can still be updated successfully using drivers from Windows Update or directly from OEMs (Intel, AMD, Nvidia, etc).

We still highly recommend making backups before proceeding with the update, as described further down in the original opening post and the 24 Oct 2013 update.

Please spend some time in this thread reading update experiences and tips from other members. Scan backwards from the most recent post for information relevant to your model. Also, lots of relevant information has been posted in the various Owners Lounge threads and in smaller individual threads. Google searches such as site:notebookreview.com/samsung NP900X3C Windows 8.1 update (insert your own model) should yield relevant hits.

And finally, please continue posting your results in this thread so that others can benefit from your experiences -- both good and bad.

We are changing the thread title to reflect this change of focus, away from warning against updating to Win8.1, to regular discussion of issues about updating.

Original Opening Post 17 Oct 2013

During the Win 8.1 Preview period, we had lots of reports from members who discovered that current versions of Samsung drivers, Settings and SW Update are not compatible with 8.1.

Then after RTM, the traffic increased with members who installed 8.1, only to discover the same thing.

And now today, with the official release Win 8.1, it is hard to find an individual thread that isn't flooded with reports of Win 8.1 breaking things.

Just to summarize what many have found and posted already over the last few months:

• Win 8.1 is NOT compatible with existing versions of Samsung software: SW Update doesn't properly detect the model (although Compatibility Mode helps). Settings doesn't work properly, affecting Fn-keys, brightness and several other features. And several members have found problems with display drivers as well.
  
  
• It is indeed disappointing that Samsung hasn't released updated drivers yet. Personally I think the reason for the delay is that previous generations of Samsung Easy Settings, Settings and SW Update were implemented in ways that stretch proper behavior for Windows software (including BIOS calls, which is generally a no-no from within Windows apps). And now 8.1 is blocking that behavior, forcing Samsung to do some significant re-writing -- possibly even BIOS updates, as we have already seen for some models. That's just my guess, of course.
  
  
• Whatever the reason for the delay, I recommend Samsung owners to be patient and hold off on the the 8.1 upgrade until we have confirmation that Samsung has released new drivers. They will have to solve this eventually (in order to sell computers), and I expect an announcement similar to the page linked below once they are ready. Maybe Win 8.1 will even have its own driver category in SW Update.
  
  SAMSUNG PC Windows 8 Upgrade

Of course you can all test and play with Win 8.1, as long as you are aware that it is not fully working yet on our Sammies. For those who do test it, please post your findings here, along with whatever solutions you discover. Please also include your model number.

There is never a better time for the kind of sharing that this forum is all about

Updates 18 Oct 2013:

• As mentioned by Animaag here, Samsung UK has posted an update page.
  
  
• As mentioned by several members, a new SW Update version 2.1.19 just came out today. As John mentioned here some models (such as NP940X3G) now have a Windows Blue section in addition to the existing Windows 7 and Windows 8 sections (of which the NP940X3G only has the latter). Still nothing in the way of updated drivers or Settings, but SW Update is one step.
  
  Note that this version of SW Update re-installs that pesky sAgent. Some previous versions of SW Update uses an internal service instead. If you had previously removed sAgent or disabled its Scheduled Task, you will find it has been re-installed. This is a mere detail in the bigger picture. Only for latency nitpicks like me
  
  
• Some members, such as ship69 here completely lost screen display after Win 8.1 upgrade. As described by other members following his post, the solution is to either (A) Press F4 from cold power on to enter Samsung Recovery Solution and restore to factory, or (B) press F8 from startup to get to Win8s Advanced Startup options, where Refresh can be chosen. Both choices will lose existing installed programs -- and data can be lost depending on which option is chosen.
  
  Alternatively, as posted by snappersrb here, use Shift-F8 from startup to enter Safe Mode and roll back the display driver.
  
  Making a backup of your Windows installation (using an image backup tool) is HIGHLY recommended before running the Win 8.1 upgrade. Personally I would backup data as well. Why risk anything.
  

Thanks to all who shared information. Please holler if there are other important updates that should be included.

Updates 24 Oct 2013:

As posted by several members, Samsung pushed a number of driver updates today through SW Update. This in addition to the updated Settings 2.2.0.5 which was pushed a few days ago.

I have not verified the workability of these updates myself yet, but I may give them a try this weekend (although my model is not officially supported). It will be on a test partition first, and I am absolutely going to make full system and data backups first.

I still recommend all members to make backups before running the 8.1 upgrade, as described in the posts here and here. Click the links in that second post for details. Those are merely worst case backups to re-image a drive, you want regular system and data backups as well.

Even if it had NOT been for the horror stories in this thread (and other threads) I would still recommend such backups before running a major Windows upgrade (as this is turning out to be).

Once we have enough confirmation from owners of different models, we can change the thread title to reflect that status.

Updates 26 Oct 2013:

• As reported by member fugunaga, the Win 8.1 upgrade has been pulled from the Store; and as reported by members ship69 and newcastlefc200, Samsung seems to now be washing their hands completely of 8.1, saying it is not supported by them. It appears that some shakeout is underway while Samsung is working to get everything fixed.
  
  
• John posted a link an official Samsung update guide. It may be the same guide as was on the UK update page linked earlier by member Animaag.

Update 9 Jan 2014:

At this time, lots of people have updated Win 8.1, some with more success than others. The path has been thorny for many, while others hardly had any issues.

For those who wonder if it is now safe to update to 8.1, I tried to summarize in this post.

 

Following are some posts in individual threads that might be helpful for other model owners. Click the little quote link icon to jump to the original discussion.

Added:

 

Hi,

Observations: Loss of screen real estate, current max resolution 1920x1080. No control over screen brightness. key backlights constantly on. NP770Z5E-SE.

Currently running latest Mobility Radeon and Intel graphics drivers.

Peter

 

Reinstall the intel driver to gain control over screen brightness again. I updated to 8.1 and it broke my steam games and graphics card. I downloaded the AMD 13.11 update since it listed as compatible, and it works, but barely. I run games at 30 fps now. Also, I have no more graphics control switch on my desktop.

 

Thank you for your input, folks. One thing I forgot to mention originally in the OP: If you can include model numbers when you post findings and solutions, that helps a lot in painting the full picture.

 

My Model (770z5e) does not wake up from sleep. Instead it crashes and restarts. After restart brightness is the lowest and you cannot change it. Then, when you shut down the PC crashes again and restarts. So you have to make a "cold shutdown". This solves the problem until the next sleep. :-(
I don't understand why this update causes so much pain.

 

I have an NP780Z5E Chronos 7. Update mainly broke my graphics. I'm unable to update to 13.11 AMD Beta v1 for some reason. Does anyone have any tips? I have the latest Intel driver, but when I try to install 13.11 it does not list the driver or the catalyst control center. I also do not have graphics switch anymore.

 

The suggestions here for the NP940X3G might also apply to other models.

John

 

NP370R5E (european model):

1) FN keys not working (brightness/volume etc.)
2) AMD catalyst is a total wack right now. (radeon HD 8750) I dont have any options to switch graphics, and i do not know IF they switch at all (have no way to check tho, games (world of warcraft) still run pretty well). Any new driver installation fails (there i no option to install driver, just the install manager update).
3) SW update is there, but it does not recognize the model. If i select model manually, it just gives me the export option, no auto update.

other than that i havent noticed anything (but oh well, i had 8.1 for 3 hours, and i have already restored the system 2x of the crashes). AMD catalys uninstall utility crashed my laptop :/ but i guess it was happening with older windows as well.

 

Does anyone know if Microsoft provides a way for existing Win8/Win8Pro users to download 8.1 ISOs for clean install?

When I bought my Win8 -> Win8Pro upgrade (I got in on the $15 deal in February) the purchase process allowed me to download an ISO. But I don't see that here. I only see the Update option in the Windows Store, which wants to update the running installation.

I would prefer to clean install it on my test partition first. And in the future, I certainly don't want to re-install Win8, then re-update to 8.1.

 

Would just like to add to the list the Series 5 Ultra models:

Samsung ATIV Book 5 NP530U4E and NP540U4E

I've only tried the RTM version, and that really didn't go so well as all I got was a black screen and nothing else. Will hold off upgrading to 8.1 until official drivers are released. Also, thanks to the OP for this.

 

Added a few new relevant quotes to post #2.

 

I also have NP780Z5E Chronos 7, I'm also have trouble controlling the brightness on my screen. When you open SWUPDATE does it ask you to find your model and save your setup files?

 

Seem like Samsung are preparing update the drivers for Windows 8.1. The old upgrade page for Windows 8 has been gone. Now they direct us into new Windows 8.1 with instructions on how to install the update. But I think we might have to wait until they got everything ready, should be not long. Wish they could have everything before the release of 8.1 because Microsoft sent them the RTM a month ago. Hope my old Chronos can have new drivers, especially the graphic driver.

 

Hint for ELAN Touchpad driver

I updated my np900x3f-g01de and found that after the update, the ELAN driver does not remember its settings.
Solution: Remove driver, reboot, install driver (Windows 8, downloadable by SW Update), reboot - works fine

Still have issues with Atheros bluetooth software... (sound driver is shown with (!) in device manager)

 

Yes. Right now SWUpdate is not compatible with Windows 8.1 and it won't correctly detect your system. Like someone said, Samsung should be releasing updates soon enough, but watch out for an SW Update on their website cause it's not going to update by itself.

 

I just updated and everything is working fine but in Samsung diagnostics it says none of the drivers or applications are installed. All help appreciated

 

I have a np700z3c and when I right click on the desktop it takes an abnormally long time to show the context menu, 16 seconds! I didn't try any other settings as it was late but I hope they work!

 

Samsung UK webpage has an upgrade page up with different models. Here. Unfortunately, my model NP370R5E is not on the list :/

 

SWupdate is now updated, doesn't show me any drivers though for my Ativ Book 8, only allshare stuff and the bios update

 

Series 9 900X4C, updated last night- everything working except SWupdate (couldn't recognise the model number). Just checked again and SWupdate is now working, but doesn't show the drivers just software.

 

I see there that SW Update > Find Model now lists a "Windows Blue" section for some newer models.

However, the only program listed at the moment is SW Update (which should be auto-updating itself anyway).

This small step forward is a hint that Samsung might be working on something.

John

 

Samsung Series 7 Ultra Notebook 128GB SSD (upgraded to 512GB) 13.3"
Model: NP740U3E-S04UK
Windows 8 x64 Pro, just upgraded to 8.1


Hi

Like an *****, I installed Windows 8.1 off a link in an article, blithely assuming that Samsung would have sorted out any possible driver problems by now. [By coincidence I even updated all the latest Intel drivers last night because I was trying to get Push2TV to work on my TV. A bit clunky and very slow to connect but it did work... In fact it was the site on Intel.com of lots of talk about "welcome to Windows 8.1" and "compatible with 8.1" and often no longer any mention of Windows 8 (vanilla)... and that encouraged me to install Windows 8.1.]

I now have a laptop with a blank (black) screen - i.e. as useful as a brick.

(Strangely, even if I log in using logmein.com it's still a completely black screen, even though I know I am controlling the laptop successfully because I can see the mouse pointer move on it. So it's not just a problem driving the screen hardware itself, it must be a deeper problem)

Okay what should I do next?

I think I saw someone saying that we need to remove some driver. The trouble is that I cant even boot into safe mode! (What is the correct proceedure? I tried holding down the power key for about 10 seconds, then releasing and touching the power key briefly. I then get the Samsung logo. And I keep hitting the F8 key... but the screen still goes completely black).

OR how do I uninstall Windows 8.1 ... or is it too late?

OR are we to be forced to abandon our computers completely for a few days until Samsung get their act together.

FWIW, the current state of play is that the screen is completely black except for when I move the mouse pointer using the trackpad, at which point the white pointer arrow appears for a second or so.

Many thanks

J


EDIT: I tried holding down Shift and then hitting F8 a couple of times every second but that didn't work either. Black screen again.
http://www.howtogeek.com/107511/how-to-boot-into-safe-mode-on-windows-8-the-easy-way/

 

Sorry to hear about your issue, mine seems, well minor compared to yours.

To get to Safe mode you have to first disable fast boot within bios that will then allow you to enter the key combinations before loading into windows.

then go past the BIOS splash screen, and hold down the Shift key and repeatedly hit the F8 key, this will bring you into Recovery mode.

finally in here (should be a blue metro like screen) you can refresh your PC, (see if this solves the issue). By clicking on the "show advanced repair options" choose "windows startup option" in here you can set windows to run in safe mode.

it's explained (probably better) in this article How To Boot Into Safe Mode On Windows 8 (The Easy Way)

hope this helps

 

you can try holding F4 after you turn on the laptop. Keep holding it untill you get into recovery menu. You can check for a restore point there. (If you made any).

 

Wait so I held down F4 and yes, eventually I got a screen called "Recovery". However it is threatening to "recover this computer to the factory settings" - yikes! That sounds drastic! I have made some Restore Points recently in Windows 8.0 - can't I use them somehow?

With thanks

J


P.S. I also have v recently made a recovery CD (using Macrium Refect) - perhaps I could use that?

 

try my method it will probably give you more options.

The recovery disk may enable you to recover but it may wipe everything at the same time.

good luck

 

with F4 you get into SAMSUNG's recovery. There is a windows recovery as well.

From your earlier post, i understand you do see the login screen? if you do, then before logging in push the power button on screen (right bottom corner), press SHIFT and click restart.

 

Well I have managed to 'Refresh' - and yes, I am now back to Window 8.0. But it has lost all my applications and settings. I wasnt expecting it to do that! Nightmare. Right I'd better re-install Macrium Reflect and see if I can recover from there. ***** nightmare.

 

I tried the upgrade with 740U3E-S02DE. I would recommend not to upgrade any time soon. Samsung has to sort out the issues with drivers and Samsung tools.
For people with black screen: Boot to safe mode (hit Shift+ F8 during boot) and roll back the AMD Graphics Driver to the previous one.

In my case, the 8.1 upgrade also destroyed the possibility of recovery options (Samsung+Microsoft).

So: For any ultrabook users with AMD/Intel combination. Download the new SW Update, wait for new drivers (especially for Amd and Intel VGA). But there is hope Samsung will provide us with updates because they're officially promoting many Ultrabooks "ready" for 8.1 upgrade on their European support sites...

 

Hi,

that looks exactly like the problem I experienced yesterday when foolishly upgrading to Windows 8.1 on my Ativ 8 (HD4000 + AMD 8870 switchable graphics). On my notebook, the system booted into a black screen, showing only the mouse cursor for a short time when moving the mouse. When looking closer, the login screen widgets on the left and right (network and language IIRC) also some times briefly flashed up, and sometimes the mouse cursor changed to busy, fooling me to think theres still something going on, but it isn't. After some examination, I suspected a problem with the graphics driver and alas, that was it. Removing the old Win 8 driver for the AMD temporarily solved the problem, so I'm running on HD 4000 only currently, but otherwise the system works. This is how I finally got the system back:

1. Boot into Safe Mode. This is remarkably complicated nowadays. The correct combination is CTRL+F8, but as Windows boots very fast, it's difficult to hit at the right moment. Took me several times including hard power-offs to finally make it; there are other ways including usb sticks to overcome this; just look for details on the net. When the blueish screens appear, you're on the go. It will present you with several options, including restoring to save points, but i got only one after the upgrade and that one did not help. There should be a box labeled "Extendend Options" or the like (can't tell exactly, as I'm using a localized version), and one of the menu items there finally leads to a modern version of the old F8 options. Two of those are interesting, one of them may be booting with Low Resolution graphics, but I decided to take the Safe Mode one. Rebooted, finally landed in Safe Mode. First part complete.

2. Find the device manager and look for the graphics cards there. On my system, there are two. The culprit is the old AMD driver. Right click on that item to see the options. I decided to select "Uninstall". Note that in Safe Mode, you cannot uninstall the AMD software itself, but you can do later when the system is up again. Reboot.

The system should now come up ok. If you visit the device manager again, you will see that Windows installed a generic driver (WDDM v1.3 or sth), but that works ok for now. At least the former brick is alive again. Further actions would be to get rid of the AMD software (tried twice actually, repeating the above procedure, but they seem to be dead incompatible), hoping that Samsung will provide an update soon. Windows 8.1 also complained that the Bluetooth drivers, WiDi and so on are causing problems, and most of the Samsung tools are not up to Win 8.1 yet. Note that Windows 8.1 installed a newer version of the Intel HD graphics drivers that may or may not cause problems with brightness control, can't check for now as I reinstalled the old Win 8 drivers via SWUpdate. Apart from the missing AMD graphics, everything is more or less fine now.

What just puzzles me is that Windows thought everything about the graphics system was fine all the time. Not even a warning sign in device manager

HTH and good luck,
-- Chris.

 

SWupdate after an update finally can recognize my laptop NP530U4E, but only 3 useless program available under all software menu ;(.

 

Thanks to everybody who shared information and help here. I added to the opening post what I saw as the most significant updates. Please let me know if I missed anything significant. I'll be out much of the day, but checking in on my phone from time to time.

 

OK new problem - How do I get my PC to boot from an external Rescue CD?

Presumably I need to get at the BIOS... but like I say, repeatedly hitting F8 doesnt seem to do anything and I go straight to the logging in screen. Control/F8 and Shift/F8 seem to be no better!

EDIT:
Okay, I've managed to boot off my external CD and am now installing off my Macrium Reflect (Free) image of my hard disk that I took a couple of days ago.
[ To help anyone else - I worked out that you need to hold Fn down before hitting F2, and then it opens the BIOS. I think needed to A) turn Fast Bios mode off and B) change boot device to the CD. The bizarre thing about B) is that it boots off the CD drive *immediatelyI* you select it! ]

 

Did you disable Fast Boot? Disable that, reboot, hit F2 and then make sure your USB stick is in the boot options and at the top of the list.

 

So I'm upgrading to Windows 8.1 for the second time, the only issue I had the first time around was with a VPN client and it turns out this wasn't 8.1's fault.

On the NP900X3C I'm pretty sure there's no reason not to upgrade. Here's what you should do first:
- Optional: do a clean Windows 8 install if you want to do something that resembles a clean Windows 8.1 install. There is no legit ISO available and I don't think you can install Windows 8.1 without an 8.1 key anyway, so assuming you want to keep legit licenses you have to start with Windows 8.0.
- Optional: if you have a Media Center key, add that to Windows 8 first. Then make sure you run Windows Media Center at least once and do the setup.
- Run Windows update. You need at least KB 2871389 in order to see the 8.1 update, maybe more. I updated mine fully.
- Install SWUpdate and install anything you consider crucial. This time around I went with only Settings, the Touchpad driver. Also I added the Rapid Storage driver and installed Rapid Start 3.0, but I think those can be run later since they're from Intel and Intel has 8.1 drivers.
- Run Windows 8.1 upgrade.
- Re-install the Touchpad driver.

Everything should work fine.

 

My ATIV Book 8 boots to a blue screen where I can move around the cursor for a few seconds and it disappears into the blue screen again. I booted it in safe mode and under device manager, it highlights monitor and says "generic PnP Monitor". I reinstalled HD4000 drivers from Intel's website and it seemed to work but I keep hearing the sound you hear when you unplug something and then the AMD drivers are highlighted. It's a clean install of windows 8 and I downloaded 8.1 from the Windows Store. Any help is appreciated.

 

Yay, got Bluetooth working again on my NP900X3F.

1. Removed Qualcomm Drivers
2. Rebooted
3. Downloaded Windows 8 Qualcomm drivers
4. Enabled Windows 8 Compatibility Mode in Properties of the installer executable
5. Finished Setup

After Reboot, Windows told me that the device does not work.
Here's the trick: You have to hard-reset the USB Bluetooth device.
How?
- Shutdown Windows
- Remove Power Cable
- Press PIN on the back for a couple of seconds (this disconnects the Battery)
- Connect Power
- Boot

Everything works now This took me hours to figure out...

 

Hi DackEW, so you're saying you've updated your laptop to Windows 8.1, updated SW Update, and yet only the three useless programs are available? If so, how's your machine running so far on 8.1?

 

I had to do some cleaning out here:

The handling of this upgrade by Samsung does indeed leave much to be desired. Microsoft too, if you ask me, for breaking compatibility and making it so hard to roll back.

But this is a sticky thread, not a chat room. Venting frustrations, let alone discussing how this compares to other failures in the history of technology, is NOT what this thread is for. I would ask participants to keep their posts on the topic of documenting Win 8.1 issues and solutions. And please keep your language within forum rules.

Now please carry on. There has been some great information shared here already

 

well I sorted out my "right click" problem, just updated the Nvidia driver using the new SW update on the samsung website, its still a bit screwed though. you have to enter in your model and it brings up the drivers (only windows 8) so I guess I had an old Nvidia driver.

everything is working, although I'm pretty sure my F11 button thingy isn't working, it quiets the laptop for a few secs and then starts up the fan. oh well I can live like this for a while I guess

 

I updated my Ativ 9 plus to 8.1. I had two issues after the upgrade and here is how I fixed them.

Issue one, sw update doesn't work:
Search for sw update in the start menu, right click and choose locate file. After the file opens in explorer, right click on it and choose Troubleshoot Compatibility and accept the changes it recommends. Sw update will now work.

Issue two, touch pad behaves strangely and doesn't save its settings on reboot:
Use the now functional sw update to export a copy of the touch pad driver to your desktop. Once the files have exported, run the touch pad driver installer from the desktop. This should fix the problem.

Other than that you can click Fn+F1 and check that your settings are still the same in there. After the 8.1 update that menu had reset itself and turned Bluetooth back on when I had previously turned it off. So its good to just go over that and make sure everything is working correctly.

 

Thanks for the rundown. Might have to try this on my X3B. Now where did I put that WMC key...

 

Almost everything is working good, feels faster, no wifi signal drops and now stable for one day. The one thing which bothers me is the too bright screen, I cannot decrease brightness.

Here is how SWUpdate looks now;

 

Interesting - Samsung seem to think it will all work fine - check here (UK site)

 

Last Night I updated to Windows 8.1 but .......... really wish I didn't ........

This is Model NP700Z5C-S02UB

My Samsung rebooted after the update was done and then it went into a loop reboot and each time it reboot it would briefly display a blue screen with message something like "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart .............. (at the end) ... If you would like to know more ........ search for this error: ACPI BIOS ERROR."


So I got on Samsung support site and they said to hit F4 to go into recovery. I hit F4 and went into recovery. A screen pop up and said that my boot was corrupted and needed to be repaired so I click Yes to repair it. It finally booted into Windows 8.1

But this morning after booting up I got the same message again and this time it did not do a reboot loop instead it went directly to Recovery page with options to choose from so I choose 8 for Safe Mode in hope to recover some files before I mess with it further but it didn't work and rebooted back right into Recovery page.

So I rebooted and hit F4 again to go to Recovery and this time I get a message "This computer does not support recovery" so I am unable to use Recovery to repair my computer or at least limp to either safe mode to do a factory reset etc.

It won't just do anything but display a Recovery screen... even try the command prompt and it only reboot to the "Your PC ran into a problem and back to Recovery page again.


Anyone have any advice on how I can fix this?

I really don't care about the data on there because I have them in cloud so it not a real bad loss for me but I need this laptop working for my college thou.

Thank you

Bill

 

They lie - black screen issue, even following their own instructions - only fix was to safe boot and remove graphics drivers!!! AAAArrrgggghhhhh!!

 

they're updating the models on that list so they must be working their way through. mines not on there yet though

 

Don't recommend clean installing, it will wipe the recovery partition with no way to return to factory defaults.

 

Whoa, that's nasty. Thanks a lot for the warning.

Does it wipe and re-partition the entire disk (with no option to choose otherwise)? And it's not related to switching between MBR and GPT? Say you started with an MBR disk, and the new Setup automatically makes the GPT conversion, which in previous versions you had to do manually with DISKPART. That would actually be an improvement -- assuming you can control it.

Thanks again. To all who is sharing here!