Windows 10 MicroSSD in Motherboard - HD reformat key Concern

[scrt]

Hi,

Planning to reinstall Windows 10 and I have some questions regarding above Title.

In my laptop, it has a MircoSsd built into the motherboard and I would like to know how to use it effectively? ( How is stuff place there? Is it done automatically? Or can I put stuff in there and how?). It is under 32gb.

In my HD, Drive 0, Partition 1 is System reserve. What is install there? Is it stuff that belongs to Windows or stuff that belongs by the Computer Manufacturer?

In my HD, Drive 1, Partition 1 is OEM reserve. What is install there?

In my HD Drive 0 Unallocated Space

Background: The computer came originally with Windows 8. Took Microsoft offer to update to Windows 10. Problems occur and planning to do a clean reinstall.

Thinking about doing reinstall but what partition to put the install. Thinking about reformat my HD but concern about System Reserve and OEM reserve (Friend suggested to reformat the entire HD and have 1 partition).

My concern is Windows 10 key. If I reformat the HD, would I lose the Windows 10 key. Please note, the key was never given to me physically (ie in paper or email). It is somewhere in the computer electronically and I do not know if I can write this key details for future usage ( plan to reformat or use a SSD in the future). It is given by Microsoft when I took up the free offer to upgrade and as I said, I do not have a physical copy..

Thanks in advance for your reply.

 

[Jimbo22]

Never heard of a Micro SSD. What is the brand/make/model of your laptop?

 

[Neemobeer]

I believe he means either a mSata or m.2 SSD. Need to know the motherboard model. This could either be just another drive or it could be a cache drive.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi,
You have what's called an eMMC SSD chip in place of a standard SSD drive or a traditional hard drive. These are used in Netbooks and Ultrabooks, specially configured laptops.
Since they are embedded or hard-wired into the Main circuit board or the Motherboard, they are NOT replaceable! You cannot swap out to an SSD drive later.
Diagnostics can be downloaded from the eMMC makers website. But, they don't contain SMART parameters so they won't be able to tell you much about the health of your chip/drive. Netbooks or tablets or laptops with this SSD chip memory are meant to be low-cost and disposeable. If your SSD chip drive fails, you are looking at several hundred dollars to repair. Most likely more than the original cost of the computer itself.
If Neemo's suggestions do not fix, then you have a failed chip/drive on your hands, and it's cheaper to replace the entire computer than to repair it.
Also, it's not possible to upgrade directly from W8 to W10, so you did something wrong there too. Your best bet is to do a Clean Install of W10 or pay a Computer Pro to do for you.
[you need to go into SYSTEM, and under Windows Activation section, you need to see if your W10 is properly Activated. If it is not, you'll not be able to retrieve your license key easily since you didn't perform the W10 upgrade properly. Just because you are running W10, doesn't mean that you licensed and Activated it correctly!].

Good luck,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

Sent from my VS986 using Windows Forums mobile app

 

[scrt]

Thank u all for your reply. Neemobeer, the manufacturer is Lenovo and type is 20c5ct01ww. It is a custom built computer for I wanted 14 inches screen, non-glare touch screen, largest battery pack possible, and foolish to have a DVD player and thus ended with the E series. Oh, yes, the computer has a fast HD and also a microssd wired to the motherboard. Foolish in the sense of weight to carry today but wanted everything I needed inside. Cannot recall if it came originally with Windows 7 or 8. But I have reinstall in the past (upgrade and reinstall) on that computer. Now running Windows 10.

I am inquiring on what is in the OEM and System reserve. I hate to have stuff on my computer that I do not need or use. I am also inquiring due to my concern on where is this Microsoft digital product key due to accidental erase in the future. Thus the need to know where things are like if the key is in the computer. Also, I plan to replace my HD (think 7200RPM) with SSD.

I believe registration of my legit Windows 10 is optional and I would like to maintain the no option registration and also not to buy Windows since as I said, I have a free legit OS. BigBearJedi, hiring a computer pro to upgrade Windows. If I have the disk, I can reinstall, thanks.

Lenovo is a company I would not recommend to do business since I was never given a proper recovery DVD, and bad customer support which resulted in lots of nightmare or horror story and inability to use that computer for a long period of time.

PS: Currently, I cannot find the Purchase Order for mircossd details.. I tried googling to get the details. But recalling the sales rep info, it is part of the computer. motherboard. Recalling a read on Intel support for this hardware, I believe it is base on usage frequency. It would have been nice If I can put the OS there but since it is under 32gb I had thought about what key features to put there. Currently, relying on Intel to do the job. But is is good to know manual control rather than automatic.
Neemobeer, I appreciate your insight into these OEM and Sys reserve. If you need more details on my computer to assist, I would eventually find the P.O. tx

 

[nmsuk]

Well System reserve is needed by the system for parts of recovery and what not. The OEM folder will contain files and programs by Lenovo so will also be required. Deleting eith of those partition would end badly for you system. Most likely wouldn't boot and a reinstall would be required.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Thanks for your response back scrt, that does help a bit to know you have a traditional HDD drive and an eMMC SSD embedded drive as well.
Mostly, your explanation is confusing to me. You didn't answer my Question directly about whether or not your W10 is actually Activated or not? Yes or No? If you did the upgrade from either W7 or W8.1 during the 1 year free-trial period of W10 which was July 29, 2015 through July 29, 2016, then your W10 should have been Activated. If it was not, then either you did something wrong during the W10 upgrade process, or the person you paid to do it did it wrong. I am not understanding your statements about "optional Registration" of W10 B.S. Your Lenovo laptop is either running W10 Activated and Licensed or it is not. Here is a photo below of exactly what I am referring to:

If either you or the Tech you paid to upgrade your laptop to W10 did the upgrade correctly, then your W10 would be Activated as shown in the sample W10 System screen as per above. The question you asked, where is your Product License key located is an often asked question here on WF. It turns out, that your laptop hardware and License key are both stored on the Microsoft Activation Servers maintained by Microsoft in their Redmond, WA headquarters in the USA. If you are outside of the USA, then the closest MS servers to your country or possible located in your Country. That information can be replicated and copied around the globe in a matter of minutes. So, if and when you decided to replace your HDD with a SSD drive for example, or your HDD failed and needed to be replaced, you can do a W10 Clean Install using bootable media (DVD or USB) by making the Microsoft Creation Tool (MCT) located on this page on Microsoft: Link Removed

During the Clean Install process, the MCT tool will connect your Laptop via the Internet to the Microsoft Activation Servers where both your Hardware configuration and W10 Product License Key are both stored, and downloaded back into your Laptop where the Activation process can be completed. This process can take from 1-2 hrs. typically, but the entire Clean Install process can take from 6 hrs - 24 hrs. or so and is dependent on the speed of your laptop, amount of RAM installed, etc. There are free tools that can extract the License Key if you wish to have it on hand, such as Magic Jelly Bean and WindowsKeyFinder. However, those are no longer necessary as you can understand from the explanation I gave you.

Hope that helps clear things up for you! The good news is, that if your laptop is currently running W10 Activated, you don't have to worry about changing your hard drive due to upgrade decision or due to catastrophic hardware failure; Microsoft has eliminated that with the new Activation process. However, if your laptop W10 is NOT Activated, you may have a much harder time getting the key without having to purchase one, since your upgrade was done improperly.

<<<BBJ>>>

 

[scrt]

Tx BigbeardedJedi, Neemobear, and Nimsuk (will post after this post to BJedi) for your reply.

BigBearJedi, sorry for not answering your question with relation to your first post for I did not see or notice the question. But in your second post, I notice your question and thus I am answering with regard to activation. The computer came with Windows 8. I took the offer to upgrade (Win 10) within the so call deadline to get a free upgrade. The OS is activated with Windows 10 and this was done a long time ago. Yes, Win 10 is activated and I confirm that is activated by looking for the activation recognition that is posted in various forums.

"It turns out, that your laptop hardware and License key are both stored on the Microsoft Activation Servers maintained by Microsoft in their Redmond, WA headquarters in the USA." . Ok my hardware info and my license key are store on MS server in WA. Now, with those details, MS is willing to do a full reinstall when there is no other info on my computer (ie reformated or new HD). There should be some sort of hand shake or store info on my computer. Currently, I do not have or want to do a recovery (no image recovery) but a full factory reinstall. The optimizing did too good a job to optimize and resulted in my lost of a USB 2TB HD and a corrupt Windows 10. If the optimizing corrupting Windows 10 is unfathomable, just understand I want to do a full reinstall.

I have use that software tool (MCT) you mention in the past and I cannot fathom why it is not doing what it is suppose to do today. Thus, will borrow my friend WIndows 10 DVD which is different edition since I have no choice (MCT is not doing its job and might be due to the optimizing software being overzealous to destroy pertinent data). I do not have an OS.

Have to remind u that I dislike using cloud or one drive services that I posted. Also, "optional registration" that u do not understand is in regard to online registration to Activate my Windows 10 (I use anon registration and it is 100% activated as stated in forum confirmation posting). Thus, how can Microsoft know my computer is legit without having some info on my computer and just relying on my system configuration on there server. If Tom, Dick and Harry have same computer (make, model, etc) with Window 7 and they upgraded to Windows 10 with no usage of Onedrive and using Anon registration, how does MS know they are legit with a reformated HD when they want a new install?

PS: Magic Jelly Bean and WindowsKeyFinder. Do they work for Windows 10? I do not know about those particular but is said, what u see display by a keyfinder is not the one use by MS. It is encrypted and thus not the actual key use by Windows. I would be surprise if decryption work properly by your keyfinder.

 

[scrt]

Nmsuk. My system is corrupt and need to do a full reinstall. I might not have manufacture recovery DVD stuff due to bad support from Lenovo. Thus need to borrow my friend DVD and hope the activation key is in my computer. Now, if I remove OEM reserve and System reserve with reformatting my HD, I hate to buy a License key since one was given prior for free by Microsoft.

The system came with Windows 8. Then Windows 10 install. Now, it is corrupt. I do not care for Lenovo childish stuff. I care about my microssd being use properly if I remove OEM and SYS reserve and not buying a product key. I have save the drivers using a driver saving utility. Not all driver utility is 100% reliable (ie I do not know of a very excellent one). LOL, I remember going to Lenovo to install very important stuff and to discover one of the needed is a hired/paid bloatware. Even if I keep the OEM and Sys reserve, I do not know if my computer will use since I will no longer use a Lenovo proprietary software but Microsoft Windows 10 to do a fresh install . Oh, what will I lose if I remove those reserve? Tx

 

[Neemobeer]

Ok looking at the specs on this computer, I believe we are talking about a 4-in-1 memory card SD card / Micro SD card reader. This computer doesn't have mSata or M.2 slots on it. Can you go into Disk Management [Windows key + x] then select Disk Management. Take a screen shot and post that.