Windows 10 Pro install partitioning

eelstrebor · 29 Nov 2018

I have downloaded both the August and November 2018 editions of Windows 10 and found that these install disks will not partition the drive correctly during installation. I can't even change the formatting for the efi partition to FAT32. As a matter of fact, the Windows install disk puts on 2 partitions of the same size and same label - one of them is where the efi partition should be. What's the deal? I've had a similar issue before on another computer and was able to partition the drive using an Ubuntu install disk and partition the drive with gparted. I guess I'll have to do that again.

NavyLCDR · 29 Nov 2018

You should be installing Windows 10 to an unallocated space on the drive with no preexisting partitions. Also how did you create your install media? If you used Rufus to create a USB flash drive or DVD you might have picked the wrong options.

Berton · 29 Nov 2018

I always try to wipe a drive of all partitions after copying the client's files to an external drive then using GPARTED, either its own free LiveCD or a free Linux LiveDVD, then let Windows decide how to handle the partitioning followed by the install, seem to always get a more harmonious outcome. I have seen where Windows 10 will not delete partitions from Windows 7 and add 1 or 2 of its own, doesn't seem to be a big problem. And it may be convenient to have the necessary files in the Factory Restore partition to do a major go-back.

Yes, that was a paraphrase from a movie, Wilford Brimley in Crossfire Trail.

eelstrebor · 29 Nov 2018

NavyLCDR said:

You should be installing Windows 10 to an unallocated space on the drive with no preexisting partitions. Also how did you create your install media? If you used Rufus to create a USB flash drive or DVD you might have picked the wrong options.

It's a new SSD so it had no partitions. My understanding is that when Windows 10 is installed under UEFI there needs to be 4 partitions created - I've done this before by manually creating the partitions using gparted since the Windows installation media wouldn't do it. I'm just wondering why the install media won't do it. Anyway, the install media was created using k3b running on a linux OS. I selected "burn image" like I always do when creating install media from an ISO for both linux and windows and I have k3b set to verify the write.

Berton · 29 Nov 2018

For new/blank drives I just boot to Windows install media and let it do its thing, no need to make it hard for myself and I can be doing another in the meantime, just check now and then to answer to prompts. That's the default method, if wanting to set the drive up for dual-booting or other needs, that's a different scenario. But then I'm fortunate to have rehabbed some computers and have Win10 RTM Home, Win10 RTM Pro, Win10 IP Pro and Linux Mint on separate computers both Desktops and Notebooks, very little actual cost involved as long as my parts/junk box holds out.

NavyLCDR · 29 Nov 2018

Is the USB flash drive FAT32? It needs to be FAT32. If it is FAT32 booted in UEFI mode, then Windows 10 setup will do the proper partitioning for UEFI booting if unallocated space is selected to install to.

eelstrebor · 29 Nov 2018

NavyLCDR said:

Is the USB flash drive FAT32? It needs to be FAT32. If it is FAT32 booted in UEFI mode, then Windows 10 setup will do the proper partitioning for UEFI booting if unallocated space is selected to install to.

It's not a flash drive. It's a DVD - with the latest Windows10 release I had to use a dual layer DVD. And, no, it did not correctly create the partitions. And I did a UEFI boot, using the BIOS boot menu, for the DVD player.

NavyLCDR · 30 Nov 2018

eelstrebor said:

It's not a flash drive. It's a DVD - with the latest Windows10 release I had to use a dual layer DVD. And, no, it did not correctly create the partitions. And I did a UEFI boot, using the BIOS boot menu, for the DVD player.

What makes you think it dot not correctly create the partitions? Did it boot? You should end up with a FAT32 EFI System Partition, a Microsoft System Reserved Partition (which won't show up in disk management, but does in diskpart), your Windows NTFS partition, and an "OEM" Recovery partition.

AddRAM · 30 Nov 2018

Go buy yourself a 8GB flash drive, and let the Media Creation Tool setup the USB stick.

Make sure the entire new drive is GPT and unallocated, you shouldn`t have any problems after that.

This is what you should see from Partition Wizard and from Windows when you`re done.

Download Windows 10

eelstrebor · 30 Nov 2018

NavyLCDR said:

What makes you think it dot not correctly create the partitions? Did it boot? You should end up with a FAT32 EFI System Partition, a Microsoft System Reserved Partition (which won't show up in disk management, but does in diskpart), your Windows NTFS partition, and an "OEM" Recovery partition.

The installation failed because it couldn't format the efi partition as FAT32 which means that the installation stalled at that point. I couldn't even manually format the partition since the install media didn't give me an option to format any partition as anything other than FAT32. The efi partition must be formatted as FAT32. So, the installation failed which means it won't boot. Also, there were 2 partitions that the install media created and they were both labeled as recovery partitions. Anyway, from re-reading responses to my problem it seems that no one understands my issue so I'm just going to get out Knoppix or Ubuntu Live and manually partition the disk with gparted since the Windows installation media can't get the partitioning right.