Partition scheme win10 x64 family, uefi and secure boot ?

Elbern said:

I'm currently reinstalling entirely windows 10 x64 with uefi , hardware fast boot, and secureboot.

I'm a bit confused because win 10 installer set: Recovery on partition 1, System on partition 2 (win re), MSR (not formated) 3, Then System (c:) at end of the other partitions.

First, contrary to every microsoft guides for win 10, WIn 10 installer set Recovery at the left side of the drive.

Usually in win 10, it should be set at end ( right) just after C: so windows 10 can shrink the partition to let for future usage, win RE expand.

I would like to know if it's a good feature or a bug.

Next is it normal on a samsung F3 512gb 512k sector, efi fat 32 partition been selected as a 99MB? Usually it's 260mB for 4k sectors, and 128Mb on my old win 7 install.

I would like to know if i have to manually format the hard drive and set partition so Win re is at end, and Efi been larger ?

Before installing, turn OFF
Secure boot
Fast boot

You can turn them back on after the install if you want
- Secure boot probably, it's a good security feature.
- Fast Boot - maybe, I think it's just a hibernation methodology, but some hybrid drives have different mechanisms.

Take a look at this page for from the horses mouth partitioning information

Recommended UEFI-Based Disk-Partition Configurations

I'm not sure MS has updated all of their pages for Win10 yet. The WinRE partition for example is documented at 300 MB, but a Win10 Clean install might set it to 450 MB (varying reports and experiences).

If you're doing a clean install, wipe your drive and let Windows do the partitioning
Do not pre-allocate the partitions, just install Clean on unallocated space and let Windows figure it out.

Here's a modified batch file that pre-allocates the drive per MS documentation & experiences installing Windows 10.
I don't pre-allocate partitions, I let Windows do the heavy lifting

---

--------------- WARNING ---------------


This batch file wipes drive 0
All data will be erased from the drive

---

Code:

Diskpart

rem --------------------------------------------------------
rem ---- Wipe the drive - this is a destructive process ----
rem 
rem -------- ALL DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE DRIVE --------
rem 
rem --------------------------------------------------------

select disk 0
clean
convert gpt

rem --------------------------------------------------------
rem ----- Windows RE tools partition -----------------------
rem 
rem create partition primary size=300
rem --------------------------------------------------------

create partition primary size=450
format quick fs=ntfs label="WinRE tools"
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
assign letter=T

rem --------------------------------------------------------
rem ----- System partition ---------------------------------
rem 
rem create partition efi size=100
rem 
rem --------------------------------------------------------
rem NOTE: 4KB / sector drives
rem --------------------------------------------------------
rem create partition efi size=260
rem 
rem --------------------------------------------------------

create partition efi size=260
format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
assign letter=S

rem --------------------------------------------------------
rem ----- Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition ---------------
rem --------------------------------------------------------

create partition msr size=128

rem --------------------------------------------------------
rem ----- Windows & Recovery Image partitions --------------
rem --------------------------------------------------------

rem --- Windows partition

create partition primary

rem --- Reclaim space from the Windows partition to be
rem --- used for the Recovery Image partition

shrink minimum=15000

rem --- Prepare the Windows partition

format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
assign letter=W

rem --- Recovery image partition

create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery image"
assign letter=R

list volume
exit

Bill

Great news Elbern !

You should probably check your drive for errors, just to be sure.

Launch a Command Prompt (Admin)

Method	Screen
x-Menu Right click the Windows logo on the task bar Select Command Prompt (Admin) and yes to the UAC prompt
Search: command Press the Windows key on your keyboard Type command Right click the search result: Command Prompt Select Run as administrator and yes to the UAC prompt
File Explorer: File menu Press the blue File menu on any open File Explorer Hover over Command Prompt or press the arrow to expand the selection Select Open command prompt as administrator This is a useful way to launch a batch or script file in a particular folder with elevated privileges.

---

---

Then run Chkdsk twice, a read-only scan and a fix operation.

The read-only scan often changes some low-level drive setting (the dirty bit?). I'm not sure why, but it only is effective when you run a read-only scan ... it has helped on a few of my questionable drives.

The Fix scan actually looks for File System integrity issues. Most common are free space or Security descriptors that point no where - Chkdsk easily fixes those and they aren't really a concern unless the occur often.

Run Check Disk read-only scan first (no run-time parameters)

chkdsk C:

Run Check Disk with fix errors (/F parameter). If prompted to schedule the scan for the next boot, answer yes. Restart your machine and Check Disk runs before Windows fully loads.

chkdsk C: /F

Check disk information is written to Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application
Expand Windows Logs and right click the Application log
Select Find and enter Chkdsk in the search field

---

There is some information way in the back of my head about parked heads - I'll see if I can recall what it was. If the issue does not occur again, that would be best