Deleting windows 10 install from 2nd drive and move EFI partition


  1. cifroes
    Posts : 2
    Windows 10
       New #1

    Deleting windows 10 install from 2nd drive and move EFI partition


    On Windows 10 PRO, Version 10.0.19044, on my desktop I have 2 disk drives installed and 2 windows installations in each and I want to get rid of the older one.

    Long story short, I first only had SSD1 and installed win10 there, then bought SSD2 and since it's faster, I installed another win10 there.

    Windows is perfectly working but the EFI partition is still on the older SSD and I still get a boot menu with both windows to choose from. I want to completely 'clean' this mess and I think for that I'll need to move the EFI partition and then change the boot options, finally format the old SSD to get rid of all windows files.

    So first things first, how can I safely move the EFI partition to my SSD2 without breaking anything?

    Deleting windows 10 install from 2nd drive and move EFI partition-screenshot-2022-06-24-051348.png

    old drive is DISK 0, new drive is DISK 2. Ignore disk 1.
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  3. Kyhi
    Posts : 4,143
    Windows 3.1 to Windows 11
       New #2

    My first comment will be to ask - Why does the OS partition use 194GB ??
    When a Normal OS Partition is about 1/4 of that....
    You must have a lot of "Data" withing that partition, Which should be stored on another drive....

    But to answer your question - shrink your OS (C:\) partition by 100 MB
    then create the EFI Partition, and Assign Drive letter "S" to the New Partition....
    Then open cmd prompt admin and type > bcdboot C:\Windows /s S:

    then remove/Format Disk 0 - efi partition
    Reboot & Set Boot Order in BIOS to boot from Disk 2

    The OS on Disk 0 will still be there - but you will need recreate the Boot Entry ( which it appears you do not want)
    Or once Disk 2 is bootable - you can wipe/reformat Disk 0 as a "Data" disk
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  4. cifroes
    Posts : 2
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    thanks, it worked without any problem.
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  6. Kyhi
    Posts : 4,143
    Windows 3.1 to Windows 11
       New #4

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