Windows 10: Would dismounting a partitioned windows install destroy my PC?

(Windows 10 Home version 20H2) x64 bit OS Hello. Please mind the misleading title of R: 'bootme' in the attachment, I'm asking about booting from ESD-USB! I created a vhdx file for backup in my external USB HDD that's found in R: so when my C drive (SSD) is broken, I would have a backup of my personal files. My big idea is if I can boot a clean windows install from ESD USB (originally assigned to E: but not featured in attachment) and while at boot menu, get into diskmgmt and change letters to R: (or S: ) to access files, and later copy them onto a replacement disk drive. Seems minimal, but I don't like that dskmgmt will only allow me to get into my VHDX file through exploring S:, then on VHDX in R: instead of staying in S: parent folder. It seems off, and there's no need to have an extra 180 gb partition in my USB if i don't have anything in it... There might be a way around this, but I'm done searching on it. Anyways, should I still work on testing out a reinstall booting off of E:? Also,when going to 'change drive Letters...' and clicking 'remove' a popup warning shows: 'Some programs that rely on drive letters may not run correctly. Are you sure you want to remove this drive letter?' This could be an issue. If windows was running on partition E:, and I suddenly dismounted, to switch over to S: or R: would the system just crash or stay working? Also is there any way to keep your old install of windows (same version, but stored on C, so you can just reset and ditch the new install? I'm also about to see if my partitions are still even there after a plain restart. - - - Updated - - - restarting didn't change my partitions, they are still there

:)

 

W7 Hard drive partition issue

to get rid of that 100 meg windows partition that setup creates for you on a new install on a blank hdd:

- press shift+f10 when on the partition management screen in setup <-- this opens a command prompt
- diskpart <-- start the windows command line partition management tool
- list disk <--- list the installed hdds in this computer for the next step
- select disk 0 <- might have to replace 0 with the number of the correct disk
- clean <-- this will erase all data on the disk you selected one step up- dont use the wrong disk!
- create partition primary <- creates a primary partition taking up all space on the drive, adjust the command if necessary
- exit, exit to exit diskpart and the command prompt
- click refresh in partition manager and select your newly created partition and install to that

 

windows 7 (one partition dissapeared)

It sometimes happens. On my supervisor computer, a partition was made when he was using Windows XP with a third party software. With each fresh install, I have to assign a letter manually to that partition, else it don't show up in explorer even for Windows 7 RTM fresh install. I have seen it, that's why I have suggested the procedure.

 

Installing Windows Vista/7 on a GUID Partition Table

I've never tried multiple partitions so this is a shot in the dark...

At step #10, I would try setting the size parameter (it is in mebibytes) to how large you want the partition windows is installed on to be, then go ahead and install windows. This will leave the rest of the drive raw instead of consuming it into the OS partition (C drive). Once you successfully boot into Windows, you should be able to use Computer Management -> Disk Management to create partitions in the raw space.


If you really wanted to do it with diskpart before Windows is installed, you basically repeat the following lines making sure to specify a size if you don't want it to consume all remaining space:

• create partition primary size=size in mebibytes here
• format quick fs=ntfs label="appropriate name here"
• assign letter=C thru Z here

Obviously, you can use quick formatting or leave it out for full format. Leave off the size parameter when you reach the final partition that should consume all the remaining space. Also remember that the order you do this in goes from the outside of the disk (where it is fastest) to the inside of the disk (where it is slowest). Because of this, it is recommended to put EFI (e.g. size=300), then MSR (e.g. size=300), then Windows (e.g. size=30000), then Applications (e.g. size=70000), then Storage (e.g. no size parameter).

If I'm right, the above example would look like this:

• diskpart
• list disk
• select disk <id>
• online disk
• attributes disk clear readonly
• clean
• convert gpt
  
• create partition efi size=300
  
• create partition msr size=300
  
• create partition primary size=30000
• format fs=ntfs label="Windows"
• assign letter=C
  
• create partition primary size=70000
• format fs=ntfs label="Applications"
• assign letter=D
  
• create partition primary
• format fs=ntfs label="Storage"
• assign letter=E
• exit