Windows 10: Create bootable UEFI Defrag Flash Drive?

Here is the issue I am currently at:

I have a Surface Pro 4 that I want to set up a Dual Boot on. I normally wouldn't have too much of an issue resolving this on my own, but due to the Surface Pro 4 not supporting Legacy flash drives, my standard way (Booting into a MBR Flash Drive w/ an Offline OS on it and doing the defrag/moving the files to the beginning of the drive) of solving this issue has left me baffled. I've attempted downloading Rufus and utilizing a MBR ISO (Which failed, since it didn't have the EFI boot sector on it), going back and forth amongst various methods of removing secure boot (which was a doozy at first, after having to go through recovering my BitLocker key) in order to boot from legacy, all to no avail.

Basically, I want to take my SSD, and move all the files to the beginning, which I can't do in Windows due to system files being in use (Ironically, a large portion being near the end of the drive). All I am looking for is a method to create a bootable UEFI flash drive that I can use to defrag/do this from. I've dug a little bit around on Linux and didn't find anything that seemed to be able to do it, as most options seemed only relevant to Windows PCs. Is there any options available to do this? Or would formatting and reinstalling it be the only option?

~ Thanks in advance

:)

 

Laptop grinding to a halt

Please confirm you created the bootable flash stick with the media creation tool ONLY. Does it boot does it boot as a UEFI device in another UEFI PC?

You said that you UEFI boot is enabled in the firmware settings, correct? Now look at all other tabs of the firmware to report back settings for UEFI, CSM, Legacy BIOS, and secure boot.

However if UEFI boot is enabled then using the Boot menu key trigger you should have a UEFI choice for the flash stick if it was created correctly. I would try creating it again or create bootable DVD to compare.

 

Windows 10 Stuck in repair

Is this a UEFI BIOS? Are you booting the media as a UEFI device?

How was the media created exactly? Can you try creating a bootable DVD to compare, or another flash stick?

Go into UEFI or BIOS Setup and reset to Defaults. Then try booting the media again.

 

Welcome to TenForums, QuentinX5.

Defragging an SSD is the last thing you want to do. There IS no "front of the drive" on an SSD. All you'll do is shorten its useful lifetime unnecessarily.

If it's actually just moving your partitions around, that's another can of worms - there are free tools available to do that which you can't do (either conveniently or at all) with Windows native Disk Management or without knowing how to use diskpart at a command prompt.

If it's really just partitioning you want to do, you'll get a more effective help if you post a screen shot of your partition layout in Disk Management and explain what your ultimate goal is. Here's a tutorial on how to do that: Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of


Do I surmise correctly that you simply want to shrink your OS partition and make room for another partition to put a 2nd OS on?

 

Make a bootable flash drive of Kyhi's Recovery PE ISO:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

Follow these instructions - just use his ISO instead of Windows installation ISO:
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

Then use MiniTool Partition Wizard to shrink your existing partition and add space for your second OS. As Word Man posted - defragging is for disk type Hard Disk Drives, not for SSDs or eMMC.

You can also probably just install MiniTool Partition Wizard free and use it from within Windows - when shrinking the current OS partition it will tell you it needs to restart to do so.
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

 

Never in my life has there every been a need to use RUFUS to create bootable PE Media....

Just copy contents of ISO to Fat32 formatted USB

 

Thank you for the polite correction.

 

That is exactly what I am trying to do; shrink the space on my Windows partition by about 20GB so I can add in a Linux OS. The issue is that there are system files located at the end of the partition, so I can only shrink it by about 1GB (Which isn't enough for me to install an OS on). Here is a picture to better explain why I am trying to migrate those files closer to the front of the partition:

The problem is not so much creating a formatted USB (Trust me, I have plenty of those bootable USBs laying around for legacy support). It's booting from an EFI-enabled flash drive. The Surface Pro doesn't support the use of MBR bootloaders, so I need to create an EFI-bootable flash drive that I can do some sort of disk management from, since the files I need to move are system files and untouchable as long as I am inside the OS. I'm trying to consolidate the free space, so the partition is as small as it can possibly be.

 

I haven't got first hand experience with Bitlocker Encrypted drives to know all the ins and outs. However, my gut tells me you are better off turning off Bitlocker AND un-encrypting the drive before manipulating that partition.

Once you do that, it is best if you make a complete image of the disk (with a reliable imager like, for instance, Macrium Reflect Free) to an external drive.

Then, it would be a simple matter (if Disk Management can't shrink that C: partition further than now) to shrink the partition with the free MiniTool Partition wizard by 20 GB to make room for Linux. It will go off-line if need be to shrink the partition as ordered.

You should be able to then re-encrypt the drive once you're done with changing the partitions.

You wouldn't necessarily want to mess with the EFI System Partition as UEFI is using that to boot.

 

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free will move the files that it needs to in order to shrink the partition.

 

Wasn't even considering the BitLocker Encryption when I first thought of doing this project... That may explain why the drive and some of it's system files are unmovable... I'm going to try turning that off first, and then move on from there. Thank you!

 

The issue is subtle. It is how the flash drive is setup that is important ie mbr or gpt format.

If the pc does not support legacy bios, they will not boot from an mbr based flash drive at all. You have to convert the flash drive to gpt format first, or use the 'gpt format for uefi install' option in rufus.

Then you can simply copy contents of iso as you say.

 

Thanks for once again trying to correct me (Wrongly So) on how Microsoft boots a UEFI PC with their Setup Media...

Can anyone show me where MS suggests using RUFUS to format or even create a GPT partition USB??.
Does MS provide different setup media for the surface pro??

We all use the same Windows Setup and Installation Media...
Which contains WinPE.. WinPE boots both Legacy and UEFI mode...

Anyway use the method that works for you, or any 3rd party apps you choose...

I'll use MS Windows to fix MS Windows and leave the rest to you..

 

I will double check.

However, my bios definitely only boots from a usb drive with mbr for legacy bios mode, or with gpt for UEFI mode as far as I have ascertained. I accept it may be because my bios is crap.

Incidentally, many guides on web all say same thing ie to use gpt mode when using rufus for doing a UEFI install e.g.

Create UEFI Bootable USB Of Windows 10

How to create a Windows 10 USB installation media with UEFI support | Windows Central

I will try again using the straight diskpart approach and using the standard iso as you say, and see if that works on my pc, as it is a while since I have done it that way (rufus being quicker).

 

@Kyhi - I sincerely apologise for "correcting" you erroneously.


Of course, you are entirely correct about diskpart and iso using fat32.


No matter how I tried I could not get it to work without using gpt format in UEFI mode, despite various articles on web absolutely confirming that you could boot from MBR in UEFI.


So I went into my bios and looked at all the settings and could not see anything obvious, so I thought 'what the hell' and used the 'reset bios to default settings', and (blow me down) after that it now works perfectly!


I think I must have inadvertently disabled something in csm mode that was causing it not to work properly or something like that. I remember messing around with setting some time back when it would not boot from a usb stick, and chnaged somethibg that got it to work.


So to quote that rather horrible phrase "My Bad"!