Windows 10: How can I create Windows installation media on an 8GB partition of a larger drive?

I have a 64GB USB drive that I want to use for both Windows installations and storage, but when I try to create install media on an 8GB partition, it increases from 8GB to 32GB.And if I create the second partition using the rest of the USB storage, i get error 0x80070015 - 0xa001b, saying the install media couldn't be created on the smaller partition.The Windows installation files are a lot less than 32GB in size; is there a way to optimise the empty storage space on the installation partition?

:)

 

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

 

Partition or multiple hard drives?

As the title suggests. Is it worth installing say a 36GB drive for the OS soley or partitioning an existing larger drive with either 2 or more partitions? I am currently running Vista 32bit and want to try out 64bit and am sick of reformatting the whole drive. Any suggestions?

 

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