Windows 10: Other Needed Windows Partitions Installing On Other Drives During Install

Hi, I work for a business selling custom workstations to customers. We install Windows 10 Pro on each and every computer that comes in after being built. Our motherboard is typically the ASRock X299 Gaming i9 motherboard, and we're aware of an issue that might be a bug or due to operator error and I would like to get to the bottom of this. To summarize, there are two scenarios that I am aware of we might use when doing a fresh installation of Windows from a DVD that we purchase for a custom built machine. I summarize them below. We almost always sell computers with more than one drive, such as multiple SSDs, HDDS, etc. This is all assuming a completely new computer with untouched drives, motherboard, no prior installations, etc.

1.) After booting from Windows disc, select Custom installation, select your designated OS drive (usually a Samsung 860 Pro SSD), and Windows begins installing after creating needed partitions. No partitions manually created.

2.) Same as above, but when selecting the drive, manually create a partition of maximum size (default option), then install Windows onto it like before. 1 partition manually created.

The issue comes about on occasion, we will notice that the C:\ drive will install onto the OS drive we need it to, but other partitions such as the boot partition, EFI, or recovery partitions will install onto other drives completely. This causes us to have to remove any and all unnecessary drives before installing Windows, and we don't understand why this happens. Is it because when we create this maximum partition size in scenario 2 that there is no more room on the drive and so C:\ gets the created partition with maximum size, and so the other needed partitions for Windows to install must then go elsewhere?

I look forward to your assistance. This would help us and our customers greatly! Thank you for your time.

:)

 

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

 

Installing Windows Vista/7 on a GUID Partition Table

Background

GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a boot sector technology poised to replace the venerable Master Boot Record (MBR) principally because MBR has a maximum capacity of 2 TB for a single partition (some single disks have reached 3 TB). Installing Windows on a GPT is a bit tricky because Windows wants to default back to MBR. In order to force Windows on to a GPT, we have to pre-format the drive prior to Windows installation. You can do that during Windows setup using the console.

Requirements

• Windows Vista or 7 (must be 64-bit no matter which OS is used)
• A motherboard with EFI BIOS
• A means to EFI boot the Windows setup (I had to use a USB DVD drive on MSI Z77A-G65, the internal SATA Bluray drives didn't have an EFI option)

Instructions

• Boot into Windows setup using EFI. On the MSI Z77A-G65, it showed up as UEFI:USB-ATAPI DVD ... This will change according to your motherboard and how you are attempting to enter setup. This step is critical. Without booting into setup via EFI, only MBR is available to the setup. There's no easy way to tell from within setup if it is running via EFI or not.
• Once you have booted into setup, continue through the process as you would normally until you reach the dialog which shows you the available drives. Load a driver, if necessary, then press SHIFT+F10 to open the command prompt.
• In the command prompt, enter the following lines, pressing enter after each one. Note that the <id> field below is the disk ID that you want to format as GPT from the "list disk" command. If there's only one drive, <id> will likely be 1. Note: All data on the drive will be lost during this process. Make sure to select the correct drive.
  • diskpart
  • list disk
  • select disk <id>
  • online disk
  • attributes disk clear readonly
  • clean
  • convert gpt
  • create partition efi size=102
  • create partition msr size=32
  • create partition primary
  • format fs=ntfs label="Operating System"
  • assign letter=C
  • exit
  "online disk" and "attributes disk clear readonly" are likely to fail. Don't worry, they are only precautionary. Change the drive letter and label to whatever you want. Also, the above command (specifically "create partition primary") will consume all remaining space on the drive. If you want multiple partitions with fixed sizes, substitute what you want in place of "create partition primary."
• You may now close the command prompt and click on "Refresh" back in the dialog to choose where to install Windows. You should now see at least 2 partitions (I think Microsoft Reserved is hidden) and it will only let you install on a non EFI/MSR partition. Click on the primary partition and proceed with the installation as normal.
• Note that in the EFI BIOS after installing Windows via EFI, you can no longer directly boot the volume Windows is installed on. Instead, you must boot via "Windows Boot Manager" (on MSI Z77A-G65, it was "UEFI: Windows Boot Manager"). Keep that in mind if you wish to tweak the boot order.

Conclusion

That should do it. You should be in Windows with >2 TB of hard drive capacity available if you had more than 2 TB on the Windows partition. Congratulations being on the bleeding edge of technology! *Rockout :rockout:

 

Installing windows from usb hard drive

I know you can do that, but what about having different windows installers on each partition? I think that's what the OP needs.