Is there a way to do a fresh install of Windows 10 on an empty drive with a larger EFI partition than 100MB (approx 200MB)? I plan to dual boot OS X and I want to avoid a certain issue that might pop up.
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That is something I am in the process of doing and finishing reading some stuff today. My first attempt failed two weeks ago. I think what I am gong to do is image my Windows 7, expand the efi, restore the efi partition from the Windows 7 install and install Windows 10, then restore the Windows 7 partition.– Rich MansonCommented Feb 7, 2017 at 18:37
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You should be able to pre-partition the disk with an ESP as large as you like. If the Windows installer replaces the ESP if you create a disk with just the ESP, try creating a "dummy" partition somewhere later on the disk with some non-Windows partition type code. You can then change that to a Windows partition or delete it and expand the Windows partition into that space after you install Windows.– Rod SmithCommented Feb 10, 2017 at 17:27
2 Answers
In order to custom size any non-data partition [EFI, WinRE], the drive must be manually partitioned via DiskPart
prior to installing Windows.
- If this needs to be done more than once, it may be more efficient time-wise to create a custom answer file to be used in lieu of the one Setup auto-creates from the options chose within the Setup GUI. To do so, see the steps in this answer
From the Windows Setup GUI:
- Open a terminal: Shift+F10
- Wipe partition table and convert drive to GPT:
DiskPart ::# List drives: Lis Dis ::# Select OS drive Windows is being installed to: Sel Dis <#> ::# Verify it's the correct drive: Det Dis Lis Par ::# Wipe partition table and convert (assumes no data on drive is being preserved) Clean Convert Gpt
- Create boot partition:
::# For free space to be 200MB, 200*1.024 = RAW size of 205 Cre Par EFI Offset=1024 Size=205 Format Quick Fs=FAT32 Label="EFI" Cre Par Msr Size=16
- Create OS partition:
Rest of the drive as the OS partition:
Cre Par Pri Id=ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7 Format Quick Fs=NTFS Label="System"
Additional partitions after the [200GB] OS partition:
::# If storing User Data directories on a partition other than `C:` (recommended), ::# max size required is ~300GB. Multiply size wanted by 1024: 200*1024=204800 Cre Par Pri Size=204800 Id=ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7 Format Quick Fs=NTFS Label="System"
- Create WinRE partition:
::# Should have minimum 320MB free for future WIM size increases Shrink Desired=1024 Minimum=1024 Cre Par Pri Id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac Format Quick Fs=NTFS Label="WinRE" Gpt Attributes=0x8000000000000001
- Close terminal and proceed through Setup GUI as normal
This is quite an old question, but I thought this knowledge would be useful to share since I spent a few hours digging for the answer.
It turns out you can manually create partitions during fresh install instead of relying on the automatic partition creation.
You can press Shift+F10 to start a terminal in the installation environment, then use diskpart
to form the disk to your will. It has a built-in help system, and should be fairly simple to use.
I should include a disclaimer that this is potentially dangerous and can cause data loss, so make sure precious data is backed up before fiddling with partitions.
Information gleaned from: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/windows-setup-installing-using-the-mbr-or-gpt-partition-style
NOTE 1: (Gleaned from the built-in help) It should be noted that windows 10 requires a certain structure on a GPT disk to boot. On the disk from which you wish to boot, the EFI boot partition must be first, followed by the MSR partition, followed by data partitions. I was generous and gave MSR 20MB.
NOTE 2: diskpart
spoon-feeds partition types to you: when creating a partition, you are given the option to create an EFI, MSR, or "ordinary" partition. The list can be displayed by running
help create partition
in the diskpart
interface.