How to prevent Windows from creating additional partitions during installation?

Hello,

The newer UEFI firmware doesn't come with NTFS drivers and can't boot NTFS file systems on its own. The workaround has been for years to create an additional EFI boot partition that in turns boot the system partition.

So I have two questions. First, Is there any way to avoid having to do that, meaning bypassing the need for EFI partition and boot NTFS formatted system partition directly from UEFI ? And secondly, the previous workaround to create and format a partition beforehand to force Windows to not make additional partitions doesn't work with 24H2. I don't want to use any 3rd party tool for this because I don't know how to integrate those tools into stock boot.wim. Is there any other way to accomplish this?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

There's nothing about UEFI itself that prevents NTFS booting. It's just that most providers of UEFI firmware don't bother. That said, there are projects like this, from Pete (of Rufus fame).

My experience with Windows is to start with a bare/blank drive and let Windows create partitions as it needs. There's usually 3 or 5 in a default install and only 1 is large, others are smaller.

The Notebook I'm on now with Version 24H2 Build 26100.2894:

pseymour said:

There's nothing about UEFI itself that prevents NTFS booting. It's just that most providers of UEFI firmware don't bother. That said, there are projects like this, from Pete (of Rufus fame).

GitHub - pbatard/uefi-ntfs: UEFI:NTFS - Boot NTFS or exFAT partitions from UEFI

UEFI:NTFS - Boot NTFS or exFAT partitions from UEFI - pbatard/uefi-ntfs

github.com

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Thank you for the response, Mr. pseymour. As I understand it, the project you linked to enables booting the NTFS formatted USB drives in pure UEFI mode. Is there any way to make it boot the internal system drive without having to rely on an additional FAT32 partition?

Berton said:

My experience with Windows is to start with a bare/blank drive and let Windows create partitions as it needs. There's usually 3 or 5 in a default install and only 1 is large, others are smaller.

The Notebook I'm on now with Version 24H2 Build 26100.2894:

View attachment 123438

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Thank you for the response, Mr. Burton. I have issues with focus and remembering things. With my data scattered all over the drive, I don't want to find myself in the situation where I have multiple partitions and I can't tell which one of it meant for Windows. Having just two partitions makes it amply clear and simplifies the things for the better. That is my goal here, having just two partitions like I always had. One for the system and another for my personal data.

The method that I use is either one of these:

1) Create a simple batch file that I run at the first static screen during Windows setup that creates the partitions for me.

2) Use an unattended answer file to do it for me. Note that you can use the answer file to ONLY setup partitions and not actually perform an unattended installation if you wish.

But, I have a question for you:

Precisely how do you want the Windows drive partitioned? I assume that you want no MSR or Recovery partition, just an EFI, Windows, and Data partition, is that correct? Once you let me know I'll test it to make sure it works as intended and then I can post a copy here.

ceo54 said:

Thank you for the response, Mr. Burton. I have issues with focus and remembering things. With my data scattered all over the drive, I don't want to find myself in the situation where I have multiple partitions and I can't tell which one of it meant for Windows. Having just two partitions makes it amply clear and simplifies the things for the better. That is my goal here, having just two partitions like I always had. One for the system and another for my personal data.

Click to expand...

Actually the only partition a User can access is the Main/Boot/System usually designated as C:\. If there's sufficient room a partition usually designated as D: can be created but I prefer a second drive on Desktops for storage, if C: fails not all is lost. To that end I store a lot of data on a NAS drive I can access from other computers.

hsehestedt said:

The method that I use is either one of these:

1) Create a simple batch file that I run at the first static screen during Windows setup that creates the partitions for me.

2) Use an unattended answer file to do it for me. Note that you can use the answer file to ONLY setup partitions and not actually perform an unattended installation if you wish.

But, I have a question for you:

Precisely how do you want the Windows drive partitioned? I assume that you want no MSR or Recovery partition, just an EFI, Windows, and Data partition, is that correct? Once you let me know I'll test it to make sure it works as intended and then I can post a copy here.

Click to expand...

Hello kind sir. Before interacting the community here, I did some research on my own and found something called "Apply Image", I'm not sure but I'm speculating having 3rd party tool like WinNTSetup / Dism++ can actually install the Windows without the hassle of having Windows setup creating additional partitions. But as I stated in my original post, I don't know how to install and configure the programs in Windows Boot.wim, I might have to research how to create a WinPE and learn how to integrate the tools and drivers in it.

As for your quarry, I just want Windows and everything else related to it on a single partition, boot files and whatever else is it that Windows needs including that driver @pseymour linked to so that I can evade the hassle of creating an additional FAT32 partition just to be able to boot the NTFS partition with Windows on it.

As for recovery, I use 3rd party tools for recovery. AOMEI to be precise. It's not perfect but haven't found anything better yet.

I hope this suffices your question and looking forward to your expert resolutions. Thank you for coming to the help, highly appreciated.

Berton said:

Actually the only partition a User can access is the Main/Boot/System usually designated as C:\. If there's sufficient room a partition usually designated as D: can be created but I prefer a second drive on Desktops for storage, if C: fails not all is lost. To that end I store a lot of data on a NAS drive I can access from other computers.

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When I install Windows, I don't see the partition labels or drive letters, just disk 0, partition 1 and partition 2 etc so kinda becomes hard to tell them apart which one is what.

ceo54 said:

When I install Windows, I don't see the partition labels or drive letters, just disk 0, partition 1 and partition 2 etc so kinda becomes hard to tell them apart which one is what.

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There really no need to see or manipulate the partitions during the install. It is possible later, providing the drive is large enough, to Shrink the main/C: partition then create a new partition [D:] in the newly-unallocated space. It's quite possible the C: partition could be sufficient at 128GB, some computers come that way, but I prefer 256GB or 512GB.

Windows is gonna create the small System and Recovery partitions, no matter what..., because, if something goes wrong, and you can't access System or Recovery tools, you've got a brick.

Berton said:

My experience with Windows is to start with a bare/blank drive and let Windows create partitions as it needs. There's usually 3 or 5 in a default install and only 1 is large, others are smaller.

The Notebook I'm on now with Version 24H2 Build 26100.2894:

View attachment 123438

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My recovery partition on a clean install of 24h2 is only 642MB. Do you know why you have three recovery partitions and why they are so large?

Winuser said:

My recovery partition on a clean install of 24h2 is only 642MB. Do you know why you have three recovery partitions and why they are so large?

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This Notebook went back to Dell after 6 months for warranty and that's the way I got it back. In the grand scheme of things those 3 partitions are not large.

Edwin said:

Windows is gonna create the small System and Recovery partitions, no matter what..., because, if something goes wrong, and you can't access System or Recovery tools, you've got a brick.

Click to expand...

My clean install of Windows 11 24H2 on a 1TB SSD has a 100MB EFI Partition. A 930 GB C: partition and a 642 MB Recovery partition. When I do a clean install, I always let the install program make any partitions and sizes that it needs.

Berton said:

This Notebook went back to Dell after 6 months for warranty and that's the way I got it back. In the grand scheme of things those 3 partitions are not large.

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There Not? From your screen shot I think they are. The last 2 recovery partitions take up around 20GB.

Partition five at least, is massive.

It's a 512GB drive so I don't consider less than 5% as too large. It contains the factory-restore files.

ceo54 said:

I don't know how to install and configure the programs in Windows Boot.wim

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In order to modify / add / omit any partitions, there is absolutely no need to modify the boot.wim. However, if you do still want to know how to do so, I can provide a step-by-step set of instructions to you. No third-party tools are needed. If you do want to know how to do this, just let me know. It will take me a little while to write a procedure, but I'd be happy to do so.

ceo54 said:

I just want Windows and everything else related to it on a single partition

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Just for my understanding, may I ask why it is that you want to do this? I'm curious because in normal usage, the other partitions needed by Windows are hidden from you - they get no drive letter assigned. As a result, in normal operation you will not even notice that they exist.

Finally, a couple of things to be aware of:

The EFI partition is required on a UEFI based system, so that partition will always be there.

The MSR (Microsoft Reserved Partition) can be eliminated, but there is a potential for the lack of that partition to cause problems for some third-party programs. EVERY GPT disk gets an MSR, not just the OS drive. For example, the system that I am working with right now has 5 drives so I have 5 MSR partitions. Having difficulties without the MSR is rare, but it can happen so I really suggest having an MSR partition. If you need more info on why this is, let me know. It is tiny and you will never see it (even Disk Management does not show this partition). As for the Recovery partition, you can omit this partition if you wish.

Again, all of this is trivially easy to resolve, but I would like a better understanding of why you wish to omit these partitions so that I can make more informed suggestions.

Winuser said:

There Not? From your screen shot I think they are. The last 2 recovery partitions take up around 20GB.

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Dell has a whole system image on the recovery partition, so I assume when he sent it in they recreated that garbage. Most likely from the Dell Recovery Assistant or whatever it’s called. You can actually delete that. Only thing it will inhibit is resetting your Dell to factory image.

dacrone said:

Dell has a whole system image on the recovery partition, so I assume when he sent it in they recreated that garbage. Most likely from the Dell Recovery Assistant or whatever it’s called. You can actually delete that. Only thing it will inhibit is resetting your Dell to factory image.

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Because of the size I was thinking that it was a partition made by Dell. I'm wondering if my wife's HP laptop has a OEM recovery partition.

Edit: It just has the the three partitions plus the hidden partition.