Clean install--EFI partition


imaref

imaref

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Did a clean install last Friday (WMC tool on USB). Finally got all software, drivers, settings set up. Ran disk management to make sure everything is healthy and got a pleasant surprise--the EFI partition, instead of being the miniscule 100MB (like always on a clean install) is now 200MB. I guess MS finally figured out that 100MB is too small since so many PC manufactures use that partition for BIOS updates, etc. as well.

Hopefully it will prevent Windows Update problems in future months.
 

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Dell and HP are notorious for staging their BIOS updates in the EFI volume, and not always cleaning up their temp files. So you can slowly run out of space over time without realizing it.

Some folks suggest at least 300-400 MB on the EFI, if you can afford the disk space.
 

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garlin said:
Dell and HP are notorious for staging their BIOS updates in the EFI volume, and not always cleaning up their temp files. So you can slowly run out of space over time without realizing it.

Some folks suggest at least 300-400 MB on the EFI, if you can afford the disk space.
Click to expand...
I wish Windows would ask during installation how big to make it because I would choose larger. I don't like fiddling around with 3rd party software to extend the partition so I was pleasantly surprised that at least it's now double what it used to be after clean install.
 

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Windows 11i7-9750H16GBIntel UHD Graphics 630 (HP) 4095MB NVIDIA GeF...
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HP Omen 17
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i7-9750H
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HP 8604 (U3E1)
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16GB
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Intel UHD Graphics 630 (HP) 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (HP)
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Realtek High Definition Audio
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476GB Intel Optane+477GBSSD (RAID (SSD))
I have a Dell whose bios updates ate up my EFI space. After making a full disk image, I used a Minitool boot disk to increase it to 500MB. While I was at it I increased the MSR partition to 128 MB. Hopefully it was a one and done thing because I'll admit I went into it nervous as a cat.
 

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glasskuter said:
I have a Dell whose bios updates ate up my EFI space. After making a full disk image, I used a Minitool boot disk to increase it to 500MB. While I was at it I increased the MSR partition to 128 MB. Hopefully it was a one and done thing because I'll admit I went into it nervous as a cat.
Click to expand...
I would be a basket case trying it. Glad it worked for you.
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 11i7-9750H16GBIntel UHD Graphics 630 (HP) 4095MB NVIDIA GeF...
OS
Windows 11
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
HP Omen 17
CPU
i7-9750H
Motherboard
HP 8604 (U3E1)
Memory
16GB
Graphics Card(s)
Intel UHD Graphics 630 (HP) 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (HP)
Sound Card
Realtek High Definition Audio
Hard Drives
476GB Intel Optane+477GBSSD (RAID (SSD))
200 MB is enough
 

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Windows 119800X3DPatriot 8200MTs DDR5 CL38Galax RTX 4090ST
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Asus X870E ProArt
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d5aqoep said:
200 MB is enough
Click to expand...
If it's purely Windows writing files there. But some BIOS update tools like to stage new firmware files on the EFI, since it eliminates the step of asking the user to provide a FAT32-formatted USB drive to store them.

Other vendors will insist on you using an external USB drive for BIOS updates, so those PC owners can keep their volumes around 200 MB.
 

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