Solved EFI formatted drive to NTFS

antspants · Feb 14, 2024

markw51 said:
Unfortunately, the OP has a habit of posting threads, trying to tell others what to do and having no clue themselves on what to do. Just look at his other threads about local accounts and others to see what I mean. And he's supposed to have 35+ years experience with using PCs? Clearly not.

Yes, many of us are aware of Jro’s shortcomings, but one persists when one is able… or finds the patience.

jro11 · Feb 14, 2024

Look, I've been doing nothing but following your suggestions. I downloaded MiniTool Partition Wizard, instructed it to format the Healthy Primary Partition to NTFS, and this is what I got.

Then I went to bed, disgusted and depressed. I left the computer on.
This morning I closed and reopened Disk Management and it seems that the disk is back.

I also closed MiniTool Partition Wizard.
I don't know if the external (LaCie) disk had files on it. All I know is that it was not showing up in the finder, didn't have a disk letter, and needed to be reformatted (to NTFS) if I wanted to store the C-drives image onto it. I discovered the disk did have 3 partitions by bringing it up in Disk Management. The MiniTool Partition Wizard screenshot showing the drive, after the NTFS reformat, looked odd to me since it didn't seem to have a NTFS partition on it.
What I reported was accurate. I'm not telling anyone what to do, I'm only following directions! I think it's correct to assume that if one Images a disk that one needs to allocate another disk onto which to write that image. Let me know if any of this is incorrect.

jro11 · Feb 14, 2024

cereberus said:
Regrettably, you have no idea what you are talking about, as you only have 1 disk with 4 partitions.

So Disk5 (Disk Management) or in MiniTools terms, Disk2, is an apparition?

Megahertz · Feb 14, 2024

jro11 said:
I want to install Win11 with a local account instead of a Microsoft account. I've moved everything off my main drive and onto an external drive. Before I install the local account I want to index my C drive. I have a 1Tb EFI partitioned drive available

jro11 said:
How do I reformat that drive ("Disk 5") to...NTFS. So it can hold the Macrium Reflect index of Disk 0?

You don't need to reinstall Win 11 to have a local account.

Add Local User Account in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to create and add a local account as a user on the PC in Windows 11. Having different accounts on a shared PC lets multiple people use the same device, all while giving everyone their own sign-in info, plus access to their own files, browser favorites, and...

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I can see that you have your drive 0 encrypted. If you going to generate a drive image make sure you have the encrypted key saved elsewhere or make the Macrium rescue drive with the encrypted key.

Why do you want to format the drive? To do a clean install you do on an unalloacated space and if you want to restore a drive or partition from an image you also do on a target unalloacated space.

jro11 · Feb 14, 2024

I just reopened MiniTool Partition Wizard and the nonexistent drive has returned!

I was told to start a new thread and to keep it down to one subject!
The whole issue of the Bit Locker partition was brought up, and explained, at the very end of the previous thread What is a local account??? and what is it good for????
Now (and I'm not telling you, Mhz, what not to do, and I'm only being thankful for your concern) it's being reintroduced into this thread.

This is the most surrealistic experience I have ever had.

I have no idea what to do. The only thing I seem to be able to count on is being harangued.

Berton · Feb 14, 2024

To add, I have 3 Desktops with second drives, 1TB and 2TB, single partition as NTFS, and none have EFI partitions on them, not needed for booting.

what is efi system partition at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

jro11 · Feb 14, 2024

Should I:

antspants said:
You can download Minitools partition wizard free version, delete the partitions, format an create a new partion using the whole drive, unless you want to partition it again and make two partions (drives) out of it, which is also easy in Minitools, after you turn it into one partition. it would already be an NTFS drive.

I tried breaking this advice down to (Step 1) making the Primary Partition NTFS.

zbook said:
diskpart
list dis
sel dis 5
clean
cre par pri
format fs=ntfs quick
assign
exit
exit

I didn't do this because MiniTools was busy at the time.

jro11 said:
I guess I should have imaged Disk 5, the disk I was going to use to image my computer.

Oh, by the way, this post of mine was a sarcastic comment. It describes something known as "infinite regress".

jro11 · Feb 14, 2024

Berton said:
To add, I have Desktops with second drives and none have EFI partitions on them, not needed for booting.

?? All I'm trying to get to is a 1TB drive with enough available NTFS space to hold the Image of my C-drive.

Berton · Feb 14, 2024

jro11 said:
?? All I'm trying to get to is a 1TB drive with enough available NTFS space to hold the Image of my C-drive.

What I do is clean the intended Data drive by deleting all the partitions on it then creating a new Simple Volume as full size followed by formatting. If the drive was previously used as a Windows drive there usually is 1 to 5 small partitions that windows Disk Management can't delete so other methods have to be used.

jro11 · Feb 14, 2024

OK, here goes...

Berton said:
What I do is clean the intended Data drive etc

Berton · Feb 14, 2024

What I see is the two partitions need to be deleted then the full 1TB made available for creating a single partition then format as NTFS. But since the first partition and free space are quite small the drive could simply be used as-is, assign a drive letter such as D: to it. EFI doesn't come into play with a simple storage drive, have seen EFI cause booting issues with 2 drives in a computer.

jro11 · Feb 14, 2024

According to the MiniTool Partition manual,

This is not available currently:

So, what now?

Berton · Feb 14, 2024

jro11 said:
According to the MiniTool Partition manual,
View attachment 87176
This is not available currently:
View attachment 87177
So, what now?

Right-click the Disk 2 (unallocated), create a new simple volume then format it. Should get prompted to assign a drive letter.

jro11 · Feb 14, 2024

THANK YOU!! (Please excuse me for yelling.)

jro11 · Feb 14, 2024

Next...
Macrium, Imaging the C-Drive.

antspants · Feb 14, 2024

jro11 said:

How did you end up with 30.9GB of unallocated space?

jro11 · Feb 14, 2024

antspants said:
How did you end up with 30.9GB of unallocated space?

Berton said:
Right-click the Disk 2 (unallocated), create a new simple volume then format it. Should get prompted to assign a drive letter.

By the way, we're now on thread:

Macrium, Imaging the C-Drive

antspants · Feb 14, 2024

And yes, I told you what to do and kept it simple because you said you had used Minitools before. Everything is performed by right clicking on a drive and selecting what you want done. You can tell Minitools to do as many things as you like (in order of what you want it to do) then tell it to performall actions. It creates a script and runs each command you selected in the right click menu in order of your selections, after you tell it to start.

Delete/create new/format/resize … etc. GO!
Just always be certain 100% you are performing actions on the correct drive.

P.S.
In reply to your comments; I don’t mince words, I also don’t bother with people I don’t care about. So take what I say, or more to the point, the way I say things, as pure honesty with the intention of simply being direct. Again, I don’t bother with people I don’t have care for.

RD Mercer · Feb 14, 2024

Looks to me like, he wanted to keep the same partitions, and just delete or remove the information in those partitions. and install Windows 11 in the same spaces/partitions. Who knows, I’m still scratching my head over his question.

Megahertz · Feb 14, 2024

jro11 said:
I just reopened MiniTool Partition Wizard and the nonexistent drive has returned!
View attachment 87160
I was told to start a new thread and to keep it down to one subject!
The whole issue of the Bit Locker partition was brought up, and explained, at the very end of the previous thread What is a local account??? and what is it good for????
Now (and I'm not telling you, Mhz, what not to do, and I'm only being thankful for your concern) it's being reintroduced into this thread.

This is the most surrealistic experience I have ever had.

I have no idea what to do. The only thing I seem to be able to count on is being harangued.

You have to express yourself much better.
You asked:

jro11 said:
I want to install Win11 with a local account instead of a Microsoft account. I've moved everything off my main drive and onto an external drive. Before I install the local account I want to index my C drive. I have a 1Tb EFI partitioned drive available
How do I reformat that drive ("Disk 5") to...NTFS. So it can hold the Macrium Reflect index of Disk 0?

At the end you just wanted to clean all the drive partitions and create a new one formatted as NTFS so you could save your main drive image on it.
You didn't follow the instructions and ended with two partitions instead of one.