Questions about Rufus and Windowa 11 installer partitions

Windows 11 User · Aug 19, 2024

hsehestedt said:
I am NOT saying that you are wrong, but merely out of curiosity, could you do this please?

Open diskpart

Select the OS disk (select disk 0). Note that your OS may not be on disk zero.

list partition

I suspect that you will see more than the two partitions. Disk management does not show all partitions.

If it doesn't show all partitions, is it possible it created more than 4 partitions, let alone more than 2?

Bree · Aug 19, 2024

Windows 11 User said:
If it doesn't show all partitions, is it possible it created more than 4 partitions, let alone more than 2?

To put this in context, a standard install of Windows 11 creates a GPT disk with four partitions but only three are visible in Disk Management, these are a 100MB EFI Fat32 partition, the Windows C: partition, and an NTFS formatted Recovery partition. This could be reduced to two. If the recovery environment is turned off it's safe to delete the Recovery Partition.

The extra 'hidden' partition is a 16MB unformated Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition, as it plays no part in the operation of Windows it's not shown in Disk Management. Other partition managers such as MiniTool Partition Wizard will show it.

Microsoft Reserved Partition - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Windows 11 User · Aug 19, 2024

Bree said:
To put this in context, a standard install of Windows 11 creates a GPT disk with four partitions but only three are visible in Disk Management, these are a 100MB EFI Fat32 partition, the Windows C: partition, and an NTFS formatted Recovery partition. This could be reduced to two. If the recovery environment is turned off it's safe to delete the Recovery Partition.

The extra 'hidden' partition is a 16MB unformated Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition, as it plays no part in the operation of Windows it's not shown in Disk Management. Other partition managers such as MiniTool Partition Wizard will show it.

Microsoft Reserved Partition - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

View attachment 105466

Yes, in my install only 3 partitions appear in Disk Management. What do you mean by saying it could be reduced to 2 partitions, all 4 partitions or the 3 visible ones in Disk Management?

What about @TechnoMage2021 said about only having 2 partitions?

Ghot · Aug 19, 2024

You "must" have the Windows partition and the EFI partition to be able to boot into Windows.

The MSR and Recovery partitions, aren't needed to boot into Windows.

Without both of the RED dot partitions... Windows will not boot.

Most people keep the Recovery partition, as well as both the RED dot partitions.

Minitool Partition Wizard free, will show ALL the partitions on your drive.

Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

As an all-in-one free partition manager and disk manager software, MiniTool Partition Wizard Free helps manage disk space safely on Windows 11/10/8/7.

www.partitionwizard.com

Windows 11 User · Aug 19, 2024

Ghot said:
You "must" have the Windows partition and the EFI partition to be able to boot into Windows.

The MSR and Recovery partitions, aren't needed to boot into Windows.

Without the two RED dot partitions... Windows will not boot.

View attachment 105475

How will it boot without the Windows partition?

Ghot · Aug 19, 2024

Windows 11 User said:
How will it boot without the Windows partition?

LOL

Look at the pic in post #44. READ post #44. This is the third time I've answered this question, in this topic.

I know you want to "understand" everything right now. But try this...
...just "believe" what we're telling you, and understand it later.

Maybe this will be easier... here's the four default "partitions" on your Windows "drive".
The TWO "partitions" in BOLD and underlined and in RED, are the bare minimum needed to boot into Windows 11.

EFI ------------------------ MSR ---------------------- WINDOWS ------------------- Recovery

When we talk about these things we use the terms "partitions" and "drives".

Drive = the physical hardware we put data on.

Partition = a man made divider on a drive.

Windows 11 User · Aug 19, 2024

Ghot said:
LOL

Look at the pic in post #44. READ post #44. This is the third time I've answered this question, in this topic.

I know you want to "understand" everything right now. But try this...
...just "believe" what we're telling you, and understand it later.

LOL You're right, I wasn't paying attention.

Ghot · Aug 19, 2024

Windows 11 User said:
LOL You're right, I wasn't paying attention.

It's OK... the massive changes in Windows 10 and Windows 11 frustrated all of us.

Windows 11 User · Aug 19, 2024

Ghot said:
It's OK... the massive changes in Windows 10 and Windows 11 frustrated all of us.

That doesn't justify everything because I have the habit of making multiple questions and then I forgot I was already answered some of them.

Ghot · Aug 19, 2024

Windows 11 User said:
That doesn't justify everything because I have rhe habit of making multiple questions and then I forgot I was already answered some of them.

That's OK...

TM21 · Aug 19, 2024

Disk Management? What;'s that? Something else I don't use, I guess.

This is just an example, of what happens when you tie yourself to Microsoft's apron strings. You get tunnel vision, and....
You have no idea what's going on in the rest of the world. :lmao:

It took some time, and effort, but I really wanted to show Y'all what I've been trying to tell you, and being belittled for my effort.
I rebooted my PC to my "MiniTool Partition Manager" on Flash Drive, and had it display my hard drives. And then, with my Phone camera, I took the following picture.

It didn't come out as clear as I would have liked, but the top drive on this display in the drive I'm on right now. TWO Partitions, that's all.

While I was there, I did split my C: partition into TWO parts, to create a "Storage" partition. (not shown here).
Disk #1 Not Shown, is my Windows 10/Pro/32 drive, also just two partitions. And, disk #4 is my old Windows 11 22H2 drive, again, with just two partitions. Disk #5 in this photo, is the MiniTool Flash Drive. While, disk #3, is my 1TB Spinner, Backup Drive.

So on this one PC, I have three SSD's, one HD and one DVD drive. I've still got one SATA port open for another drive. And, I'll fill that up, soon.

My entire PC is all MBR/Bios and NO UEFI. It's motherboard is 12 years old.

I hope that settles the argument about the number of partitions that the Windows Installer will make.

Cheers Mates!

TM

Windows 11 User · Aug 26, 2024

Ghot said:
That's OK...

View attachment 105486

TechnoMage2021 said:
Disk Management? What;'s that? Something else I don't use, I guess.

This is just an example, of what happens when you tie yourself to Microsoft's apron strings. You get tunnel vision, and....
You have no idea what's going on in the rest of the world.

It took some time, and effort, but I really wanted to show Y'all what I've been trying to tell you, and being belittled for my effort.
I rebooted my PC to my "MiniTool Partition Manager" on Flash Drive, and had it display my hard drives. And then, with my Phone camera, I took the following picture.

View attachment 105489
It didn't come out as clear as I would have liked, but the top drive on this display in the drive I'm on right now. TWO Partitions, that's all.

While I was there, I did split my C: partition into TWO parts, to create a "Storage" partition. (not shown here).
Disk #1 Not Shown, is my Windows 10/Pro/32 drive, also just two partitions. And, disk #4 is my old Windows 11 22H2 drive, again, with just two partitions. Disk #5 in this photo, is the MiniTool Flash Drive. While, disk #3, is my 1TB Spinner, Backup Drive.

So on this one PC, I have three SSD's, one HD and one DVD drive. I've still got one SATA port open for another drive. And, I'll fill that up, soon.

My entire PC is all MBR/Bios and NO UEFI. It's motherboard is 12 years old.

I hope that settles the argument about the number of partitions that the Windows Installer will make.

Cheers Mates!

TM

The USB FAT partition created by Rufus disappeared from File Explorer. Odd. I can assign a letter to it in Disk Management and if I do so it will appear in it but there are two LG folders created in the FAT partition when connecting the USB device to two LG OLED TVs I can't delete (only the folders with the same name on the NTFS partition that always appears in File Explorer that are also created when connecting the USB device to the same TVs). Do I have to delete/format the FAT partition to be able to delete both folders on it? Also, I can't delete the EFI folder and the README file in this partition too (although I don't want to do it).

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