windows 10 to windows 11 partitions question

I am upgrading a computer from windows 10 to 11. On this particular computer there are 5 partitions. Why is that? I have never seen this many partitions on a windows 10 computer. Should I just install on the windows partition? Should I delete all the partitions? Something else? Disk 0 is the computer. Disk 1 is my flash drive.




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Delete all partitions you don't use and install Windows 11 on unallocated space.

FreeBooter said:

Delete all partitions you don't use and install Windows 11 on unallocated space.

Click to expand...

How do I look at what is on the partitions? None of them were viewable in explorer?

cokedude said:

I am upgrading a computer from windows 10 to 11. On this particular computer there are 5 partitions. Why is that? I have never seen this many partitions on a windows 10 computer. Should I just install on the windows partition? Should I delete all the partitions? Something else? Disk 0 is the computer. Disk 1 is my flash drive.

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To reply to your question, by default in Windows 10 22H2 and Windows 11 the hard disk follows the GPT partition scheme which supports larger than 2TB disks and also has additional small system partitions. The old MBR partition scheme only had a single system partition but it is limited to 2TB. Every hard disk larger than 2TB is configured in GPT partition scheme by default so the owner can create a single NTFS partition covering the whole disk. If it was MBR he would have to create two or more partitions due to the 2GB limit.

What do you want to do?

Option 1: Wipe all your data and clean install Windows 11. In this case you have to click on each one partition and delete it until the whole disk is unallocated. Then click Next to start installing Windows 11. Setup will create the appropriate partitions for you with the rest space taken by the Windows partitions.

Option 2: Install Windows 11 on the Windows partition (larger) without formatting so you can then copy your data. Setup will warn you that there is already a Windows installation and it will be copied to folder C:\Windows.old before installing Windows 11 again. That's exactly what we want. After installation you can copy your data from C:\Windows.old\Users\yourusername folder. You can even copy application data from the C:\Windows.old\Program Files or C:\Windows.old\Program Files (x86) and C:\Windows.old\ProgramData folders. In fact if you copy all the Mozilla folder from C:\Windows.old to their respective folders in the new Windows 11 installation and then install Firefox you have all your settings, bookmarks, themes, add-ons. Not sure if you have your passwords as well.

Option 3: Upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11. In that case you must load Windows 11 and run Setup from there. Make sure you have the same language ISO as your Windows 10 otherwise it won't let you keep both your data and apps.

cokedude said:

How do I look at what is on the partitions? None of them were viewable in explorer?

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Press SHIFT+F10 to open a Command Prompt window. Type explorer and press ENTER to load File Explorer and browse the partitions. All you care about is the Windows partition (larger) where your files are, not the small system partitions.

What you're showing is not an "upgrade" but a clean install that will delete all data. Is that what you want, or do you really want to upgrade and keep the user's data?

Secret Squirrel said:

What you're showing is not an "upgrade" but a clean install that will delete all data. Is that what you want, or do you really want to upgrade and keep the user's data?

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To upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 keeping all your data and apps see Option 3 on my first post.

PS: If your laptop doesn't meet the official system requirements (8th generation Intel Core-i3 or higher or 2nd generation AMD Ryzen or higher CPU, 4GB RAM, 64GB hard disk space, TMP 2.0 enabled, Secure Boot present (doesn't have to be enabled), UEFI boot mode, WDDM 3.0 or newer graphics drivers), then you have to bypass compatibility check. To install latest Windows 11 25H2 or 26H2 (coming soon) you need a CPU with SSE4.2 instructions support. This is at least 1st generation Intel Core-i3 and equivalent AMD. Contemporary Intel Pentium or Atom CPUs might not support SSE4.2 instructions, verify with CPU-Z utility. If your CPU doesn't support SSE4.2, you can either stay in Windows 10 or upgrade to Windows 11 23H2. If it was my choice I would upgrade to Windows 11 23H2 to have as modern version of Windows as possible for compatibility reasons with current hardware and applications/games.

First of all download the Windows 11 ISO. For an unsupported computer the upgrade must be done offline, so disconnect from the internet. Mount the ISO (aka Open with -> File Explorer) and see which drive letter the virtual drive takes, say D. To bypass compatibility press WIN+R to open a Run box and execute this command: D:\setup /product server /compat ignorewarning /migratedrivers all The first parameter fools Setup it is going to install a Server version of Windows for which never checks compatibility. The second parameter ignores minor warnings without stopping the installation and the third parameter forces Setup to leave your perfectly working drivers alone and don't try to replace them. It cannot replace them anyway since you are disconnected from the internet but I would add the parameter to make sure it won't replace any driver from the internal database.

cokedude said:

How do I look at what is on the partitions? None of them were viewable in explorer?

Click to expand...

Minitool Partition Wizard and/or AOMEI Partition Assistant (both freeware versions). Even under Windows 10 that drive's partitions looks like a dog's breakfast, and you're liable to exacerbate problems if you try to do an in situ upgrade

So most certainly, continue with the clean install option you're doing (which is NOT an UPGRADE of Windows 10)

Just make sure you've backed up all your personal data, and you know all software licenses and logon/passwords because the clean install is just that, a clean blank drive on which to install Windows 11

How do I look at what is on the partitions? None of them were viewable in explorer?

Click to expand...

If they haven't got drive letters they won't show in explorer

diskgenius free edition. Under the FILES tab. It also allows access including copying.



In this example ESP(0) is selected in the left pane

click the FILES tab

rt click any file/folder to get the context menu

The image displays 5 partitions on disk 0.

The extra partition #5 is the laptop's factory recovery partition.



Do you want to upgrade or clean install?

idgat said:

Minitool Partition Wizard and/or AOMEI Partition Assistant (both freeware versions). Even under Windows 10 that drive's partitions looks like a dog's breakfast, and you're liable to exacerbate problems if you try to do an in situ upgrade

So most certainly, continue with the clean install option you're doing (which is NOT an UPGRADE of Windows 10)

Just make sure you've backed up all your personal data, and you know all software licenses and logon/passwords because the clean install is just that, a clean blank drive on which to install Windows 11

Click to expand...

Like I have said a million times in this Forum a clean installation is not the best option for everyone. For a computer with up to 10 applications, such as a typical work PC, a clean installation would take 2-3 hours to reinstall, reconfigure all apps and restore your backup. But for a typical home PC with tons of data to backup/restore and tens of applications and games to reinstall and reconfigure it can take a couple of days, assuming you have all the installers and a lot of free time. For persons with limited free time it can easily take a week. Why go through all this trouble if you have a perfectly working Windows 10 computer and all you want is upgrade to Windows 11? Doing an upgrade will take less than 2-3 hours even on an old computer with limited RAM. Clean installation is not Panacea that's why I hesitate to suggest it without knowing the target system. You remind me of teenagers that when they have any issue they just format and reinstall Windows without proper troubleshooting. And after doing some formats they brag that they are "experienced" computer technicians. Real experience is to troubleshoot and learn, not just give up and format.