Windows Install advise "remove all other drives" but what if other drives are NVMe installed in motherboard?

Title of the thread is my question.

My personal approach has been to run MiniTool Partition Wizard to make sure I know about partition letters and sizes before I do a Windows fresh install. What do others do?

i normally leave the internal drives in place and disconnect external drives before a fresh install.
just make sure when installing and formatting that it is the correct drive.

best of luck, Steve ..

It's better to pay attention to Disk # like Disk 0, Disk 1, Disk 2, etc. Those are hardware labeling values that the installer uses. That is why it is advisable for many to disconnect all disks except for the one installing the OS to to avoid confusion. If one is experienced it can be somewhat easier to figure out.

The advice to remove other drives is not mandatory. It simply can make it easier to identify the correct for those uncomfortable with making the right choices.

As for NVMe drives - they can also be removed rather easily.

I have had Windows setup put one of the partitions on another drive. Not the NTFS Windows one, but I can’t remember which partition it was.

Luckily, every UEFI firmware I have lets me hide the other drives, so I do that before installing now. Don’t even have to crack open the case.

I personally disconnect all drives if I'm doing a clean install. It's a pain to do as there are 8 drives to disconnect, but as it's my media system there's stuff on there that I would never be able to get again.

If i'm working on a clients machine I'll disconnect their other drives if any other's are installed. Have been doing that for over 20 years.

I had a problem when I installed Windows afresh, Windows installed the bootloader in another partition, in fact on a different data hard drive. I might have made a mistake or it just happened. Now, I use Rufus and install on the drive (connected externally, through cable) as a Windows-to-go device, with instructions not to touch internal devices. Later, when all drivers etc are installed I will install this SSD inside the case.

x509 said:

My personal approach has been to run MiniTool Partition Wizard to make sure I know about partition letters and sizes before I do a Windows fresh install. What do others do?

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When I can't disconnect/remove all other drives, I use a 3rd party program (like Minitool or AOMEI Partition Assistant) to un-initialise the secondary drive (like when 2 Nvme drives are installed and not readily accessible), noting that all data on this drive will be lost ... so back up first

The reason behind this is historic, and has somewhat diminished in latter version of Windows. But ....

When Windows 7 was released the installation process was somewhat haphazard. I used the analogy of a puppy in the park, who would run around and leave its mark on any tree it could find. Consequently, when Windows 7 was installed, it would often find active connected drives and plonk systems files on those drives, outside the normal C:\ drive target. Why? Who knows, it just happened

Subsequently, if any of those drives were removed, the system failed

Also, Windows 7 used to like filling up a drive of any sort. After installation, if the user tried to shrink the partition on a drive, Windows would not allow it to be shrunk beyond a certain location (address).

Example (and I'm just making these figures up for demonstration purposes) : Installation drive 1TB. Windows 7 installed takes up 20GB, so in theory, to create an extra partition, the user should be able to shrink the new system partition down to, say, 50GG to create a new partition. However, because of Windows 7 propensity to spread, sometimes. the user was lucky to be able to shrink the 1TB drive beyond halfway, simply because of where W7 installation process had placed unmoveable system files.

A simple trick to beat this was to create only a 40GB active empty partition in which to store the W7 installation. This would "corral" W7 into the only available active space, at the time of installation

Even though it's now not required, old habits die hard - I disconnect all drives, un-initialise those that can't, and only allow an empty initialised partition of 60GB (now min, required for W11) for installation.

EDIT
The above refers to extra drives. The same can happen even if other drives have been removed, but the target installation drive has extra active partitions. Any changes to those partitions could render the system unusable

Don't you guys label your drives and partitions? I have all my partitions (and disks) labeled so it takes away the guess work; even when I am doing an install I preformat the target drive.

Kind regards,

tecknot

I ALWAYS remove all other drives, nvme or not. OR do what @pseymour said, disable all extra drives in uefi bios. We have seen time and time again that the bootloader gets installed on the wrong drive during install. I had rather be safe than sorry. Doing either is certainly easier than some of the suggestions that's been thrown at you.

tecknot said:

Don't you guys label your drives and partitions? I have all my partitions (and disks) labeled so it takes away the guess work; even when I am doing an install I preformat the target drive.

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Nothing to do with identifying drives. No amount of precaution is gonna work if Windows decides to do its own thing with some system files onto other active drives and partitions, even if the user has targeted the correct installation drive.

idgat said:

Nothing to do with identifying drives. No amount of precaution is gonna work if Windows decides to do its own thing with some system files onto other active drives and partitions, even if the user has targeted the correct installation drive.

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Hi idgat,

Never had a problem with the system files or the bootloader being installed on the wrong drive. Maybe I've been lucky.

Kind regards,

tecknot

tecknot said:

Never had a problem with the system files or the bootloader being installed on the wrong drive

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Are you saying it has never happened, or saying that even if it had, you've had no problems? That's maybe because the offending drive has remained in situ. In which case, all will stay good.

It's when the unfamiliar or unsuspecting user re/moves that alternate drive and then doesn't have a clue why the system fails, posts in a forum, and then spends the next week running recommended troubleshooting/identification software, after which the only option is a clean installed. The stuff that forums are made of ....

I dont usually use windows setup.exe

From what I recall it will use an existing system partition if it finds one.

Never had a problem with the system files or the bootloader being installed on the wrong drive. Maybe I've been lucky.

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It is not luck . If there are other disks without a system partition you shouldnt have any issues

un-initialise the secondary drive (like when 2 Nvme drives are installed and not readily accessible), noting that all data on this drive will be lost ... so back up first

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If you must use windows setup.exe and you can't remove another disk that has a system partition, it is much less hassle to just delete the existing system partition before proceeding with the installation. Can recreate it easily afterwards if desired.

I haven't been able to find a reference, but I believe that the Windows installer won't put anything on other than the target drive if the other drives haven't been used as boot drives.

On a GPT disk, Windows boots from the EFI system partition.

If any disk has an EFI system partition from a previous Windows installation, then Windows Setup will not create a new EFI system partition.

In a dual boot installation, both operating systems use the same EFI system partition.