UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

Create custom partition layouts for your hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), and other drives when deploying Windows to Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)–based devices.

If you use a custom partition layout on WindowsВ 10 for desktop editions (Home, Pro, Enterprise, and Education), update the push-button recovery script so the recovery tools can recreate the custom partition layout when needed.

Partition Requirements

When you deploy Windows to a UEFI-based device, you must format the hard drive that includes the Windows partition by using a GUID partition table (GPT) file system. Additional drives may use either the GPT or the master boot record (MBR) file format.

A GPT drive may have up to 128 partitions.

Each partition can have a maximum of 18 exabytes (

18.8 million terabytes) of space.

System partition

The device must contain a system partition. On GPT drives, this is known as the EFI System Partition, or the ESP. This partition is usually stored on the primary hard drive. The device boots to this partition.

The minimum size of this partition is 100 MB, and must be formatted using the FAT32 file format.

This partition is managed by the operating system, and should not contain any other files, including Windows RE tools.

For Advanced Format 4K Native drives (4-KB-per-sector) drives, the minimum size is 260 MB, due to a limitation of the FAT32 file format. The minimum partition size of FAT32 drives is calculated as sector size (4KB) x 65527 = 256 MB.

Advanced Format 512e drives are not affected by this limitation, because their emulated sector size is 512 bytes. 512 bytes x 65527 = 32 MB, which is less than the 100 MB minimum size for this partition.

Microsoft reserved partition (MSR)

In WindowsВ 10, the size of the MSR is 16 MB.

Add an MSR to each GPT drive to help with partition management. The MSR is a reserved partition that does not receive a partition ID. It cannot store user data.

Other utility partitions

Any other utility partitions not managed by Windows must be located before the Windows, data, and recovery image partitions. This allows end users to perform actions such as resizing the Windows partition without affecting system utilities.

Protect end users from accidentally modifying utility partitions by identifying them using a GPT attribute. This prevents these partitions from appearing in File Explorer.

To set partitions as utility partitions

• When you’re deploying Windows by using DiskPart, use the attributes volume set GPT_ATTRIBUTE_PLATFORM_REQUIRED command after you create the partition to identify the partition as a utility partition. For more information, see the MSDN topic: PARTITION_INFORMATION_GPT structure.

To verify that system and utility partitions exist

1. Click Start, right-click This PC, and then click Manage. The Computer Management window opens.
2. Click Disk Management. The list of available drives and partitions appears.
3. In the list of drives and partitions, confirm that the system and utility partitions are present and are not assigned a drive letter.

Windows partition

• The partition must have at least 20 gigabytes (GB) of drive space for 64-bit versions, or 16 GB for 32-bit versions.
• The Windows partition must be formatted using the NTFS file format.
• The Windows partition must have 16 GB of free space after the user has completed the Out Of Box Experience (OOBE) and Automatic Maintenance has completed.

Recovery tools partition

This partition must be at least 300 MB.

The Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) tools require additional free space:

• A minimum of 52 MB is required but 250 MB is recommended, to accomodate future updates, especially with custom partition layouts.

When calculating free space, note:

• The recovery image, winre.wim, is typically between 250-300MB, depending on what drivers, languages, and customizations you add.
• The file system itself can take up additional space. For example, NTFS may reserve 5-15MB or more on a 750MB partition.

This partition must use the Type ID: DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC.

The recovery tools should be in a separate partition than the Windows partition to support automatic failover and to support booting partitions encrypted with WindowsВ BitLocker Drive Encryption.

We recommend that you place this partition immediately after the Windows partition. This allows Windows to modify and recreate the partition later if future updates require a larger recovery image.

Data partitions

The recommended partition layout for WindowsВ 10 does not include data partitions. However, if data partitions are required, they should be placed after the Windows RE partition. This allows future updates to Windows RE to grow the Windows RE partition by shrinking the Windows partition.

This layout makes it more difficult for end users to remove the data partition and merge the space with the Windows partition. To do so, the Windows RE partition must be moved to the end of the unused space reclaimed from the data partition, so that the Windows partition can be extended.

WindowsВ 10 does not include functionality or utility to facilitate this process. However, manufacturers can develop and provide such a utility if PCs are shipped with data partitions.

Partition layout

The default partition layout for UEFI-based PCs is: a system partition, an MSR, a Windows partition, and a recovery tools partition.

This layout lets you use WindowsВ BitLocker Drive Encryption through both Windows and through the Windows Recovery Environment.

Sample files: configure drive partitions by using WindowsВ PE and DiskPart scripts

For image-based deployment, boot the PC to Windows PE, and then use the DiskPart tool to create the partition structures on your destination PCs.

In these DiskPart examples, the partitions are assigned the letters: System=S, Windows=W, and Recovery=R. The MSR partition does not receive a drive letter.

Change the Windows drive letter to a letter that’s near the end of the alphabet, such as W, to avoid drive letter conflicts. Do not use X, because this drive letter is reserved for Windows PE. After the device reboots, the Windows partition is assigned the letter C, and the other partitions don’t receive drive letters.

If you reboot, WindowsВ PE reassigns disk letters alphabetically, starting with the letter C, without regard to the configuration in Windows Setup. This configuration can change based on the presence of different drives, such as USB flash drives.

The following steps describe how to partition your hard drives and prepare to apply images. You can use the code in the sections that follow to complete these steps.

To partition hard drives and prepare to apply images

Copy and save the CreatePartitions-UEFI.txt file to a USB flash drive.

Use WindowsВ PE to boot the destination PC.

Clean and partition the drive. In this example, F is the letter of the USB flash drive.

1. If you use a custom partition layout on WindowsВ 10 for desktop editions, update the push-button recovery script so the recovery tools can recreate the custom partition layout when needed.

To avoid bare metal recovery boot issues due to partition size, manufacturers should allow the bare metal recovery feature’s auto generation script to create the partition used for the recovery WIM. If manufacturer’s want to use a custom DISKPART script to create partitions, the recommended minimum partition size is 990MB with a minimum of 250MB of free space.

Next steps

Use a deployment script to apply the Windows images on the newly created partitions. For more information, see Capture and Apply Windows, System, and Recovery Partitions.

How to Partition A Hard Drive in Windows 10 [2021 New]

Applies to: Make, create or manage hard drive partitions for free in Windows 8.1/8/7/XP/Vista and even Windows Server computers.

2 Reliable Ways toВ Partition a Hard Drive in Windows 10

Are you looking for a reliable solution to create a partition or make a partition in Windows 10/8/7? On this page, we collected two practical solutions to help you partition a hard drive in Windows 10 for free.В

Method 1.В Partition a Hard Drive with Disk Management

TIP: the coming solutions are also applicable to the question «how to partition C drive in Windows 10 without formatting». Just replace the target drive in the example with the C drive.

Step 1.В Right-clickВ theВ WindowsВ icon,В thenВ clickВ DiskВ Management.

Please check if you have unallocated space on your computer disk. If you don’t,В follow our guide step-by-step. If you do, you can directly jump to Step 4 and continue.

Step 2. Right-click the hard disk partition that you want to shrink, and select «Shrink Volume».

Step 3. Enter the amount of space you want to shrink in MB, then click on the «Shrink» button.

Wait for the process to complete, you’ll get an unallocatedВ volume.В

Step 4. Right-click on the unallocated space on your hard disk, and then select «New Simple Volume».

Step 5. In the New Simple Volume Wizard interface, click «Next».

Step 6. Enter the size of the volume you want to create in MB or accept the default size, and then select «Next».

Step 7.В Accept the default drive letter or choose a different letter for the partition, and then select «Next».

Step 8. Set the default file system as NTFS and click «Next» to format the volume.

Step 9.В Click «Finish» to complete creating a new partition in Windows 10.

Method 2. CreateВ PartitionВ in Windows 10 viaВ EaseUSВ Free Partition Manager

To some beginners, partition hard drive using Disk Management in Windows 10 is a bit complex. AВ more intelligent solution is to turn to third-partyВ free partition manager software likeВ EaseUS Partition Master Free for help.

Download EaseUS partition manager and apply it toВ create partitions in Windows 10 now:

EaseUS Partition Master Free

• Support creating, shrinking, extending, merging, moving partitions for free.В
• Support disk surface test, converting file system, formatting/deleting volumes.
• Support cloningВ hard drive,В migratingВ OS to HDD/SSD, partition recovery. (Advanced Features)

Steps toВ Partition Hard Drive (and Make Partitions)В in Windows 10 with EaseUS Partition Master:В

Step 1. Check for free space

To devide a disk partition into multiple ones, you must ensure that there is adequate free space to be allotted.

Step 2. Shrink a disk partition to create unallocated space

By doing so, start with the «Resize/Move» feature. Right-click on a partition with a lot free space and select «Resize/Move»

Drag either end of the partition rightwards or leftwards so you can shrink its size as the red arrow does, in order to get ample unallocated space. You can visually know how much space you’ve decreased in the «Partition size» area. Click «OK».

At last, you need to click the «Execute xx Operation» on the top menu and then «Apply» to save all the changes. Go back on the main window, there should be unallocated space appearing under the same disk of the shrinked one.

Step 3. Create a new partition on unallocated space

The last step is to turn the unallocated space into a usable partition drive with a recognized file system. Right-click on the unallocated space and choose «Create. «.

Customize the partition information by choosing a drive letter, partition label, file system (NTFS, FAT32, EXT2. )В and many more settings in the Advanced Settings. Click «OK».

Finally, cick «Apply» to confirm that you want to create a partition on the unallocated space. Repeat the whole steps to partition a hard drive in many more partitions.

Video Tutorial: More TipsВ to Partition a Hard Drive in Windows 10:

For more disk partition tips,В follow this video tutorial and useВ EaseUS free partition manager to partition a hard drive in Windows 10, including extending, shirking, creating, deleting, etc.В on your own.В

BonusВ Tips: HowВ To FormatВ Partition (Volume) in Windows 10

If you need to format an existing partition or changeВ the volume format to a new file system, try the following steps:В

Step 1. Press Windows + R keys to open the Run box, typeВ diskmgmt.msc, and hit Enter.

Step 2. Right-click the volume that you want to format, and then select «Format».

Step 3. To format the volume with the default settings (as NTFS), in the Format dialog box, select «OK», and then select «OK» again.

Advantages of Disk Partition in Windows 10

To most Windows users, only very few of them know the necessity and advantages of makingВ disk partitions in Windows 10/8/7. Check out the advantages of partition a hard drive on your computer.В

Advantages of Partition a Hard Drive vs. Disadvantages of Not PartitionВ Hard Drive

Advantages	Disadvantages
ManageВ data in a clean and logical way: create disk partitions as OS partition, personal data volume, and media drive, etc. GuaranteeВ data safety: isolate system files from personal data, protect dataВ fromВ OS crashingВ or system failure error.В	Endanger data easily with only one drive due toВ OS failure or reinstallation, virus infection error.В Way too complex to find and manage files with everything saved inВ one drive.

How Many Partitions Can You Make On a Hard Drive:В

• On MBR disk, you can create maximumly 4 partitions in total — 3 primary partitions + 1 extended partition, or 4 primary partitions.
• On GPT disk, you can create as many partitions withВ no limitation for the number of partitions.
• For MBR users who wish to make five partitions or more, you need to convert MBR to GPT.В

Go andВ Partition Hard Drive in Windows 10, MakeВ Use Of Your Drive NowВ

On this page, we discussedВ how to partition a hard drive in Windows 10. Based on the needs, we introduced two commonly used disk partitioning tools for Windows 10 users, including Windows Disk Management and EaseUS Partition Master Free.

As for beginners, free partition manager software — EaseUS Partition Master Free Edition is more flexible and advisable for partitioning hard drive in Windows 10/8/7.

In the end, we also talked about the necessity of disk partition. WeВ suggest that all of you Windows users take steps to make partitions on your computer so as to manage your OS data, personal documents, and other programs in a safe and sound manner.В В