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How to Properly Partition Drive for Fresh Installation of Windows 10?

Anonymous
2023-01-22T22:46:34+00:00

Hello.

Last week, I experienced a catastrophic issue with my old HDD, which has led to it being perpetually stuck in a repair loop. I had already tried everything for the HDD, reaching out to customer support from Microsoft, having already exhausted options from Recover from System Image to Uninstall Windows Updates to trying to wipe it and reinstall, but to no luck, constant errors throughout the process. The HDD is a dead end. Due to this, I have just acquired a 1TB Samsung 870 EVO SSD in an attempt to resituate my computer.

What I am having to do right now to access these forums is a Windows installation on an USB created from Rufus off of another PC. I have another USB loaded with the files needed to load windows onto it, but I had experienced an issue, saying that my drive needed to be formatted to FAT32 (it was formatted as NTFS). So, I reinitialized it and I am creating partitions for the drive right now through Computer Management. From what I understand, exFAT is the more modern version of the FAT line and it supports previous versions such as FAT32.

My question here is: "How do I properly partition this SSD in order to meet any requirements and optimize load times and data storage." It has about 931.5 GB of actually available space to partition. So far, I have created a 64.0GB (65536MB) exFAT partition labeled "OS Volume" (see image) that I intend to solely use to put the Windows 10 media on. Was this the right method? Is this the right size? What suggestions are there for doing this manually?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Igor Leyko 110.6K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-01-23T00:26:31+00:00

    You have 530 MB partition next to C: disk so there is no space for extending. You may use some third-party tools to move this partition or you may re-install Windows to an empty drive.

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  1. Igor Leyko 110.6K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-01-23T00:07:16+00:00

    You may delete the large partition (I suppose you do not have any files on it yet) and extend your C: partition. I recommend having at least 200 GB or even more if you are going to install a large programs. Then you may re-create D: disk on unallocated space.

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  2. Igor Leyko 110.6K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2023-01-22T23:28:55+00:00

    Hi Forsaké,

    My name is Igor, it's a pleasure for me to help others and I'll do all my best to help you.

    FAT32 is needed for GPT initialized drive and it cannot be replaced with exFAT partition. Windows 10 can be installed nether to FAT32 nor to exFAT partition.

    If you have no special requirements to partitioning, it would be better to install Windows 10 to a clean unpartitioned drive, installer will create all partitions itself.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-01-22T23:59:57+00:00

    Hello, Igor

    Thank you, I had realized my mistake afterword, having found a tutorial that essentially told me that I could just leave it unpartitioned and it'll do its own thing. Now I have kind of ran into another issue, following the tutorial and some other guides, I was recommended giving windows a 60-100GB partition to boot from. I accidently created another drive with the rest of the space, leaving my C: drive with only 80GB. I just figured that the OS would just be its own thing, but apparently not.

    Is there a way I can repartition my C: drive to have all of the space without losing all of the stuff I have already set up? All the rest of the space is on another B: drive. Should I format this B: drive and use it to install programs in?

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