Can I install windows with 4KiB+64B LBAF on nvme?

Question

I tried to install Windows in LBA format 4KiB+64B using nvme as the boot drive, but I encountered several errors. It worked fine when installing with 4KiB and 512B, but why doesn't it work with 4KiB and 512B? Is Windows originally set to not allow installation with 4KiB + 64B LBAF? I tried it with Samsung nvme drives that support 4KiB+64B LBAF.

- Unallocated space and abnormal capacity indication
- An error message occurs when attempting to delete Partitions 1, 2, and 3, which appear to be normal.
- When rebooting after attempting to delete, Free space/Total size is displayed as 0.0 MB and installation is not possible.
- Even if I try to empty it by init_ns to 4kb+64 in Linux and try to install again, Free space/Total size is displayed as 0.0MB.

Answer 1

Hello    Lizzardi，

Thank you for your reply.

Answer your questions：

1.Windows Server 2022 supports NVMe drives and the logical sector size supported by Windows Server 2022 for NVMe drives is the same as Windows 10, which is 4KiB+512B.

2. As of now, there is no official information that Windows supports installation with 4KiB+64B LBAF on NVMe drives. The NVMe specification defines that the logical sector size must be a power of 2, with a minimum size of 512B. Therefore, it is unlikely that Windows will support 4KiB+64B LBAF on NVMe drives in the future. However, it is possible that manufacturers may release firmware updates or provide specific instructions to enable this feature on their specific NVMe drive models.

Best Regards,

Haijian Shan

Answer 2

Hello  Lizzardi，

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community forum.

For the Windows operating system, the logical sector size it supports depends on the operating system version and file system type. In Windows XP and older versions, the logical sector size is 512B. In Windows Vista and newer versions, the logical sector size is 4KiB. For file system types, both FAT32 and NTFS file systems support a 4KiB logical sector size.

For NVMe drives, the logical sector size supported by Windows also depends on the operating system version and drive type. In Windows 7 and older versions, Windows does not support NVMe drives. In Windows 8 and newer versions, Windows supports NVMe drives and supports a 4KiB logical sector size. For the logical sector size of NVMe drives, the NVMe specification defines that the logical sector size must be a power of 2, with a minimum size of 512B.

Therefore, for the Windows operating system and NVMe drives, the supported logical sector size depends on the operating system version and drive type. However, for Windows 10, it does not support a logical sector size of 4KiB+64B, but supports a logical sector size of 4KiB+512B for NVMe drives.

If you want to install windows with 4KiB+64B LBAF on nvme, you may need to contact the manufacturer of your NVMe drive for further assistance. They may be able to provide additional guidance on how to install Windows with a 4KiB+64B LBAF on their specific drive model.

I hope the information above is helpful.

If you have any question or concern, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,

Haijian Shan

Answer 3

Hello, Haijan Shan. Thanks for the detailed answer. It helped me a lot.

I have two more questions.

1. I tried installing Windows 2022 server, is it supported the same as Windows 10 version?
2. According to the answer, there is currently no version that supports windows install with 4KiB+64B LBAF on nvme?

I would appreciate it if you could let me know.

Regards,

Lizzardi