21/06/2016 Recommended UEFI­Based Disk­Partition Configurations

Recommended UEFI‐Based Disk‐Partition

Configurations
Published: October 22, 2009

Updated: June 28, 2011

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

Note

This content applies to Windows 7. For Windows 8 content, see Windows Deployment with the Windows ADK.

This topic includes recommended disk‐partition configurations for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface ﴾UEFI﴿–based
computers.

This topic also describes the default configuration, as well as configurations using a recovery partition. Other configurations
are supported as long as they fulfill the requirements described in the topic, Understanding Disk Partitions.

To create these partition structures using Windows® System Image Manager ﴾Windows SIM﴿, see Create UEFI‐based Hard‐
Disk Partitions by Using Windows SIM.

For image‐based deployment, use the DiskPart tool to create the partition structures on your destination computers. For
instructions, see Apply Images by Using ImageX.

Default Configuration
For new installations, by default, Windows Setup creates a system partition ﴾that is, an Extensible Firmware Interface System
partition, also called EFI System Partition, or ESP﴿, a Microsoft® Reserved partition ﴾MSR﴿, and a Windows partition.

Windows Setup creates a system partition when:

There is no existing system partition.

There is enough disk space to create a 100 MB partition.

Windows Setup creates the MSR when:

There is no existing MSR.

There is enough disk space to create a 128 MB partition.

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Creating the system partition takes priority over the MSR because the system partition is required to boot the computer.

When upgrading Windows from a previous version, Windows Setup does not change the arrangement of your partitions.

Recommended Configuration: System Recovery

The recommended configuration includes a Windows RE tools partition, a system partition, an MSR, a Windows partition, and
a recovery image partition.

We recommend that you add the Windows RE tools partition and system partition before you add the Windows partition,
and the partition containing the recovery image at the end. This partition order helps to keep the system and Windows RE
partitions safe during actions such as removing the recovery image partition or altering the size of the Windows partition.

To configure Windows RE tools and recovery image partitions, identify the partitions as utility partitions by setting the
partition type:

In Windows SIM, set: Microsoft‐Windows‐Setup\ DiskConfiguration\Disk\ModifyPartition\TypeID to de94bba4‐06d1‐

4d40‐a16a‐bfd50179d6ac.

In the DiskPart tool, after you have created and formatted the partition, use the command set id= de94bba4‐06d1‐
4d40‐a16a‐bfd50179d6ac.

To view drives that do not appear in Windows Explorer

By default, the system partition and utility partitions do not appear in Windows Explorer. To confirm that these partitions
exist on the destination computer, do the following:

1. Click Start, right‐click Computer, and then click Manage. The Computer Management control panel opens.

2. Click Disk Management. The list of available disks and partitions appears.

3. In the list of partitions, confirm that the system and utility partitions are present and are not assigned a drive letter.

See Also
Tasks
Sample: Apply Images on a UEFI‐based Computer by Using ImageX
Concepts
Understanding Disk Partitions
Understanding BitLocker Drive Encryption
Create UEFI‐based Hard‐Disk Partitions by Using Windows SIM

Community Additions

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Btw, the MSR partition does not show up in Windows.

Hi,

In a comment above, Matt Kingsmill said, "It would be great if the graphics were actually screen captures from Disk Management." Fyi,
the MSR partition does not show up in either the Disk Management GUI or DiskPart. I discussed that here about 1/3 the way down the
page in greater detail:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en‐us/windows/forum/windows8_1‐windows_install/we‐couldnt‐update‐the‐system‐reserved‐
partition/a5003ebb‐1f3f‐40e5‐9603‐bdcc21d6b6eb?page=2&lc=1033

Fyi, if I am not incorrect, not displaying the 128MB MSR partition in the current versions of Windows and its utilities may be because the
MSR partition is not currently used and is reserved for some future use.

In this regard, the diagrams are actually what was needed to convey the concepts correctly.

Hope that helps.

Regards . . .

Bret A. Bennett
9/28/2015

What are the partition types & filesystems for the partitions?
It would be great if the graphics were actually screen captures from Disk Management... Disk Management shows each partition's
type/filesystem ﴾FAT32 or NTFS﴿, whereas the graphics didn't. That information should also be discussed as part of the article.

Matt Kingsmill
9/3/2015

System+RE
Doesn't specify if it is possible to have first two partitions together ﴾System+RE tools﴿ as I think I read on another article...

isidroco
5/28/2014

clear and concise

iTS REALLY GREAT TO SEE AND ARTICLE ON MS that is this informative and at the same time breif or to the point rather. Chasing the
links around really started to get old. One thing, while it was contained in the article﴾graphic﴿, specific mention of using a gpt and not a
mbr was not clearly mentioned. I only found this odd due to the articles title.

tech net should start to post all articles like this, not only with graphics included but with the method that the general idea and many of
the closely related topics are tied together in to a perfectly clear explanation.

Who Is Patrick

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11/11/2011

ASSIGN LETTER="R" does not work in last script

ASSIGN LETTER="R" does not work in last script. When using WinPE v2.

Steve6375
4/19/2011

Error "Not enough storage is available to process this command"

See also Understanding Disk Partitions http://bit.ly/63nB1F

tonyso
1/14/2010

© 2016 Microsoft

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