Multiple EFI partitions on c drive

paulr1

New Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2023
Hi All

Been trying to do a dual boot with windows 11 & 10 on my c drive. It didnt work, windows 10 failing to create a boot setup and i`m left with lots of small 100MB partitions on my c drive. Any idea which i can remove, i`m trying to extend my C to use that unallocated 487gb of space.
THanks alot

1682699675720.png

If i explorer the first one after the C partition it has this
1682699717036.png

Then the next
1682699743686.png

Next
1682699766519.png

1682699807479.png
 
Hello!

It sounds like you may have encountered a common issue with dual booting Windows 11 and Windows 10. When you install Windows 11 onto a system that already has Windows 10 installed, the process creates a new EFI system partition (ESP) for the new installation, rather than using the existing ESP.

In order to remove the extra EFI partitions and reclaim the space they occupy, you will need to first determine which partition is the active boot partition. To do this, you can open an elevated command prompt and run the command "diskpart". Then, enter the command "list disk" to view a list of all disks attached to the system. Select the disk that contains the extra EFI partition by running the command "select disk [disk number]". Finally, run the command "list partition" to display a list of all partitions on the selected disk. You should see several partitions with sizes ranging from 100MB to 500MB; the active boot partition will typically be the smallest partition with a "System" label.

Once you have determined which partition is the active boot partition, you should avoid deleting it or you'll render your system unbootable. Instead, you can try deleting the unused EFI partitions in a cautious manner. To delete a partition, run the command "select partition [partition number]" and then "delete partition". Note that any data on the deleted partition will be lost.

In general, it is recommended to back up important data and make a system image before proceeding with any changes to the partitions on your disk. Additionally, be sure to make a note of the partition numbers and labels of the partitions you are deleting, in case you need to restore them later.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.
 
you need to start with Windows 10 first i.e, add 11 later... at this point i would recover the space by workinging from right to left until the 'unallocated' space is all together on the right then at that point i would stop and reevaluate why you want a dual boot because your system recovery options are pretty worthless now

a bit late now but the safe way to experiment with booting systems is to remove your harddrive frist and replace it with a new fresh drive... that way your backup drive goes in a drawer and you can just format the new drive when you make these mistakes

again dual boot Windows = the low system first so Windows 10 then Windows 11 because Microsoft doesn't like installing older systems and will J up if it detects a newer one already installed and to be blunt W11 isn't a great option yet... its just not ready
 
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