How to handle EFI system partition in middle of HDD

Naith123 · December 8, 2019

As per disk 1, I have one 3 partition on the drive. One with media and downloads, a random EFI system parition (I tihnk left over from my ubuntu install) and a former 1tb partition for ubunutu) Any ideas on how I can reclaim the space?

Attempting to create a new simple volume gives the following error.

Any ideas why? I have tried creating an even smaller partion of 250gb but that gives the same error. I backed up everything on D so happy to wipe it if needs be.

Please help.

Naith123 · December 8, 2019

Ok after a bit of a look in the morning, for some reason that 1tb does not appear at all in diskpart. Is the drive busted somehow?

Naith123 · December 8, 2019

Fixed the issue, apparently the partition is untouchable while the drive is in dynamic mode and not basic mode. Changing it fixed the issue.

agent_x007 · December 8, 2019

Well this partition is hidden, so you need to "un-hide" it from DISKPART, and then assign a letter to it.
Just so you know : EFI partition is a place for boot files to Windows.
So... if you delete it (without placing boot files elsewere), or unplug the drive that has it - you risk your Windows not booting on the next restart.

Naith123 · December 8, 2019

Just now, agent_x007 said:

Well this partition is hidden, so you need to "un-hide" it from DISKPART, and then assign a letter.
Just so you know : EFI partition is a place for boot files to Windows.
So... if you delete it (without placing boot files elsewere), or unplug the drive that has it - you risk your Windows not booting on the next restart.

Also, you need to make that drive into GPT (instead of MBR), if you want to use full 3TB of it.

Am pretty certain that drive doesn't have the boot files for Windows as it was added about 3 years after the windows install. Have removed it now and gone through a few restart to check everything is in order.