Windows 10/11 installation problem: "The partitions on the disk selected for installation are not in the recommended order. For additional information about installing to GPT disks...."
Symptoms:
You are doing a fresh install, from a Windows 10/11 ISO image, or are installing Windows to an existing hard disk that had a previously-installed operating system.
You have selected the (largest) available partition to install, likely the same partition Windows 7, or 10 was installed. Other partitions, such as an ESP partition, are ordered earlier in the list.
2021.11: Windows 11 Upgrade
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Author's notes:
Do not use these steps when upgrading (an in-place upgrade) from Windows 10 to Windows 11.
Backup all data before doing these steps.
Solution 1
(not recommended, but easy)
A. During the installation, select the previous Windows 7/8 partition and ignore the error. Windows will install properly, even with the error. However, this is not recommended, leaving old partitions and wasting disk space.
Solution 2 (recommended)
Older versions of Windows included a basic partition utility, exposed during the installation steps. With this utility you could delete partitions and consolidate the disk, as well as other functions. But with Windows 10/11, Microsoft chose to hide the utility - right at the time you needed it most.
Fortunately, there is an easy, albeit geeky solution. A hidden DOS utility can delete the disk's partitions during Windows 10/11 Setup.
O
bvious caution: This will erase all partitions, destroying all data, files and partitions.
1. Start the Windows 10/11 install ("Install Now").
Typically choose "I do not have a product key" (which is the normal choice for all Windows 10 non-Enterprise upgrades/installs).
After accepting the license agreement, choose "
Advanced Installation".
2. At the Windows 10/11 "Setup Partition Screen" (where it shows the C: drive),
Press
Shift-F10.
This opens a DOS prompt
Some laptops use: fn-Shift-F10 (function)
3. Type this command: "
diskpart" (no quotes)
4. Type "
List Disk".
Note which disk is your largest.
This is likely the one where your existing operating system is installed. For most, DISK 0 is the disk you care about.
If you have SD card slots, they will also show in the list; ignore them.
DVD drives may appear as "no media" or with a size (4G?); also ignore.
5. Type "
Select Disk=0" to activate your disk.
6. Type "
List Partition" (singular, not "partition
s")
-- You could compare the following list with the Windows Setup screen and my disk looks like this illustration. In this case, some of the partitions were from Windows 8. When Windows 10 upgraded, it adds its own new partitions rather than risk damaging the older ones. The space occupied by these is negligible but would be wasted:
7. Type "Clean"
One command does it all. There is no warning. It will run for a few seconds.
Results: "DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk."
8. Type "List Partition" (singular)
- expected results: "There are no partitions on this disk to show"
9. Type "exit", closing DiskPart
10. Type "exit", closing the command window
This returns to the already-in-progress Windows 10 setup, where the old partitions still show.
Continue with these steps:
11. Click "Refresh"
-Note: Drive 0 shows all as "un-allocated space" - all on one partition.
12. Click "*new", then "Apply," accepting the recommended disk size.
(Special note: If you are installing a new SSD drive *and* are cloning an existing Windows disk, look at this article, which recommends holding back 10% of the disk partition for an Over Provision partition. See this keyliner article: Crucial 500GB MX300 Enable Over Provision Partition. If you are re-installing Windows from scratch, continue with this article.)
13. At the prompt, "To ensure Windows features work correctly, Windows might create additional partitions." Click OK
Continue with your Windows install
Benefits of the recommended solution
By cleaning the drive, all partitions are cleared, freeing the space. Vendor recovery images that will never be used, prior versions of Windows utility partitions (now obsolete), and other vendor utilities are all combined into the main drive. The gained disk space results in a simpler partition table with less overhead. As Windows installs, it will build its own partitions, and these will be in the recommended order for all eternity.
Drawback to the recommended solution
Most PC's come with a hidden partition containing an emergency recovery image, which can restore the PC to a factory image. The steps above destroy that partition. My experience is these partitions seldom work, or you need to spin them to a DVD before using. Few bothered.
In Windows 10 and 11, recovery disks are not useful. Instead, download Microsoft's Windows installation ISO (The Windows "Media Creation Tool" - you are probably running that install right now). The rebuild will work because the PC has already registered with Microsoft and it will automatically recover and re-license itself.
Once rebuilt, return to your motherboard vendor's support page (Dell, Lenovo, Asus, etc.) and download the most current drivers. This is better than an already obsolete recovery partition. In other words, you no longer need HP's or Dell's recovery disk.
-end
During your original Windows Install, before attempting these steps: If you get a 0x000000 error, it means you trashed your UEFI disk-encryption.
To
recover, I went into the motherboards BIOS. In the BIOS, use a menu/feature to wipe the drive and
start over. Not all BIOSs have this ability.
On a second machine, I had the chance to play with this
again. This time I let Windows do an "in-place" upgrade -- which is
not a clean install. Once Windows 11 installed, I then used "Reset this
PC" to do a fresh re-install. This preserved the UEFI, but meant
installing Windows 11 twice, once for the in-place upgrade and a second
for the clean-install. This extra step only took a few extra minutes.
During
the second install, and as expected, I was prompted: "A configuration
change was requested to clear this computer's TPM. This was expected.
Press F12 to clear the TPM and continue.
Finally, I am sure the
steps in this article would work with a Windows 11 re-install (once Win
11 is properly installed at least one-time).
Related Articles:
keyliner: Crucial 500GB MX300 Enable Over Provision Partition.
keyliner: Erasing all partitions after a Clone and Formatting
keyliner: Best Virus scanner
Related links:
Microsoft.com Windows 10 Media Creation Tool
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10/
