installing windows 10 partition/disk problems

[jinxhackerwear]

I'm installing windows 10 from usb stick to this system:

Gigabyte B250M-DS3H motherboard
Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4-2133 SC - 8GB RAM
64gb Transcend MTS800 M.2 2280 SSD
2x HGST Deskstar NAS H3IKNAS800012872SWW Hard drive - 8 TB - 3.5" - 7200 rpm - SATA-600 - 128 MB cache
Intel Pentium G4560 Kaby Lake CPU
Chieftec ECO GPE-600S, 600W PSU


So I selected the m2 device and windows started copying files and installing itself to it, then as I was installing drivers I noticed that it had in fact installed itself to the 64gb m2 device ( c: ) but also created a 'System Reserved' partition on one of the HGST 8tb disks.

It had also rendered 5tb of that disk unusable (with 2tb left free on the disk) and the system refuses to boot from the m2 device - I have to manually select the HGST disk from the bios menu in order to boot at all ('Operating system wasn't found' on the m2 device).

I can't find a way now to completely wipe my disks in order to reinstall this crap due to the fact that the partitions I need to wipe are active. Google searches only gives me links to expensive tools that promise to fix the problem if I buy them.

Can anyone help me find a way to solve this please?

 

[dbashlak]

In Windows setup was your SSD displayed as Disk 0 or Disk 1? If it was disk 1, even if you selected it for windows install some files and system partitions will be located on Disk 0.
So, what you need is to change the SATA (even for m.2) disks order in BIOS/UEFI (not boot order), so that the m.2 ssd was on 1st place and detected as Disk 0 in windows setup.

 

[jinxhackerwear]

In Windows setup was your SSD displayed as Disk 0 or Disk 1? If it was disk 1, even if you selected it for windows install some files and system partitions will be located on Disk 0.
So, what you need is to change the SATA (even for m.2) disks order in BIOS/UEFI (not boot order), so that the m.2 ssd was on 1st place and detected as Disk 0 in windows setup.

checking computer management, it is displayed first but named 'Disk 2' (the two HGST drives being disk 0 and 1) - yet when I installed it was the only disk that showed up at all.

Ok, so then I need to fiddle in the bios as make sure it is disk 0, but how do I get rid of these partitions then so that I can start the reinstall? I inserted the USB stick and did a reinstall, but the OS just did the same crap all over again without giving me a prompt to manage partitions. (and also it 'helpfully' created a 450 mb 'Recovery Partition' without asking me, so now I have to get rid of that as well)

Oh the joy of windows

 

[dbashlak]

why not remove these partitions, it seems like you don't have any data yet on HDDs. I see, you can't remove it right now, but:
1. When you install Windows on SSD as Disk 0, the system reserved partition will appear on it.
2. You may then remove partitions from HDD using diskmgmt

 

[jinxhackerwear]

In Windows setup was your SSD displayed as Disk 0 or Disk 1? If it was disk 1, even if you selected it for windows install some files and system partitions will be located on Disk 0.
So, what you need is to change the SATA (even for m.2) disks order in BIOS/UEFI (not boot order), so that the m.2 ssd was on 1st place and detected as Disk 0 in windows setup.

why not remove these partitions, it seems like you don't have any data yet on HDDs. I see, you can't remove it right now, but:
1. When you install Windows on SSD as Disk 0, the system reserved partition will appear on it.
2. You may then remove partitions from HDD using diskmgmt

Hmm, the m2 SSD device shows up as SATA5 and there appears to be no way of changing the order, only enable or disable 'Port 5'. (HGST are the same, can only enable or disable Port 0 and Port 1)

When disabling Port 0 and 1, the m2 SSD device still shows up as Port 5.

 

[dbashlak]

it should be first by order. so if it's on port 5, but it is possible to move it above HGST in BIOS, it will appear as Disk 0.
Another solution: if there are 6 SATA ports on your MB, connect HGST to one of the last 2

 

[jinxhackerwear]

it should be first by order. so if it's on port 5, but it is possible to move it above HGST in BIOS, it will appear as Disk 0.
Another solution: if there are 6 SATA ports on your MB, connect HGST to one of the last 2

Ah yes, I will try that - the m2 ssb device connects right to the motherboard, I don't understand why it insist on sata 5 slot and can't be moved (none of the devices can be moved in bios)

 

[jinxhackerwear]

Aha! I found the problem - Gigabyte motherboards has some sort of problem booting from USB devices - removed both HGST disks and booted with m2 device only with USB stick inserted, nothing happened (didn't discover USB stick) then removed USB stick and rebooted _then_ inserted USB stick on boot menu and voila. It works. Reinstalling now to m2 device without HGST disks connected.