How to avoid EFI system partition and Recovery Partition being put on the wrong drive when installing Windows?

[Ralf]

I always unplugged my other drives(Sata) and delete all three partitions inside the installer, but with m.2 drives I dont want to since it requires changing thermal pads and removing the gpu.

[emoticorpse]

See if you can disable that specific one in bios?

[_I_]

remove all other drives so it forces the installer to put them all on the correct drive

you dont need to replace the thermal pads, just keep them clean

[mtono]

i am sorry! what thermal pads? where in the pc? i dont know enough english to get it, maybe...thx in advance.

[_I_]

hes talking about the pads on the m.2 ssd
they do not need extra cooling, but the boards put a cover on them to make it match the board design, even tho its covered by the gpu and does not need any extra cooling

[plat]

Have you actually done this yet, OP? Because when I searched this, it usually came up as being to unplug all the other drives so that those partitions have no choice but to install on the single connected drive--in this case: your M.2 drive.

Edit: this is assuming you want your M.2 as your boot drive. If it's storage, you might have to either disable the M.2 slot in UEFI or delete those partitions manually--which is risky.

[_I_]

he probably has 2x m.2 drives
one for the os, other for games or other stuff

[Ralf]

Originally posted by _I_:

hes talking about the pads on the m.2 ssd
they do not need extra cooling, does not need any extra cooling

My case sucks ass(Meshify 2) and Noctua NF-A14 PWM fans are junk at 30% rpm so SSD's runs 50 celsius when doing nothing and 90-100 celsius if it's under load like steam game update or install. Dont want to buy another case +5 140mm fans currently.

Originally posted by plat:

Have you actually done this yet, OP? Because when I searched this, it usually came up as being to unplug all the other drives so that those partitions have no choice but to install on the single connected drive--in this case: your M.2 drive.

Edit: this is assuming you want your M.2 as your boot drive. If it's storage, you might have to either disable the M.2 slot in UEFI or delete those partitions manually--which is risky.

No, I havent tested it. There's no option to disable m.2 drives in Uefi, I want one m.2 as boot drive and the other 5 m.2 drives as storage.

Originally posted by _I_:

you dont need to replace the thermal pads, just keep them clean

I'm using Arctic TP3 pads and they rip easily if it's compressed too much, stock board pad is junk too since it's too soft and sticky and when removing one side sticks to the heatsink and other to the drive so it stretches which makes it unusable..

[plat]

Oh OK. I actually use two and to compensate for the thickness, I simply don't screw in the heatsink as tightly. Over time, the pads coalesced nicely and now come away from the drive without coming apart or leaving a residue. But I think this is contingent upon how hot your drive gets and yes: it's a little cumbersome to get to the drive, undo it and then put things back.

A general thought: it should be possible to change the boot order in the UEFI though, right? I had to do that once with a USB that for some reason wouldn't boot automatically upon restart.

[Talby]

Originally posted by emoticorpse:

See if you can disable that specific one in bios?

What i would do if i could not remove physically, just as good as removing it IMO...

[PopinFRESH]

Which motherboard?

[River]

I prevent them from being created in the first place. Even on Windows 11.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

This is simple let's say you have 2x M2 drives and no OS yet.

Bring up CMD during the installer and use Disk Part to partition and format the 2nd M2 drive as single partition. When done close out CMD and do the OS install. Now it can't mess with your other drive