Delete EFI partition on external drive.

Anonymous
2024-06-18T13:31:49+00:00

I've been having problems regarding SSD cloning. Macrium have been very helpful. It appears that I'm booting from the 2 installed internal hard drives (!?!).

It was working OK for ages but obviously something subsequently has happened.

It was recommended I clone to an external drive.

Fortunately I had a another SDD that I could use. I reformatted this and connected externally . Checked with file folder that it could be read and was empty. All good.

Used Macrium to clone but was concerned that if supposedly booting form 2 internal drives, what am I copying, and would it work?

It didn't!

Both drives had 3 partitions; An EFI System partition (100MB), Windows 11 Home partition (465 GB) and a Recovery Partition ((610MB)

To cut long story short, the external drive now consists of 2 partitions, The EFI partition and an unallocated partition.

The external SDD is no accessible !!. I get the message "You currently don't have permission to access this folder" and continuing, "You have been denied access to this folder" " to gain access to this folder you will have to use the security tab"

Don't understand what to do next.

Using Disk Management and right clicking on greyed out EFI partition gives a greyed out window

Can anyone help in getting this 'external' drive accessible again ?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Recovery and backup

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  1. Ramesh Srinivasan 87,435 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2024-06-19T16:14:58+00:00

    If closing and reopening Disk Management doesn't help, you can try the diskpart clean command to merge those two unallocated spaces on Disk 2.

    Important: When running the clean command, take extra care when inputting the disk number. It wipes the chosen disk entirely.

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/85819-erase...

    Standard Disclaimer: There is a link to a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to provide accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-06-19T15:47:52+00:00

    CMD's run and partition deleted. Thanks very much for your instructions.

    SSD not 'visible' in file folder because has no formatted volume. How do I merge above partitions, create a single volume that can be formatted??

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-06-19T11:51:08+00:00

    It isn't a good idea to leave an original and cloned version of a drive on the same system.

    If you want to know where it is booting from, use this.

    C:\Windows\System32>bcdedit

    Windows Boot Manager

    identifier {bootmgr}

    device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1

    path \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI

    description Windows Boot Manager

    locale en-US

    inherit {globalsettings}

    flightsigning Yes

    default {current}

    resumeobject {a2261767-baf4-11ed-b39f-861e8bfa3876}

    displayorder {6713eba6-d8c2-11ee-845c-8ca53cacc006} 

                        {current}

    toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}

    timeout 30

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  5. Ramesh Srinivasan 87,435 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2024-06-19T06:33:08+00:00

    So, we want to remove the EFI partition on Disk 2.

    Please run the following exactly from admin Command Prompt:

    diskpart
select disk 2
list part
select partition 1
del par override
exit

    Post screenshot.

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