Type

  • Article

Type specifies the type of partition to create.

Values

Primary

Creates a primary partition type.

A standard master boot record (MBR)-based hard disk can contain up to four primary partitions or three primary partitions and one extended partition. The extended partition can include additional logical drives.

A GUID partition table (GPT)-based hard disk can contain up to 128 primary partitions.

Windows must be installed on either a primary or a logical partition.

EFI

Creates an extensible firmware interface (EFI) partition type.

The EFI partition type configures the partition as an EFI system partition (ESP). This is a required partition for a GUID partition table (GPT)-based disk.

Only a single EFI system partition is required, regardless of how many GPT-based disks exist on a system. For unattended installations, it is possible to create more than one ESP on a hard disk. If there is already an ESP on the hard disk to which you are installing, and you create a new ESP in your answer file, two ESPs will be present on the computer. Two ESPs might be problematic for users, and will consume additional disk space.

It is recommended that you use the WillWipeDisk setting to erase all partitions on the disk before performing an unattended installation.

In attended installations, Windows Setup warns you that an ESP already exists on the hard disk.

Installation will terminate if you specify Type as EFI and the format of the disk is of type MBR. Only GPT disks can have EFI System Partition.

Extended

Specifies that the partition is an extended partition.

An extended partition can be created only on master boot record (MBR)-based disks.

Only one extended partition can exist on a single disk. If an extended partition already exists on the disk, a second extended partition is not created. If the value for the WillShowUI setting is set to Never, an error is logged, and installation terminates.

Extended partitions are useful if you intend to create more than four volumes on a basic MBR disk. Unlike primary partitions, you do not format an extended partition with a file system. Instead, you create one or more logical drives within the extended partition.

Logical

Specifies that the partition is a logical partition.

Windows Vista must be installed on either a primary or a logical partition.

A logical partition is a volume that is created inside an extended partition on a basic master boot record (MBR)-based disk.

Logical partitions are similar to primary partitions. However, the number of logical partitions that can exist on a disk is unlimited. Only four primary partitions can exist on a single disk. A logical partition can be formatted and assigned a drive letter.

A logical partition must be created inside an extended partition. If an extended partition does not already exist on the disk or the specified size of the logical drive exceeds the extended partition, no partition is created.

If WillShowUI is set to Never, an error is logged, and installation terminates.

MSR

Specifies that the partition is a Microsoft reserved (MSR) partition.

The MSR partition type is a required partition for GUID partition table (GPT)-based disks.

The size of the MSR partition varies. For GPT disks that are smaller than 16 GB, the size of the MSR partition is 32 MB. For disks larger than 16 GB, the MSR partition is 128 MB.

If an MSR partition already exists on the same disk or the format of the disk is MBR, no partition is created. If the value for WillShowUI is set to Never, an error is logged and the installation terminates.

If an ESP is not detected or an MSR partition does not exist on each GPT disk in the system, no GPT-related disk configurations can be created.

This string type does not support empty elements. Do not create an empty value for this setting.

Valid Passes

windowsPE

Parent Hierarchy

Microsoft-Windows-Setup | DiskConfiguration | Disk | CreatePartitions | CreatePartition | Type

Applies To

For the list of the supported Windows editions and architectures that this component supports, see Microsoft-Windows-Setup.

XML Example

The following XML output for the DiskConfiguration setting shows how to create three partitions on a hard drive.

<DiskConfiguration>
   <WillShowUI>OnError</WillShowUI>
   <Disk>
      <DiskID>0</DiskID>
      <WillWipeDisk>true</WillWipeDisk>
      <CreatePartitions>
         <CreatePartition>
<!-- Create primary partition, 20 GB -->
            <Order>1</Order>
            <Type>Primary</Type>
            <Size>20000</Size>
         </CreatePartition>
<!-- Create extended partition and fill the rest of the hard disk -->
         <CreatePartition>
            <Order>2</Order>
            <Type>Extended</Type>
            <Extend>true</Extend>
         </CreatePartition>
<!-- Create logical partition within the extended partition, 6 GB -->
         <CreatePartition>
            <Order>3</Order>
            <Type>Logical</Type>
            <Size>6000</Size>
         </CreatePartition>
      </CreatePartitions>
   </Disk>
</DiskConfiguration>

See Also

Concepts

CreatePartition