How to Configure Multiple Hard Drives

• BIOS-based computers: Use the command SELECT DISK=SYSTEM to select the default system drive.

  This command selects the drive that has an interrupt 13h value of 80h. If the value 80h is assigned to a USB flash drive, this command selects a hard drive that has a value of 81h. For more information, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) website:

  Converting Drive Letters to MS-DOS INT 13H Disk Drive Numbers

• UEFI-based computers: To select a drive, use the DiskPart command SELECT DISK=<location path>.

  Note

  Do not use the SELECT DISK=SYSTEM command or the GetSystemDiskNTPath API on Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)-based computers to select the system drive. The SELECT DISK=SYSTEM command and the GetSystemDiskNTPath API identify the drive that the operating system was booted from as the system drive. If you boot from Windows® PE, this command selects the Windows PE drive as the system drive. If you boot from a system that has multiple drives that include an EFI system partition (ESP), this command may select the wrong drive.

• Select the drive by location path. To select a drive, use the DiskPart command SELECT DISK=<location path>, where <location path> is the location path of your drive. This command helps specify a drive by location.

  Example:

  Copy

  SELECT DISK=PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0100)#ATA(C00T00L00)
  

• Select the drive by using the "NEXT" drive. Use the DiskPart command SELECT DISK=NEXT. This command helps specify any remaining hard drives, regardless of location. To select more drives, repeat the SELECT DISK=NEXT command to select each drive in order. If there are no more drives to select, DiskPart returns an error.

  Note
  The computer maintains the context for the SELECT DISK=NEXT command as long as DiskPart continues running. If DISKPART exits, the computer loses this context.

  UEFI-based example:

  Copy

  SELECT DISK=PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0100)#ATA(C00T00L00)
  clean
  convert gpt
  create partition primary size=300
  format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows RE Tools"
  set id=27
  assign letter=t
  create partition primary size=100
  format quick fs=ntfs label="System"
  assign letter=s
  active
  create partition msr size=128
  create partition primary
  shrink minimum=15000
  format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
  assign letter=w
  format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery image"
  attributes volume set nodefaultdriveletter
  assign letter="R"
  SELECT DISK=NEXT
  clean
  convert gpt
  create partition msr size=128
  create partition primary
  format quick fs=ntfs label="Data"
  assign letter=z
  

After you reboot, drive lettering may change. You can use the following example script to select the system drive and then reassign letters to the ESP, recovery, and Windows partitions.

SELECT DISK=PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0100)#ATA(C01T01L00)
select partition=1
assign letter=s
select partition=2
assign letter=t
select partition=3
assign letter=w

This example script selects the system drive and then skips past the drive without modifying the contents of the drive. The script then selects two non-system drives and creates a single, formatted, empty partition on each drive. The partitions do not receive an image, so it is not necessary to specifically identify them.

UEFI-based example:

SELECT DISK=PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0100)#ATA(C01T01L00)
SELECT DISK=NEXT
clean
convert gpt
create partition msr size=128
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="DataDrive1"
SELECT DISK=NEXT
clean
convert gpt
create partition msr size=128
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="DataDrive2"