Do the partitions on the Windows installation media show up in the window?

357mag

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I was wondering if when you reinstall Windows from a USB Flash Drive, if the partitions on the Flash Drive actually show up in the dialog box where Windows asks you "Where would you like to install Windows"?

I asked Copilot this question and it responded by saying most of the time the partitions on the USB installation disk don't even show up in the window, so you don't have to worry about accidentally deleting them during the setup process.

But I've seen a few YouTube videos where the partitions on the installation media actually do show up in the window.

I'd like to ask in your experience do these flash stick partitions show up in the window?
 
When I tested it, these partitions appeared with the new setup of 24h2
And there was also a bug between the disk numbers and the partitions, they were reversed
Having not used the new setup for a year, I don't know if this has changed since then
 
I hope I don't get confused and accidentally delete them. You see, I have never reinstalled Windows using this method of deleting partitions. What I have always done in the past is use a program called KillDisk to do one-pass zeros to simply wipe out the hard drive that way. Then when I get to the "Where would you like to install Windows" window, it already shows Disk 0 Unallocated Space, which makes it easy for me to install Windows without getting confused about partitions.

I've got a new Lenovo Desktop now and I just want to make sure KillDisk is safe to use on these modern drives. According to Copilot, I think it is.
 
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24H2's newer Setup client performs every clean install as an "upgrade" (even on a new drive), so it's not surprising that it lists the USB device.
 
Well the size of my installation media is 64 GB and I believe that the Windows drive and partitions are all called Disk 0, so that would mean my USB flash drive would be called Disk 1 wouldn't it?

So I would need to be careful not to delete any partitions that are on Disk 1.

Do I understand this correctly?
 
If you only have one disk in your PC, then that's it (disk 0, for example)
And your USB drive will be disk 1
 
If you're uncertain, then pause at the disk layout screen.

Open a CMD window using Shift-F10.
Code:
diskpart
list disk
exit
exit
 
I only have one disk in my machine so I will only delete those partitions that say Disk 0.
 
The point is to confirm the disk's total capacity, if you're worried about picking the USB drive by mistake.
 
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