Question Is this partitioning a problem?

[edo101]

Hey guys, I shucked my Seagate Expansion drive. It had two partitions. One was FAT32 which is hidden from Windows and the other was exFat. Since I am using Windows I went to my computer and formatted my drive to NTFS. However now the drive has this FAT32 partition and the main NTFS partition.

Will this be a problem?

 

[dwd999]

You could use a free real disk tool like Gparted to create a single partition and format it.

 

[SkyNetRising]

However now the drive has this FAT32 partition and the main NTFS partition.

Will this be a problem?

No. That's not a problem.
Simply you won't be able to use those 200MB.

 

[edo101]

You could use a free real disk tool like Gparted to create a single partition and format it.

I thought about that but wasn't sure if I should be tampering with what appears to be a special partition for the drive? I have no idea what's in there but I was afraid if I wiped it, it would cause issues

 

[dwd999]

I thought about that but wasn't sure if I should be tampering with what appears to be a special partition for the drive? I have no idea what's in there but I was afraid if I wiped it, it would cause issues

If the disk already contains data, just leave it there, it doesn't waste much space. Only Windows boot system drives require special partitions, plain data disks do not.

 

[TerryLaze]

I thought about that but wasn't sure if I should be tampering with what appears to be a special partition for the drive? I have no idea what's in there but I was afraid if I wiped it, it would cause issues

Yup, it could be a seagate boot partition to run some tool or backup, if you search for the particular model in google you will probably find some info.

 

[edo101]

Yup, it could be a seagate boot partition to run some tool or backup, if you search for the particular model in google you will probably find some info.

I didn't even know companies did that. Thanks for the knowledge homie

 

[evermorex76]

This is the Microsoft Reserved Partition. Usually it's only 16MB in size but sometimes Windows makes it larger, or Seagate may have created it that size. (You formatted the main partition, but you didn't completely wipe the drive so the MSR partition wasn't removed.) This is a required partition when Windows creates a GPT drive, and is used for "partition management", even though other OSes get by fine without it. Windows's own tools will not display it because they don't want you to be able to delete it, but third-party tools will show it.

Seagate and other makers don't create hidden boot partitions on their drives. If they include tools like encryption stuff, they put it on the main partition that is visible to the user so they can install the software.

So don't do anything with it, but don't worry about it.

 

[edo101]

This is the Microsoft Reserved Partition. Usually it's only 16MB in size but sometimes Windows makes it larger, or Seagate may have created it that size. (You formatted the main partition, but you didn't completely wipe the drive so the MSR partition wasn't removed.) This is a required partition when Windows creates a GPT drive, and is used for "partition management", even though other OSes get by fine without it. Windows's own tools will not display it because they don't want you to be able to delete it, but third-party tools will show it.

Seagate and other makers don't create hidden boot partitions on their drives. If they include tools like encryption stuff, they put it on the main partition that is visible to the user so they can install the software.

So don't do anything with it, but don't worry about it.

So that FAT32 isn't even a Seagate thing per se as much as it is Windows? The drive came to me from Seagate with it partitioned like that. FAT32 and exFAT

 

[SkyNetRising]

So that FAT32 isn't even a Seagate thing per se as much as it is Windows? The drive came to me from Seagate with it partitioned like that. FAT32 and exFAT

Do not worry about it.
200MB is inconsequential for 22TB drive. It is less than 0.001%.

 

[evermorex76]

So that FAT32 isn't even a Seagate thing per se as much as it is Windows? The drive came to me from Seagate with it partitioned like that. FAT32 and exFAT

GPT is the partitioning scheme. FAT32 and exFAT are formats within the partitions. Seagate is configuring them as GPT (required for such large drives) and putting that FAT32 partition in place for compatibility with Windows.

 

[evermorex76]

Do not worry about it.
200MB is inconsequential for 22TB drive. It is less than 0.001%.

The size isn't the issue. One should always be concerned about unknown partitions or other setups that you can't explain. Knowledge is power.

 

[TerryLaze]

So that FAT32 isn't even a Seagate thing per se as much as it is Windows? The drive came to me from Seagate with it partitioned like that. FAT32 and exFAT

It is seagate doing a windows thing.
it's a 200Mb uefi partition, it can be used just to boot from the disk on a system that doesn't support exfat or it can add extra options to your uefi menu, for backup or other tools.
Since yours is empty it probably is just for compatibility.

Either way it's safe if it came that way and you might make it worse if you try to mess with it without knowing what you are doing.