Windows 8.1 wants to format a USB stick with an unusual but valid GPT partitioning scheme, why?

Posted by DonGar on Super User See other posts from Super User or by DonGar
Published on 2013-10-29T21:12:41Z Indexed on 2013/10/29 22:00 UTC
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windows-7

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windows-8

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partitioning

I have a USB stick formatted with GPT partitions. Some of the partitions are ext2, some are ext4, some are custom and funky. However, there is also a standard EFI partition, and a standard vfat partition.

In Windows 7, both the EFI partition and the standard VFAT partition are visible and mount normally. But Windows 8.1 prompts to reformat the drive when it's inserted.

I'm not surprised if Win 8 hides the EFI partition, but I didn't expect it to prompt for reformatting. I want to leave existing partitions alone, but have a VFAT partition that Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 will mount and display normally.

Exactly how does Win 8 decide if a device needs to be formatted?

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