How to partition new Windows 10 install without losing space to non-contiguous volumes

Every time I've installed Windows 10 via bootable USB I end up with a volume on the left side of my C: drive which I am able to delete, however, it remains as unallocated space which can't be merged with the C: drive. Thus I lose ~10 GB.

This volume is left over from the install as it is used for the installation files so it can be safely deleted and I am still able to reboot. But no matter what I do, it ends up to the left of the partition where I installed Windows.

I've created the bootable USB using the Windows media creator tool. During the install wizard where I select the destination partition I simply select my 2TB SSD (GPT) and everything else is done automatically.

I've tried using diskpart at install to manually configure the partitions to see if I can change the order but I end up with an error message that the GPT partitions are not in the recommended order.

I tried using the AOMEI disk partition manager tool but that's not as free as I kept seeing people say it was in other posts. Preferably I'd like to know how to do this without having to rely on a third-party tool right after a fresh install. I can't fathom that this is normal or expected, to lose a chunk of disk space, so I must be doing something wrong here??

Solution 1:

No need for 3rd party tools (some are even not recommended at all), the Windows installer can manage partitions.

So simply delete the ones you don't want/need (actually all of them would be a nice idea since you aren't dual-booting therefore there's nothing you need to keep of the ESP and the ESP will be automatically created also if installing in any drive without it).

It's this simple.