Partitioning challenge with this HD

Partition File Label Size Used Unused
unallocated 1.00MiB
sda1 NTFS System 1.46 GiB 500.25 MiB 999.75 Boot
sda2 NTFS TI105838WOG 286.59GiB 37.94 GiB 248.65 GiB
sda3 NTFS HDD Recovery 10.03 GiB 9.44 GiB 610.43 MiB Hidden

The above represents my HD and because of the 3 existing primary I am having some difficulty wrapping my tired brain around how to create an extended. This is a new computer and I never dreamed a HD would look like this out of box (my limited expertise) That being said what if I resized sda2 to 100 GB with 148 unallocated. Could I then create an extended from that and be within my primary limitations. By way explanation I am more comfortable in Linux and its my only hobby
Appreciate and direction or pointing to any resource to help

1Bowtie said:

Hi tofts and Welcome to SevenForums

If you could go into control panel / admin tool / computer mgmt / disk mgmt and post a picture of that screen so we could see how the hdd is set up it would make it alot easier to explain.

Happy to and thanks for your reply

You have 3 primary partitions so the 4th created in Disk Management should be Extended Logical which will then allow as many Logical sub-partitions as there are remaining letters.

Your first partition is the Recovery partition - be sure to make your Recovery Disks now if you haven't already - which shouldn't be touched as the most stable way to run Recovery is by running that partition from Windows or from boot, with the disks only as a backup.

You cut off the Free Space column so we cannot see if anything is on the 3rd partition - see if you can right-click explore to post back a screenshot of its contents. As it has no disk letter it may be a utility partition for factory utilities you don't need or use. We'll have to see to know for sure.

For now, it looks you can use Disk Mgmt to shrink your Win7 partition to the size you want (again we can't recommend because the Free Space column is cut off) to create an Extended Logical.

Whatever you do, don't accept conversion to Dynamic Disk if so prompted. But this should only happen if there are four Primary partitions.

gregrocker said:

You have 3 primary partitions so the 4th created in Disk Management should be Extended Logical which will then allow as many Logical sub-partitions as there are remaining letters.

Your first partition is the Recovery partition - be sure to make your Recovery Disks now if you haven't already - which shouldn't be touched as the most stable way to run Recovery is by running that partition from Windows or from boot, with the disks only as a backup.

You cut off the Free Space column so we cannot see if anything is on the 3rd partition - see if you can right-click explore to post back a screenshot of its contents. As it has no disk letter it may be a utility partition for factory utilities you don't need or use. We'll have to see to know for sure.

For now, it looks you can use Disk Mgmt to shrink your Win7 partition to the size you want (again we can't recommend because the Free Space column is cut off) to create an Extended Logical.

Whatever you do, don't accept conversion to Dynamic Disk if so prompted. But this should only happen if there are four Primary partitions.

Sorry about cutting off that info. Hope this helps and it sure is helping me Thanks

Do you need the 10.03 gig partition? Is it empty? The 1.46 gig partition appears to be your recovery partition.

You can certainly shrink the largest partition, but what do you want to do with the space that generates?

What exactly are you trying to do by resizing?

While I seem critically challenged in win 7 and I am that is not the case in Linux, which is my entire reason.
In my old PC with XP I had extended with 4 ext partitions and depending how I felt I would play with one, try another and for a retired chef it offered diversion and an interest. If I could have ever figured out virtualbox none of this would be necessary.
Unless I hear differently I intend to shrink that largest partition to 100 GB take that 148 GB unallocated create extended and go from there. To me this present partitioning is like a kitchen lacking equipment, bunch empty space.
I really appreciate your help.

The Disk mgmt listings still don't show the Free Space column so we don't know which are empty or how full.

Did you explore the 10gb partition to see what it contains? If necessary unhide files in Control Panel>File Options>View tab.

Question, why or what could possibly be the point in Toshiba creating a primary with nothing in it? See attachment and does that change anything.
Please advise

I wouldn't necessarily believe it is really empty.

You need to go to windows explorer/tools/folder options/view tab and ensure that "show hidden files" is checked and "hide operating system files" is unchecked.