Windows 7 - How to extend an Extended Partition; leave logical volumes intact

Hi,

Under Windows 7, I've been trying to figure how to extend the end of an extended partition while leaving intact its containing logical volumes.

With Disk Management it does not work.

Diskpart also does not help me any further. With Diskpart, I can make the extended partition the focus (*) of operation but Diskpart refused to do anything, and is requesting a volume to operate on an not a partition itself.

Would there be any trick in Diskpart to do the job?

Is there any third party sofware who could extended an extented partition while leaving its logical volumes untouched?

Johan

Try Partition Wizard, it's free for home users

Best Free Partition Manager Freeware for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.

Agreed.

Partition Wizard is an excellent partitioning utility that will let you extend to the left where Microsoft's Disk Management won't.

Just backup anything important to you first.

Use the PW boot CD which will not fail while other partitioning managers and the PW installed version can fail.

If you need the exact steps then post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Mgmt drive map with listings, using the Snipping Tool in Start Menu. Tell us exactly what you want to do.

I used MiniTool Partition Wizard (PW) Home Edition 7.1 and that is a hugh disappoinment. I downloaded it from:
Best Free Partition Manager Freeware for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.

I tested it on my 2TB external USB 3.0 drive. Test were performed on primary partitions/volumes, extended partitions, and logical volumes, sometimes seperated by unallocated areas. In the extended partition there are 2 logical volumes followed by some free space; so the extended partition is significantly larger than the 2 logical volumes. The first screenshot shows the situation before any action with PW. Note that in Disk Management (DM) a clear distinction is being made between the logical volumes and the extended partition shell surrounding/encapsulating the logical volumes. However in PW only the logical volumes are visible, the extended partition is NOT visible; that is a very big drawback.


After shifting or resizing any primary partition not adjacent to the extended partition, the extended partition shrinks to an absolute minimum size, though, still encapsulating the 2 volumes but eliminating the initial free space in the extended partition; see the second screenshot.


I find this totally unacceptable what PW is doing with the free space in an extended partition. This must be a bug or something, I cannot imagine that this behavior of PW is intentionally or by design. Has anyone had a similar experience with PW?

Johan

When you used Partition Wizard, did you run it from within Windows or did you create a Partition Wizard boot disc and boot into that?

He used the PW Home Edition after being specifically advised to use the boot disk.

Try the boot disk and then report back.

I ran it from within Windows 7, I could still try from a boot CD but that'll be for later. It is now 11pm.
Anyhow, the version running on Windows 7 should not fiddle at all with the exended partition if I resize another primary partition (with just 1%) on the other end of the DM pane.
It simply doesn't make any sense what PW is doing, even if it is the Windows 7 version.

Johan

Take gregrocker's advice. You won't get better.

Many of us have used the PW boot disc without any failures occurring.

Looks like a bug.


Anyone able to reproduce it?