HDD partitioning with Win7 Home basic OS - Possible or not possible

amkeew123 · 07 Jan 2014

I recently bought a Lenono U310 laptop with 32 GB SSD and 500 GB HDD with Win7 Home basic OS.

When I tried to use windows disk management to partition the HDD, I kept getting the error message about converting the primary disk to dynamic. The Lenovo service center also tried but could not do it. They certified the HDD is defective and are arranging for a refund.

My question is does Win 7 home basic OS not allow disk partitioning?

AddRAM · 07 Jan 2014

If you already have 3 primary partitions, windows will warn you about turning your disk to dynamic, don`t do that.

You can use Partition Wizard to make another partition.

Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.

I recommend using the bootable cd.

Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to manage partition directly with partition manager bootable CD.

Can you post a shot of disk management ?

Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

And I`m not positive, but I don`t see why you couldn`t use disk management in Windows Basic.

amkeew123 · 07 Jan 2014

Thanks AddRam for the quick reply. Unfortunately, I didn't save a snapshot of the disk management error. I tried with Easeus partition manager and it also gave out similar error (about converting to logic drive).

Now the HDD is cooked after the service center attempt. Can't even boot. So they are doing a full refund since the laptop was bought just a week back.

One of my friends told me that win 7 basic does not allow disk partition? Is it true?

And thanks for the links to partition manager. I will try it with next laptop.

AddRAM · 07 Jan 2014

I can not say for sure, I`ve never used or even seen home basic.

But just Google it.

amkeew123 · 07 Jan 2014

I tried googling it. Couldn't get a conclusive answer.

Ranger4 · 07 Jan 2014

I found this on the web from PC World which does help a bit on the various versions of Windows 7. Admittedly there is no mention of Disc Management.
Windows 7: The Six Versions Explained | PCWorld
You can check by clicking the Start button & in the search slot, type in Disk Management & hit enter. If it is available it should open the disk management window for you.

Kaktussoft · 07 Jan 2014

You can create/delete/shrink/extend partitions in ALL win7 versions.

The problem was most likely:

You already had 4 PRIMARY partitions.
You already had 3 PRIMARY partitions and 1 EXTENDED partition.

You can have a maximum of 4 partitions (all primary and extended together). You can only have 1 extended partitions. An extended partition is kind of container that can hold lots of LOGICAL partitions. So create a logical partition instead of primary.

Good partition software can convert a primary partition to a logical partition. It extends or creates the EXTENDED partition automagically. As a result all logical partitions should be adjacent to each other.