How do I make 9 Partitions & Install Win 7 ?

Hi,

This may sound crazy but I have to do it to separate my various kinds of data.

I have a 500 GB Hard Disk.

I want to make 9 partitions of various sizes & Install Windows 7 64 bit ( Ultimate ) in the first partition.

I installed this Hard Disk as slave to my current Hard Disk & tried using disk management but it makes all partitions as Primary & doesn't give me a choice to create an extented partition within which I can make 8 Logical partitions.

I have very limited knowledge of Hardware.

Can you guys please help with a step by step instructions ?

Also do I need to make any partition active & if yes how & what does active do ?

Thank You in advance.

Use free Partition Wizard bootable CD to choose Logical when creating any but the OS partition which must be Primary - as shown in this video.

If you install first, only the 100mb System Reserved partition created when you install to unpartitioned drive must be Primary. However you might as well leave Win7 partition Primary, too. You can have 3 Primary and unlimited Logical partitions.

PW is the best tool because as long as the partitions are contiguous it doesn't view them as within a container, and treats deleted Unallocated and Free Space the same for all purposes.

Why do you need 9 partitions? I'm asking, because I'd be willing to bet there is a far better way to accomplish your end goal.

Thank You gregrocker

It worked like a charm.

DeaconFrost,

I like to keep my different types of data in a separate partion.

You will probably tell me to keep them in separate folder ?

Some of my Partitions are 40 GB, so is it a good idea to have that large a folder ?

Also I would like to know if there are any disavantages of having 9 Partitions.

I see the advanyage of having more drive space.

But my files & folders have a very long file names ( Most close to 250 Characters ) so they are easier to remember.

So if drive space is the only disadvantage ? OR having more partitions slows down the system ?

I personally won't go over 2 partitions on any single drive. I feel like separating out the data in partititons serves no purpose, other than to add more driver letters and confusion. There's no advantage to doing so over using folders, but there are disadvantages...such as running out of disk space on any volume much easier. Why confine your data? I'm a firm believer in the K.I.S.S. method. Why add extra steps, configurations, etc when they yield absolutely nothing.

In addition to all of that, you are only using a 500 GB drive...so you are really confining your data. Even with a 2-3TB drive, my above paragraph would be the same, but I can't imagine ever wanting to limit myself that much with over-partitioning on a 500 GB drive.