Cannot activate an extended partition


  1. leomarini
    Posts : 3
    windows 7
       New #1

    Cannot activate an extended partition


    Hi all,

    I have 1 HD, Windows 7 Ultimate edition
    With Disk Mngmnt I was not able to use a partition (see attachment)

    Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
    -------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
    * Disk 0 Online 232 GB 66 GB
    ==========================================

    These are the partitions I have:

    DISKPART> list partition

    Partition ### Type Size Offset
    ------------- ---------------- ------- -------
    Partition 1 Recovery 1500 MB 1024 KB
    Partition 2 Primary 80 GB 1501 MB
    Partition 3 Primary 78 GB 81 GB
    * Partition 0 Extended 73 GB 159 GB
    Partition 4 Logical 7051 MB 225 GB
    ==========================================
    DISKPART> list volume

    Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
    ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
    Volume 0 G DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
    Volume 1 C root_C NTFS Partition 80 GB Healthy System
    Volume 2 D win2003srv NTFS Partition 78 GB Healthy Pagefile
    Volume 3 TOSHIBA SYS NTFS Partition 1500 MB Healthy Hidden
    ==========================================

    Now, when I check details of partition 0:

    DISKPART> detail partition

    Partition 0
    Type : 0F
    Hidden: No
    Active: No
    Offset in Bytes: 171360386560

    There is no volume associated with this partition.
    ================================
    If I try to activate the partition

    DISKPART> active

    Virtual Disk Service error:
    The specified partition is a not a primary or logical volume.
    ================================
    Even if I try to delete the partition, I get the following message:

    DISKPART> delete partition

    Virtual Disk Service error:
    The extended partition is not empty.
    ================================

    Now the question is:
    1. How can I use that space from that partition?

    See attachment to get a better picture.

    Regards,

    Leo
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Cannot activate an extended partition-disk_mngmnt..jpg  
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  3. gregrocker
    Posts : 50,642
       New #2

    Not sure why you are trying to activate it. Doesn't your C: system partition startup correctly?

    Strange that it would remain free space when no longer an extension of any Logical Partition. Once the associated Logical extended partition was deleted, the free space should have gone unallocated.

    Try booting into free Partition Wizard bootable CD to rightclick on the Free Space to delete. Next try rightclick>Modify>Convert to Primary, which is the other way it is done if there were still a partition extending.

    You can also try moving data off of an adjacent partition, deleting it then creating a logical partition there. Next try extending the new logical partition into the Free Space, then deleting the new extended partition, or converting it to Primary.
    Last edited by gregrocker; 11 Jun 2010 at 18:25.
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  4. karlsnooks
    Posts : 10,200
    MS Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit
       New #3

    leomarini,
    When you power on your computer,
    are you presented with a menu giving you boot choices?
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  6. SIW2
    Posts : 16,159
    7 X64
       New #4

    Delete the logical drive.
      My Computers
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  7. leomarini
    Posts : 3
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    karlsnooks said:
    leomarini,
    When you power on your computer,
    are you presented with a menu giving you boot choices?
    I'm glad you mention it...
    last year I created a partition for linux, thus when I was booting I was able to select to boot linux or windows. Now that I have Win 7, I no longer see this option while booting.

    Any hints?

    Regards
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  8. zzz2496
    Posts : 1,325
    Windows7 Ultimate 64bit
       New #6

    leomarini, I see that you've created 4 primary partitions. In MBR styled systems, you can only create 4 partitions maximum. If you want to create more, you need to create 1 extended partition in place of one of the primaries (so 3 primary partitions and one extended). In the extended partition, you can create logical partitions. That way you can have more than 4 partition. Another way is to use GPT style instead of MBR. GPT have no 4 partition limit, but you can't boot off a GPT disk if your computer uses BIOS, it needs UEFI to boot off GPT disks.

    zzz2496
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  10. gregrocker
    Posts : 50,642
       New #7

    Did you try deleting the Logical partition with Partition Wizard CD? There are other approaches if this fails which I gave you earlier.
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  11. leomarini
    Posts : 3
    windows 7
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    I was able to repartition my HD


    Hi Greg

    It worked...

    Partition Wizard (free edition) was all that I needed... it did the job for me.

    Thanks Greg


    Cheers,


    Leo
      My Computer
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  12. gregrocker
    Posts : 50,642
       New #9

    Good work, Leo.
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