Partition / Extended : Logical Drives

How to Create Extended Partition / Logical Drives Where Needed​

The Windows Master Boot Record (MBR) partition structure supports a total of only four (4) partitions per Hard Disk Drive / Solid State Drive, they can be either 4 Primary partitions or three (3) Primary partitions and a single (1) Extended partition.
This shows the different methods to create an Extended partition wherever you need one so you can create as many Logical drives as there are available drive letters that can be used to install a Windows Operating System or for data storage.

   Warning

As with anything that makes changes to the Windows structure there is always the chance for an error to occur, it would be advisable to make reliable backups to the external media of your choice of any important data, i.e. pictures, music or documents, that you would not want to lose before you make any changes to your system, it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Let's get started!
If there are 3 existing Primary partitions on the HDD / SSD already, the fourth partition created using Windows disk management will be an Extended partition by default.

To view the relevant information on the partition structure, type diskmgmt.msc in the Windows start menu search box, then right click the entry and click "Run as Administrator" if you should get a User Account Control (UAC) prompt enter your user credentials and click Yes.



Method One

This is what I'll be starting with.
click any image to enlarge

1) Open an elevated command prompt, in the command window that opens type diskpart and hit the <enter> key, all commands are followed by <enter>.

Here are the commands, click the images below to see how they are implemented.
list disk

select disk # (# = target disk number)

create partition extended

exit (2 times to close the command window)
If you need to create a specific size Extended partition, use this command.
create partition extended size=61440 <- 60GB
It has to be entered as MB and 1024MB = 1GB so 1024x60 = 61440

You can create any size you need using the formula above.



2) Now in Windows disk management right click the Extended partition Free Space to create Logical drive(s) as needed, anything created within an Extended will be a Logical drive by default.

You can create as many Logical drives within an Extended partition as there are available drive letters; you can create and name the drives in any way you like, this is just an example.





Method Two

Here's the situation a lot of people are finding themselves in when purchasing a factory built PC these days, a single HDD and all the partitions taken by the manufacturer, leaving no chance of creating any additional partitions.
The fortunate side of a layout like this is the use of the new Windows 7 System Reserved partition and it being the System Volume, where the Windows boot files are stored.

If this is the situation you're in, after you have made back-ups of the data you need to save to external media and created the set of factory recovery disks or better still, created a complete image of the entire HDD to external media that can be restored if the need ever arises, have a look at the information below.
click image to enlarge

   Warning

If you do not have the Windows System Reserved or a System Primary partition completely separate from the Windows 7 partition present that is marked as the "System" partition in disk management do not attempt this, if you do Windows will not boot as Windows will not/is not able to boot / start independently from an Extended partition Logical drive, the system boot files must be stored on a Primary partition to execute.

Windows XP users, do not do this or XP will not boot at all.

Start by downloading the Partition Wizard Bootable ISO file from either link below then use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive.

Partition Wizard Free Bootable CD

OR

Partition Wizard Bootable Flash Drive
To boot the disk, in the BIOS set the PC boot order to boot first from the CD/DVD or USB drive, insert the PWBD and restart the PC, it'll take a few minutes for it to setup with no input at all from the user needed.
Once the program has started you can remove the CD/DVD or USB if you like.

1) In the Partition Wizard program, right click the Windows 7 partition and click Modify then Set as Logical; then at the top left Action bar click Apply; then click Yes for the conformation dialog box.
click any image to enlarge


2) You will get a Pending window but that just takes seconds to complete and then click OK for the Successful dialog box.

Then remove the PWBD from the CD/DVD or USB drive and at the upper left corner click General then Exit to close the Partition Wizard program and restart Windows 7.

Restart Windows a couple times before you proceed to make sure all is well.

In the Windows 7 start menu search box type diskmgmt.msc then right click the entry and click "Run as Administrator" if you get a User Account Control (UAC) prompt enter your user credentials and click Yes.

3) In disk management right click the Windows 7 partition and click Shrink Volume you can accept the offered size or you can create a specific size, don't make Windows 7 too small so installed programs/apps have the needed room.
click any image to enlarge

4) Now right click the new Extended partition Free Space and click New Volume to create the Logical drive(s) one at a time as needed.

It is suggested to restart Windows every time you make a change to let Windows 7 accept the changes to the system without issue.

Enjoy!

Related Tutorials

---

• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/121536-system-reserved-multi-boot-logical-partitions.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/119151-system-reserved-create-using-disk-management.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2670-partition-volume-extend.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2672-partition-volume-shrink.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/109752-partition-recover-space-used-older-os.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/566-virtual-hard-disk-create-attach-vhd.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/26829-convert-dynamic-disk-basic-disk.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/625-boot-vhd-using-windows-7-a.html
• http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/87768-password-reset-options-windows-7-a.html

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Yes it will be just fine from an Extended partition, have a look at this tutorial linked below.

I meant to boot the Windows 8 installation media

Dual Boot Installation - Windows 8 and Windows 7

 

[sam9953]

Thanks for the confirmation and the link.
Seems to me I will stay on this forum for a long, long time. I am very new and young at all this stuff because I have just bought a new laptop and don't know much about partitioning, dual booting and stuff. May Jesus bless you and praise be to god. Thank you so much for being so helpful and kind. I am a christian as well.

BTW doesnt this forum have a PM system?
And yeah I hope that the windows 8 version which has been referred in the above post is the consumer preview one because the full and official version is yet to be released, am I right?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

It's my pleasure Sam and may God bless you too and I claim the Blood of Jesus over you and all you hold dear.


I think one has to be for a certain while to have access to PM or perhaps it's tied to post-count, it will happen.

 

[sam9953]

Thanks. Can you please answer my question on the windows 8 part?
Plus will the official version of windows 8 also be installed in the same manner as mentioned in the tutorial for dual booting.

One more thing, while doing a check on my windows system recovery disk, i found out that my D drive which is the HP Recovery partition has some error files, is this because I did all this change of partition from primary to logical? What do you suggest me to do?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Here are a couple better methods to recover / imaging your PC than the factory load, have a look at these tutorials for some ideas.

Yes the official release of Windows 8 will install the same way.


Imaging with free Macrium

Clean Install : Factory COA Activation Key

If you only have the Release Preview linked in that tutorial I wouldn't really bother with that as it will only be usable for a short while as the public release of Windows 8 is due in October, at that time the RP will be un-usable.

 

[sam9953]

Thanks for this, any idea about the problem which I have mentioned in my above post.

One more thing. Please have a look at the below photo:

I can see two new folders which have hidden files, which require permission to be viewed, these folders were not there before I did the partition. Do you think these have been formed after it? Are they malicious?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I have no idea about the HP thing or the 2 files you list above though they could be added by HP as the factory recovery tools.

 

[sam9953]

I have no idea about the HP thing or the 2 files you list above though they could be added by HP as the factory recovery tools.

Ah okay. And I just saw those links which you mentioned above, can you tell me how are those two methods of getting a factory reset of the system different from using Windows Recovery disk and recovery image?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

The Macrium program is way more reliable than Windows 7 imaging, I personally would not count on it in an emergency to recover my windows.

 

[sam9953]

Okay. Thanks, I haven't seen it thoroughly but will check it soon and ask you if I face any trouble. Thanks for all the help. Have a good day.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

You too mate, see you soon.

 

[eddyray]

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for the help you are giving to resolve all these issues.

I Have just bought an HP Laptop windows7 with 4 primary partitions as follows:
1.system
2. c:
3. recovery
4. tools

I intend to dual boot so I have followed the method2 to set c: to logical partition.
so as to be able to create a new extended partition (using partition wizard).
unfortunately I am not able to start windows since i get an error message - No bootable device -- insertboot disk and press any key.
I have changed the boot order back to tha hard drive but still no good.

Please can any one let me know where i have gone wrong
Thank you

 

[Vazii]

Hello there,

I've recently got a HP Envy 6, and I'm trying to re-partition my disk to add some extra logical drives. I was trying to follow the same instructions to make C drive as Logical, however, in my machine C drive status is marked as System, and SYSTEM partition is marked as Active & Boot. So when I'm trying to change the C to logical drive, partition wizard is giving me a warning that C is System drive and changing this to logical will make it non-bootable. Can you please advise if it is safe to go ahead and make it logical or is there any other way to change system status.





Many Thanks
Vaz

 

[whs]

If I read your PW picture right, your 199MB system partition is the active partition. So you should be able to change C to logical.

I suggest you try that. If the OS does not boot, you can always change it back - but that is unlikely to be necessary.

 

[Vazii]

Thanks for your quick reply mate. I can try changing that, but the problem is I don't have a bootable cd drive in case anything goes wrong to put it back to Primary. I am not able to make new one from the iso image because this laptop don't have an optical drive

Let me first try to make a bootable USB drive.. Any suggestions? Partition Wizard allows creation of bootable disc/usb only in Pro edition..

Thanks again.

 

[whs]

Partition Wizard allows creation of bootable disc/usb only in Pro edition..

I don't think so. I never owned a Pro edition but I have made bootable CDs and USB sticks - although that was already last year. Maybe they changed the procedure.

 

[Vazii]

Finally I managed to create a Bootable USB using Universal USB Installer...
But Again, after booting through USB, PW was unable to change the C drive to Logical due an NTFS error code 19
Finally I went ahead and did through Windows 7, and on rebooting it, all worked perfectly

Thanks again for your help...

 

[whs]

Very good. I am sorry you had so much trouble. I wonder where this error code 19 in PW came from. This error code usually pertains to configuration information in the registry.

 

[YousefDxb]

How to link back free healthy partition to primary (sys) partition

Dear all,

Please advice how to put back a partition into primary partition. I need to have it all back to disk 0

 

[Brink]

Hello Yousef, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Please go ahead and post back with a screenshot showing the full layout of your Disk Management window first. This way we will be able to give you an accurate answer.