Solved I wanted to divide into five partition my laptop hard drive

[se8820726]

Hi guys.
i have a dell 5010 laptop
I wanted to divide into five partition my laptop hard drive. But 7 did not let that make more than four partitions.
My hard drive capacity is 465 GB. 7 automatically maked partition 0 with a capacity of 100 Mb.
I built second partition 65 GB and the third and fourth with 125 gb.
In the end it did not make fifth partition with 165 GB
I've installed Windows then with diskmgmt.msc made the fifth partition but all of my partitions was changed to dynamic partitions.
after restarting windows it couldnt run and I cant remove partitions and fix them from 7 bootable.
now what do i must do?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello se8820726, welcome to Seven Forums!


There is a four (4) partition limit with Windows.

You will have to convert the disk back to Basic from Dynamic to correct this issue.

Download the zip file from this link below to the desktop then once it has been extracted burn the ISO file to CD and then boot the PC with the CD to use Partition Wizard to convert back to a Basic disk.

pw422.zip – Windows Live

ImgBurn Free ISO Burning Software

Have a look at Option Four of this tutorial at the link below for an outline of the process; I'm sure others will have some additional information for you and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

How to Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk

 

[gregrocker]

The tutorial linked above shows how to use the PW Home Edition to convert Dynamic to Basic. Since you can't start Windows, you'll have to use the Partition Wizard v. 4.2 bootable CD version linked above following these steps:

Boot PW CD, select 1 for Screen Resolution, click on the Dynamic HD.

From Disk tab, select Convert Disk from Dynamic to Basic, then click OK, Apply all Steps.

When it is finished, from Win7 post back a screenshot of your full DIsk Mgmt drive map, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu. We'll give you the steps to create a fifth partition if you still want one, by converting one to Logical Extended to which you can add as many sub-partitions as you wish.

 

[avoiderrors]

you have to re-format your system partition Follow these steps

1. Boot your computer using your windows installation CD/DVD.
2. Select the Repair option in the installation setup option
3. Type the command: DiskPart.exe
4. At the DISKPART prompt, type: select disk C: or applicable partition to select the dynamic disk that you want to convert.
5. At the DISKPART prompt, type: clean to delete volume on the disk.
6. Then, at the DISKPART prompt, type: convert basic

 

[MacGyvr]

Can you tell us what is the purpose of dividing your hard drive this way? It seems unnecessary.

 

[dsperber]

A hard drive has a limit of four PRIMARY partitions on it.

When you create partitions, you can create PRIMARY or LOGICAL types of partitions. All partitions, primary or logical, are assigned drive letters by Windows. You can use DISKMGMT.MSC to reassign drive letters that have been previously assigned by Windows, to anything you like (except for the boot drive letter C which cannot be changed).

Normally, primary partitions are limited to one per drive and positioned either at the front or back of the drive. After that, all the remaining contiguous free space is allocated to another primary partition named the "extended partition", and inside of that space you can then allocate ANY NUMBER of LOGICAL partitions.

You can have multiple individually lettered primary partitions on a physical drive (consecutively placed), followed by one "extended partition" for the rest of the free space on the drive, inside of which any number of logical partitions can then be defined.

You don't actually see that "extended partition" which holds all of the logical partitions, but it's there and pointed to by the "boundary box" (which is like a partition table of contents at the front of the physical drive).

Best suggestion... don't use DISKPART. Use Partition Wizard (either installed under WinXP or Win7, or running from its standalone bootable CD) to do all of your partition work.

Just remember that unless you need a PRIMARY partition for a reason (e.g. a fresh install of Win7 on an empty drive, will cause a "system reserved" 100MB special primary partition to be created, as well as a second Win7 primary partition) you can allocate LOGICAL partitions to your heart's content from within that single "extended partition" which is one primary partition representing all the rest of the contiguous free space on the physical drive other than those allocated PRIMARY partitions.

You can even have NO primary partition on a physical drive, in which case the entire space of the drive is allocated to that one "extended partition" (i.e. a primary partition inside of which LOGICAL partitions are allocated). Then you can allocate as many LOGICAL partitions as you want, in that space which comprises the entire physical drive... i.e. inside of that primary-type "extended partition".


LOGICAL partitions are perfectly fine for most uses. You don't need PRIMARY partitions for "data".

And primary vs. logical partitions have other more complex considerations when you try to position them on a physical drive leaving free space before or after. Best recommendation: avoid this unless you know what you're doing.

And use Partition Wizard. It's as easy to use as any program you've ever seen, and will hide all of these complexities and considerations from you... and never let you make a mistake. Runs under winXP/Win7 or standalone from its own boot CD.

 

[Layback Bear]

I'm still lost; why 5 partitions. What is the OP trying to do.

 

[dsperber]

I'm still lost; why 5 partitions. What is the OP trying to do.

Who knows?

Anyway, the problem is that he created PRIMARY partitions... not LOGICAL partitions. That's why there's any limit at all.

OP... please start over.

That first 100MB "system reserved" PRIMARY partition that you say is DISK0 is critical to Win7. It has no drive letter assigned by Windows, and you cannot touch it. It contains the boot loader files. Forget about it. It's not for you to think about.

The next partition is the Win7 partition, and you say it's 65GB. It is also a PRIMARY partition, and it's probably DISK1 and given the drive letter of C.

That's two of the four-maximum possible PRIMARY partitions, already assigned and unchangeable.

However all the remaining space on your 465GB hard drive (probably was really a 500GB raw, before formatting) can be considered available... to a THIRD PRIMARY partition (which has no name officially, but is referred to as the "extended partition"). This is the THIRD of the four-maximum possible PRIMARY partitions on a drive, but inside of that "extended partition" you can have ANY NUMBER OF LOGICAL PARTITIONS SUB-DEFINED.

You simply have to create them as LOGICAL partitions and not PRIMARY partitions. That way the single primary "extended partition" can hold any number of internally sub-defined logical partitions inside it, each one further getting its own drive letter (D, E, F, etc.).

To you and to the outside world, there is no real difference between the logical partitions and primary partitions... other than the fact that we really do understand where they are and how they got created. But they're all just drive letters to Windows and the outside world.

So, use Partition Wizard to get rid of those extra partitions you've got created. You want to go back to a "basic" hard disk, with the 100MB "system reserved" DISK0 (with no drive letter), and the 65GB DISK1 for Win7 (lettered C).

In the remaining space, just use Partition Wizard to begin allocating LOGICAL partitions of whatever size you want. DO NOT ALLOCATE ANY MORE PRIMARY PARTITIONS (it's a dropdown item... to create either logical or primary, and you'll select logical). The first logical partition you create will begin the process of utilizing the "extended partition" area inside of which all logical partitions you create will be housed.

Partition Wizard (and DISKPART, to be honest) understand all of this, but Partition Wizard is far easier to use and rely on.

Again, your problem was that you created PRIMARY partitions and didn't realize it. You should have been creating LOGICAL partitions (with DISKPART, or Partition Wizard) and you'd have had no problem whatsoever creating 100 partitions... but LOGICAL, not PRIMARY!

 

[se8820726]

thank you for your guide

i want to have 4 partition:
c: 65gb
d:125gb
e:125gb
f:165gb

I want to be primary only the first partition and other partitions be logical.
will dynamic partitions create problem for me?

If it cant create any problem for me I'd prefer dont change it because I could run Windows on it

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

thank you for your guide

i want to have 4 partition:
c: 65gb
d:125gb
e:125gb
f:165gb

I want to be primary only the first partition and other partitions be logical.
will dynamic partitions create problem for me?

If it cant create any problem for me I'd prefer dont change it because I could run Windows on it

Hello again.

Yes a Dynamic disk will give you problems as you are seeing already.

Just disregard all the long-winded babble about partition structure above and concentrate on the steps Greg and I have given you to convert the disk back to Basic and be sure to post back here with any questions you may have.

Once it's back to Basic we will give you the steps to add additional partitions if needed.

 

[se8820726]

ok
my last problem solved.
i have:
partition 0 primary system reservoir 100mb
partition 1 primary 65gb (lettered c) and installed 7 on it

now i want to create 3 logical partitions:
d: 125gb
e: 125gb
f: 165gb

how must i do?
can i create logical partitions with diskmgmt.msc

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Good to see you got it running.


You can't use Windows disk management, you will have to use diskpart to create an Extended partition of the remaining unallocated space and it can be done while in Windows 7, so you can create as many Logical drives within the Extended as there are available drive letters.


Have a look at Method One of this tutorial at the link below and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.

Partition / Extended : Logical Drives

 

[se8820726]

very very thanks to you dear friend.
finally my problems with partitions solved by your helps.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

You are very welcome and I'm pleased we could help.

 

[gregrocker]

Nice work.

Just to confirm: You were able to convert from Dynamic to Basic using PW boot disk v.4.2 with no problem?

 

[se8820726]

hi dear friends
yes yes. i was able to convert from Dynamic to Basic using PW boot disk v.4.2 with no problem.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

hi dear friends
yes yes. i was able to convert from Dynamic to Basic using PW boot disk v.4.2 with no problem.

Thank you very much for the update.

 

[supreethn4]

Hello Bare foot kid,
I am using Dell inspiron4050 installed with windows 7 home basic 64bit.
Right now i have 3 partition:
C drive-100GB
D drive(Recovery)-14GB
G drive-195GB
i need to divide G drive in to two drives of 100GB each. when i try shrinking. it displays a message stating dynamic disks are not supported by this operating system or server configuration.
Please help me in this regards

 

[Zukaro]

To create more than 4 partitions you need to use GPT (GUID Partitioning Tables). Windows 7 64-bit supports booting off these drives (or so I've heard, I haven't actually managed to get it working).

GPT supports up to 255 partitions I think (not sure on that one, but it's 100+ for sure). What Windows uses by default is MBR (Master Boot Record) which only supports 4 primary partitions and one extended (that one extended uses up one of the 4 primary).


(GUID stands for Globally Unique Identifier)




I'm not sure if you can make GPT drives using Windows however. The way I do it is I boot a Linux distro on USB and format the drive as GPT and create a partition. Then install on that, although, I'm not sure if that actually works for Windows.

*not sure if someone's suggested this yet*




Alternatively you should be able to make an extended partition and put multiple logical partitions inside that one (at least, I think so).

Anyways, I hope this helps.

 

[dsperber]

To create more than 4 partitions you need to use GPT (GUID Partitioning Tables).

This information is inaccurate.

An MBR disk can support up to FOUR "PRIMARY" PARTITIONS. However if you want more than four "partitions" you can use one of those four primary partitions as an "extended partition", inside of which ANY NUMBER of "logical" partitions can be sub-defined. That would end up with a maximum of THREE "primary" partitions for real use, and ONE "primary" partitions re-purposed as the "extended partition" inside of which ANY NUMBER of "logical" partitions would live.

There are certain rules and regulations about what you can do with a "logical" partition (e.g. it CANNOT be specified as the "active" partition for the BIOS to boot directly to, although it CAN be specified as a "boot" partition for an operating system like some version of Windows, with Windows' Boot Manager) but for most uses it is perfectly acceptable. Certainly as an ordinary "data" partition it is 100% usable.

You can re-size, re-letter, create, etc., and do anything you want with a "logical" partition. You basically just cannot specify it as "active" as the primary bootable partition for the BIOS. But it can still be booted to if you put a Windows in it, though you have to get to it via standard Windows' boot-time Boot Manager which itself resides in the "primary+active" bootable partition on hard disk #1, gone to by the BIOS at machine boot time per the BIOS setup.

You do not HAVE to have even one true "primary" partition on a secondary data drive. If you want, the entire disk space could be allocated as an "extended partition" and thus the entire drive could be constructed to contain ANY NUMBER of "logical" partitions. The entire drive would consist of nothing but "logical" partitions... any number of them.

But on your primary hard drive, one of which is required for booting to Windows (or Windows' Boot Manager) obviously, you must have at least ONE "primary" partition so that it can be defined as "active" for the BIOS to boot to. It can be a regular bootable WinXP partition, the small "system reserved" partition for Win7 inside of which Boot Manager lives and which then in turn boots to the real Win7 system partition via Boot Manager menu, a slightly non-standard Win7 setup where Boot Manager and menu has been moved to the actual Win7 system partition and there is no small "system reserved" partition, etc., etc. So a minimum of ONE primary partition MUST exist on hard disk #1 as the BIOS sees things, and certainly that minimum of one primary partition MUST also be set as "active", where a bootable OS or Boot Manager MUST live. After that... you're pretty much on your own.

So on the first hard drive, there certainly must absolutely be at least ONE primary partition marked as "active" for the BIOS to boot to. But beyond that, ALL OF YOUR OTHER PARTITIONS CAN BE "LOGICAL", including one or more bootable Windows system partitions.

You don't truly need GPT disks, although if you want to have drives >2GB then you do. MBR supports up to 2TB, and up to 4 primary partitions (or up to 3 "primary" partitions plus 1 "extended partition" with any number of "logical" partitions inside of it).

What Windows uses by default is MBR (Master Boot Record) which only supports 4 primary partitions and one extended (that one extended uses up one of the 4 primary).

Again... inaccurate information.

An MBR disk supports up to four primary partitions, not five. An "extended partition" is actually one of those four allowed primary partitions repurposed to contain any number of "logical" partitions sub-defined inside of it.


So by thinking about what is really wanted, going with a standard MBR four-primary disk setup should work fine for virtually all needs. Just make one of those four primary partitions the "extended partition" and you can now sub-define any number of "logical" partitions inside of it.

You can use Partition Wizard to do all of this partition work. Reliable and dependable and easy-to-use.

Note that simply converting a partition from primary to logical, or even defining a new logical partition in currently unallocated space... these actions automatically imply the creation of that "extended partition" inside of which the logical partition you're defining is created.

In other words, the user doesn't really create the "extended partition". It's automatically created by virtue of the desire to create at least one logical partition. The "extended partition" is simply the surrounding disk space which incorporates all of the contiguous "logical" partitions you've defined inside of it.