Problem Partitioning Drives

[ksdixon]

Using the custom installation method on the Windows 7 upgrade CD i purchased for another laptop. I nuked the C:\ drive on my PC and created a new one, resizing it so that I had some unallocated space, for which I planned to create a new partition on top of. I'm looking to seperate the Windows 7 OS from the installed 'program files' so that if I ever need to go back to factory settings in the future I can do so without loosing all my installed software/games etc.

At this point I recovered the factory settings from my Recovery partition on the PC, which simply put those files onto the now-smaller C: Drive. This seemd fine. Getting back into Windows 7 I have got Paragon's Partition Manager 2010 open, and it says it does not find any hardrive space it can use, being that my hardrive already has 4 partitions already.

Looking under Disk Management, I see the following, What can I get rid of?:

 

[not so gray matter]

You simply need to turn the ~195GB unallocated space into a new partition. You can do so fairly easily using the program Partition Wizard.

Simply open the program, click on the unallocated space and then click create new partition on the left. After you've selected the parameters and clicked ok, you'll need to click Apply on the bottom left.

I'm sure you can do the same in your program, you probably just didn't select the unallocated space first. If you do wish to use Partition Wizard, the free version will work just fine.

 

[ksdixon]

Partition Manager 2010's error message: "Sorry the Wizzard cannot continue. Wizzard did not find space that can be used for creating a new partition." And extra information: "This disc already contains four primary partitions. Basic hardrives can contain only four primary partitions, including extended one."

Partition Wizard's error message: "PW cannot create a partition here. There are no free MBR slots on the disc"

I have no idea what the un-named 1GB OEM Partition is (which doesn't say if it's NTFS or FAT/32), or how it's different from the 20GB ''Recover'' NTFS Partition, or if the OEM partition is even needed.

Nor do I know what the un-named 100MB "Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition" is and how it differes from the 715.07GB "Boot" NTFS C:\ Drive which states it is "Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)".

I'm hoping that both or at least one of the two un-named partitions can be deleted so that I can create a new partition in their place, as well as use the unallocated space too.

 

[madmansam]

you have too many partitions on one drive .. the 1GB is empty you can delete ..the one with a 100 mb only 28mb used it could be drivers ...C\: is where is your boot and system(I wouldn't touch) D\:is where your programs and files ..

 

[Wishmaster]

That will work for DATA such as music,videos,Pictures, and Documents.


Please keep in mind:
If you plan to instal your apps to a partition other than the OS one, its quite possible the only ones that will still work are those that were installed when the Image was created.

Anything installed after that, will likely need to be re-installed anyway.

 

[SIW2]

Paragon is absolutely correct. You can only have 4 partitions on an mbr disk.

Because you have an installation disc, can delete the oem partitions if you wish. You won't be able to the perform the oem recovery, of course, but I am assuming you won't want to.

The 1gb is not empty - it contains oem tools , you won't necessarily want those after a clean install - they are likely just reproductions of Windows built in apps.

The 100mb partition contains the boot critical files, Windows won't let you delete it - you could make your main windows partition the system partition as well, and then dispense with the 100mb one , but 2 extra slots is likely all you need.

 

[TVeblen]

From the link below:
"A primary partition is a type of partition created on a hard drive that can have a operating system installed on it. A primary partition functions as though it were a physically separate hard drive. By default on a MBR disk, you can create a maximum of 3 Primary partitions and 1 Extended partition with up to 128 logical volumes in the extended partition on a single hard disk."

If you delete one of those primary partitions, then you could create an extended partition in the unallocated space. In Disk Management, you should be able to right click on that "Unallocated space", created an "Extended Partition" for the entire space, and then create a "Logical Drive", and format it NTFS.

Before creating the logical drive you could try and combine the "Free Space" created when you delete the OEM partition with the extended partition.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html

Hope that helps.