3

I'm a little unsure what to do in this situation. When I try to create a new simple volume from the unallocated space I get an error because I already have 4 partitions. I have no option to extend either my C:\ primary partition or the E:\ logical drive.

C:\ - Gaming Win7 install.

D:\ - Storage

Unallocated Space - Would somehow like to install OSX on a partition from this space.

E:\ - Software Development Win7 install.

I:\ - Ignore this. It's an external 1TB HDD.

Do I have any options that do not involve formatting / losing information on either C:\ or E:\?

visual disk partitioning setup image. click to enlarge


A bit more information regarding partitions. Firstly, the image linked above is a screenshot of Windows 7 partitioning tool, easier to read than text I guess!

H:\ System Reserved: 100MB NTFS

C:\ 244 GB NTFS Healthy (Page File, Primary Partition)

D:\ 294 GB NTFS Healthy (Primary Partition)

E:\ 100 GB NTFS Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Logical Drive)

Unallocated 292 GB

3
  • Presumably there is also the hidden Windows 7 boot partition that is taking up the 4th partition.
    – Mokubai
    Sep 7, 2012 at 8:15
  • please specify type of each partition(primary, extended, logical drive). Sep 7, 2012 at 8:38
  • Edited with more information sorry :)
    – Kiada
    Sep 7, 2012 at 9:12

1 Answer 1

0

You can't extend all partition except for Storage (D:) partition since extending a partition needs the free space that follows it. Easiest thing to do is to extend the Storage (D:) partition to use the remaining disk space.

But if you want to create a new partition, you'll have to do more work first. Basic Disk has 4 root partition entries limit. This can be either 4 primary partitions or 3 primary partitions and one extended partition. Extended partition can contain more than 4 logical partitions. The System Reserved is a primary parition, so there's no more available entry left for use.

You have two options:

  1. Backup all data in Storage (D:) partition (either move some to other partitions or copy into DVDs) then delete the partition. Create an extended partition for all remaining disk space (should be around 587GB). Within the extended partition, you can create more than 4 partitions as logical drives (logical partition). So create two logical partitions of the same size from availale space of the extended partition.

  2. Use a third party disk partition manager program that have a feature to convert primary to logical partition. Use on the Storage (D:) partition then resize the extended partition to use all remaining disk space (if not already done by the program). Create a new logical partition from the remaining space in the extended partition.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .