How do you get rid of the limit of partitions on the C drive?

Question

I am trying to dual run Windows 8 and7. I read somewhere that to do this you need to make a separate partition on the C drive. When I do this I get this error message

You cannot create a new volume in this unallocated space because the disk already contains >the maximum number of partitions."

I would like it if someone either told me how to get rid of the limit or let me know if i can run Windows 8 on a partition of my D drive. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You don't need a separate partition for installing Windows 8. You could install Windows 8 to VHD.

VHD is Virtual Hard Disk - just a simple file on any partition.

You need at least 16 GB for 32 bit Windows 8 install (and 20 GB for 64 bit)

How to install Windows 8 to VHD

The benefit of VHD method is that for just a small overhead for disk access you have a complete native installation and don't need a separate partition.

Answer 2

You'll need to convert the disk to dynamic before creating the extra partition. To do this within Disk Management:

• Right click on Disk 0 (Grey area that shows the total size of your HD)
• Select 'Convert to Dynamic Disk' After you've converted it to a dynamic disk you'll then be able to go and create the new simple partition.