Convert Primary Partition to Logical/Extended?

[ChrisOfTheOT]

After much trouble trying image one hard drive to another (with Norton Ghost
2003), I took my wife's Dell D400 to our local computer shop. They did the
image (but couldn't get Ghost or Acronis to work so used Partition Magic 8)
but had to do one partition at a time and 're-build' the partitions onto the
new drive.

All is okay, except that all the 4 partitions are now Primary. I want to
have one Primary partition ('C - Active) and the remainder on an extended
partition as logical partitions. Disk Management doesn't offer a conversion
option, and Partition Magic 7 (all I have) only offers the option to convert
from Primary to Logical/Extended if it ALSO converts to FAT32 (from NTFS). I
don't want FAT32!

Am I missing something, or is there a simple way to convert from Primary to
Logical/Extended? (I had a terrible job before when I tried to convert a USB
drive from NTFS to FAT32 - how is it that PM7 seems to offer it as a default
option (NTFS file system being greyed-out)?)

Cheers,

Chris

 

[ChrisOfTheOT]

I read lots about partitions generally and about what PM7 can do with them
in particular. The PM7 user manual (which is on paper; remember them?)
mentions that it can only convert a Primary partition into a Logical one (as
part of an Extended partition) if said Primary is next to an already
established Logical. Hmm.

After thinking about it for a looooooong time, I thought I'd try to create a
new (Logical) partition at the end of the drive, then just 'Convert' all the
way back up the partiton list. But the new partition didn't get made because
it required the creation of an Extended partion to put it in... which, I
found out, is a Primary partition as well.

So I decided to chance my arm. Having backed-up Anna's work from this
morning, I figured the last partition (for temorary files) would be a fairly
safe partition to experiment on. In PM7, I hit 'Convert'... The options for
'Logical/Extended' and 'FAT32' (for file system) were offered, the remainder
being greyed-out, as before. But when I selected 'Logical/Extended',
lo-and-behold, the 'FAT32' option was deselcected by default. Whoopee! So I
just went for it...

Since PM7 performs the arduous 'Moving data' operation (even though the new
partition was only being 'enveloped' into the Exteneded partition) it is not
quick. I'm doing the 'Data' drive now, which has been running for nearly two
hours, and it's only at 70%. (I still have 'C' and 'D' partitions to go...)
But at least it's working, God willing...

Anyway, just to let you know.

Cheers,

Chris