Partition Magic 8.0 and this time I really have a mess

[Ritter197]

First let me say that I have used Partition Magic for years but this time I
have really messed up.
I use Windows xp , and had 2 partitions before my mess-up. They were the C:
drive with the OS and the drive L: for Applications.

My C: drive was getting somewhat small and I wanted to reduce the L: drive
(which had lots and lots of space) and then add it to the C: drive.

In the process I mistakenly created 2 new partitions (from the original L:
drive) but found no way how to Add these to the C: drive. Or to add # 5
below back to the L: drive.

So now I have the following:

1. C drive with the Windows XP on it. It works. It is in NTFS and Primary.
2. Recovery drive that HP creates in FAT and says NONE

3. Extended drive of 200,365 MB NTFS PRIMARY
4. Under the above NTFS 86MB Logical
5. NTFS 7,656MB Logical
6. NTFS 192,623 MB Logical

I had intended to add # 4 and 5 above to the C: drive, but did not succeed.

Worse. even though # 6 says in Parttion Magic that it is a Logical drive, it
does not show up anymore in the Explorer. It is probably (?) because # 3
says Primary? But again I do not see where I can make it Logical in
Partition Magic 8.0

What should I do???

 

[Guest]

Looks like quite a mess....Why not simply purchase 1 or 2 slave hds instead
of fooling with all the nonsence,new hds typically cost 50.00,many good ones
can be had for alot less.Also,with the partition sizes you list,none are
even a
GB.....

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Help us by describing the "L:" partition. Is it one of the logical
drives in the Extended partition that you list? Assuming that
you can re-install the apps and that you no longer need HP's
"recovery drive", delete all partitions except C: for simplicity,
and then expand the C: partition, then add a partition (or
logical drive within an Extended partition that you create) for
the L: partition. *I* would make L: a primary partition since
a hard drive is allowed 4 primary partitions. IOW, make it an
eeeeasy job for Partition Magic.

*TimDaniels*

 

[sandy58]

Looks like quite a mess....Why not simply purchase 1 or 2 slave hds instead
of fooling with all the nonsence,new hds typically cost 50.00,many good ones
can be had for alot less.Also,with the partition sizes you list,none are
even a
GB.....

That is NOT what Ritter197 was asking help on, Andrew E. I'm quite
sure he/she knows that external hdd's are readily available so don't
be such a peevish little smart arse & remember that "help" is the
operative word here.

 

[philo]

First let me say that I have used Partition Magic for years but this time I
have really messed up.
I use Windows xp , and had 2 partitions before my mess-up. They were the C:
drive with the OS and the drive L: for Applications.

My C: drive was getting somewhat small and I wanted to reduce the L: drive
(which had lots and lots of space) and then add it to the C: drive.

In the process I mistakenly created 2 new partitions (from the original L:
drive) but found no way how to Add these to the C: drive. Or to add # 5
below back to the L: drive.

So now I have the following:

1. C drive with the Windows XP on it. It works. It is in NTFS and Primary.
2. Recovery drive that HP creates in FAT and says NONE

3. Extended drive of 200,365 MB NTFS PRIMARY
4. Under the above NTFS 86MB Logical
5. NTFS 7,656MB Logical
6. NTFS 192,623 MB Logical

I had intended to add # 4 and 5 above to the C: drive, but did not succeed.

Worse. even though # 6 says in Parttion Magic that it is a Logical drive, it
does not show up anymore in the Explorer. It is probably (?) because # 3
says Primary? But again I do not see where I can make it Logical in
Partition Magic 8.0

What should I do???

You should delete the two unneeded partitions you created...
then use the free space to expand the partition that you had wanted to
increase.

*as always, back up your data first*

 

[Ron Badour]

Delete the two logical drives in the extended partition which will create
free space inside the extended partition.

Shrink the size of the extended partition so that the free space is between
the primary and extended partition.

Increase the size of the primary partition by including the free space
following it.

 

[Ritter197]

Andy:

I know all that. You also did not read correctly. The disk I am describing
is over 200+ GB !

 

[Ritter197]

Thanks for response, first!
The "L" partition is one of the Logical drives within the Extended
partition, just as you guessed.

It was holding (and hopefully still is) all my applications. It is marked
Logical.

The Extended partition is marked Primary.

I followed advice and deleted the 2 smaller partitions which I had created.

I did the Apply within Partition Magic.

Then I re-booted, went to the Explorer and still do not see the "L"
partition.
It goes from "K" to "M". Please understand that this fairly new HP list as a
partition each slot for a thumbdrive and 3 or 4 for various sizes of digital
memory cards from cameras.

I also went to Control Panel and Administrative tools and then to Disk
Management and it still shows the 2 "deleted" partitions as "healthy", but
also the "L" partition and again as "healthy".Yet I cannot see it under
Explorer and apparently the computer in the desktop does not see the "L"
partition either, because the Icons which indicate a program are shown as a
white shortcut only, rather than a "clickable" execution of that program.

Sorry for the long explanation of all, but I wanted to give you the total
picture of where I am at this time.

Thanks for suggestions even now already.

 

[DM]

Is the L: partition marked as active in the Disk Management console
applet (Action | All Tasks | Mark Partition as Active)?

DJM

 

[Ritter197]

NO the "L" partition is not marked as Active.

The "C" partition is.

 

[John]

First let me say that I have used Partition Magic for years but this
time I have really messed up.
I use Windows xp , and had 2 partitions before my mess-up. They were the
C: drive with the OS and the drive L: for Applications.

My C: drive was getting somewhat small and I wanted to reduce the L:
drive (which had lots and lots of space) and then add it to the C: drive.

In the process I mistakenly created 2 new partitions (from the original
L: drive) but found no way how to Add these to the C: drive. Or to add #
5 below back to the L: drive.

So now I have the following:

1. C drive with the Windows XP on it. It works. It is in NTFS and
Primary.
2. Recovery drive that HP creates in FAT and says NONE

3. Extended drive of 200,365 MB NTFS PRIMARY
4. Under the above NTFS 86MB Logical
5. NTFS 7,656MB Logical
6. NTFS 192,623 MB Logical

I had intended to add # 4 and 5 above to the C: drive, but did not succeed.

Worse. even though # 6 says in Parttion Magic that it is a Logical
drive, it does not show up anymore in the Explorer. It is probably (?)
because # 3 says Primary? But again I do not see where I can make it
Logical in Partition Magic 8.0

What should I do???

Besides what every one else told you...

First, don't forget that you will need to move *both* partition #2 and
#3 upward on the drive to make room for #1 (your C: drive). PM can't
take two disparate regions of the disk and make them into one partition.
If you need what is in #2 be careful not to make it any smaller than its
current size or you may lose what is in it!

And second, remember that XP won't bootstrap from a logical, its boot
files (ntldr, boot.ini and NTDETECT.COM) must be located on an active
primary partition. The rest of the OS can be on a logical although that
doesn't sound like an option for you as you would need an actual XP
installation CD to do that.

And thirdly if you ever have the need to actually use what is in
partition #2 all of you're partitioning efforts will most likely go away.

John

 

[John]

Besides what every one else told you...

First, don't forget that you will need to move *both* partition #2 and
#3 upward on the drive to make room for #1 (your C: drive). PM can't
take two disparate regions of the disk and make them into one partition.
If you need what is in #2 be careful not to make it any smaller than its
current size or you may lose what is in it!

And second, remember that XP won't bootstrap from a logical, its boot
files (ntldr, boot.ini and NTDETECT.COM) must be located on an active
primary partition. The rest of the OS can be on a logical although that
doesn't sound like an option for you as you would need an actual XP
installation CD to do that.

And thirdly if you ever have the need to actually use what is in
partition #2 all of you're partitioning efforts will most likely go away.

John

Oh and I forgot to add, since the recovery partition doesn't normally
have a drive letter who knows how the information on it is accessed in
the event it is needed? I won't pretend to know for sure but Its
physical location on the drive may be the only way it can be found.

Perhaps someone who has done what you want could chime in and say its OK
to move the recovery partition.

John