partitioning revisited

[Robyn]

I had to use a restore point so I've lost my original query about
partitioning an external hard drive using Disk Management. To recap, I had
formatted the drive without creating partitions and ended up with one
indivisible Primary Partition.

I followed the manufacturer's advice (confirmed by someone on this list) and
deleted the single Primary Partition and chose to create a new partition.
The only option offered to me was to create a primary so I created one using
1/3 of the drive. When this was done I right clicked on the unallocated
space to create another partition (I want three altogether) and was offered
the choice of Primary or Extended. But the explanation with Extended says to
use it if you want four or more volumes, which I don't.
I'm totally confused now and hoping someone can tell me what to do.

The drive is 160 GB and I want to divide it into three partitions. It's
formatted in NTFS and there is no data on it yet.
At present I have a Primary Partition of 50.88 GB and Unallocated Space of
101.78 GB

Help!

Robyn

 

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

But the explanation with Extended says to use it if you want
four or more volumes, which I don't.

You don't *have* to use 4+ volumes if using an extended partition, but
(unless you resort to non-standard partition management software) you
do need to use an extended if you do want over 4 volumes.

The standard partition table supports up to 4 partitions, which are
system-level entities before any OS starts to run. Each OS has one or
more partition types it uses, and some of these may not be bootable.

MS OSs support various partion types that are either "primary" (i.e.
bootable or potentially bootable) or "extended" (i.e. that are not
bootable, but can contain multiple logical volumes).

So typically, to have 2+ volumes on a system that needs only one
bootable partition, you'd create:
- one bootable primary partition
- one extended partition, containing...
- one or more logical volumes

So a C: and D: set up would have one logical volume filling the
extended partition, whereas in your case, you'd have two logical
volumes D: and E: within that extended partition.

An extended partition has no file system of its own; it merely
contains logical volume(s), each of which has its own file system.
That's why it is not meaningful to speak of "FAT32 extended partition"
etc. - the extended is what it is, and the volumes within can each be
FAT32, FAT16, NTFS etc. to taste.

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Our senses are our UI to reality

 

[Guest]

I have just partitioned my drive .Put yourxp cd in the drive and reboot.Setup will load the files then you will come to disc partition its then easy to partition and format then load xp where you want
mark

 

[Robyn]

But would this work for an external hard drive I want to use for backing up
data rather than booting the PC?
Robyn

I have just partitioned my drive .Put yourxp cd in the drive and

reboot.Setup will load the files then you will come to >disc partition its
then easy to partition and format then load xp where you want

 

[Robyn]

Thanks for the detailed explanation, which I shall print out and keep for
future reference. If I've understood you properly all I have to do is to
turn the unallocated space into an extended partition after which I can
divide it into two logical drives.

Robyn

 

[Alex Nichol]

I had to use a restore point so I've lost my original query about
partitioning an external hard drive using Disk Management. To recap, I had
formatted the drive without creating partitions and ended up with one
indivisible Primary Partition.

I followed the manufacturer's advice (confirmed by someone on this list) and
deleted the single Primary Partition and chose to create a new partition.
The only option offered to me was to create a primary so I created one using
1/3 of the drive. When this was done I right clicked on the unallocated
space to create another partition (I want three altogether) and was offered
the choice of Primary or Extended. But the explanation with Extended says to
use it if you want four or more volumes, which I don't.

If you want to end up with three, create two more Primary partitions.
The most you can have is four, beyond that you make one of the four an
Extended, which is a sort of basket used to hold a chain of further
ones, so you can in principle get up to 24 altogether (when you run out
of letters)

 

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

Robyn wrote:

That's interesting, that a System Restore wipes user data...

<dracula> You cannot kill what does not live! </dracula>

You cannot format that which is not partitioned (i.e. there's always
at least one partition, to hold the volume being formatted)

If you want to end up with three, create two more Primary partitions.

I wouldn't do that unless I needed all three to be bootable. I'd be
too nervous of circumstances where XP might coose to call the wrong
one "C:" and not be amenable to change... it seems to do that with
aplomb, even when what's taken as "C:" isn't even a HD.

For volumes that don't have to be bootable, I'd create them within an
extended. Widens the range of possible maintenance tools to include
FDisk, and avoids some other "misunderstanding" risks.

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The most accurate diagnostic instrument
in medicine is the Retrospectoscope