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converting primary to extended ntfs

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2016 12:57 am
by wizzleme
Thanks to all here for your help. Once I have things set up I won't be asking so many questions.

4 primaries here on a single hard drive winrecovery(hidden) c:win7boot d:data bootitbm embr

I would much prefer not to change to more than 4 primaries. So I would like to convert the d:\data partition to extended partition so as to resize it and split it up into more than one (logical) partition.

How to best/easiest accomplish this with bootitbm?

If possible please give specific steps in the procedure as I am somewhat of a dummy when it comes to partitioning drives.

Thank you.

Re: converting primary to extended ntfs

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2016 7:17 pm
by Bob Coleman
I don't know if this best, but, if it were me, I'd:

1. Backup the d:\data partition.
2. Delete the d:\data partition.
3. Create a new extended partition in the now free space formerly occupied by the d:\data partition.
4. Create one logical partition in the new extended partition.
5. Restore the d:\data partition to the new logical partition.
6. Resize the d:\data logical partition and create additional logical partitions as desired.

Assuming the hard drive is now fully allocated, I don't know if the extended partition so created will be as large as the current d:\data partition. If not, it might not be possible to restore the backup of the d:\data partition into the smaller space. To minimize that possibility, I might either select "compact" during the backup of d:\data or resize d:\data smaller before backing it up. The choice between these is probably insignificant. I guess I'd back up d:\data as is for safety and then back it up again with "compact".

Re: converting primary to extended ntfs

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2016 9:34 am
by wizzleme
Thanks for the reply Bob. Can extended partitions be created under NTFS file system even?

D:Data is about half full so resize then backup then delete and created extended partitions seems the safest way to go. Not sure I trust "compact" never used that before, wonder if it is reliable.

Re: converting primary to extended ntfs

Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2016 10:12 pm
by Bob Coleman
wizzleme wrote:
> Thanks for the reply Bob. Can extended partitions be created under NTFS
> file system even?
>
> D:Data is about half full so resize then backup then delete and created
> extended partitions seems the safest way to go. Not sure I trust
> "compact" never used that before, wonder if it is reliable.

"Can extended partitions be created under NTFS file system even"?

I'm not sure I quite agree with that wording, but I think I'm nitpicking. An extended partition, as far as I know, doesn't have a file system. The logical partitions/volumes within an extended partition can certainly be NTFS. I have some.

Compact: I tried it once just as an exercise and it seemed to work OK, but I have no experience of note. I certainly can't see anything wrong with making the other choice.

Re: converting primary to extended ntfs

Posted: Mon Dec 26, 2016 11:04 pm
by DrTeeth
On Sun, 25 Dec 2016 01:34:27 PST, just as I was about to take a herb,
wizzleme disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>Thanks for the reply Bob. Can extended partitions be created under NTFS file system even?

Yes. The file system type does not have anything to do with the
partitioning possibilities.

MBR disks are limited to 4 partitions, they can be 4 primary
partitions and three primaries with an extended partition. That
extended partition can contain any number of logical partitions.The
filesystem(s) used to not affect that.

Happy New Year
--
Cheers

DrT
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