Creating Multi-Boot 64-Bit Win7, Win8, LinuxMint on SSD+HDD

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

No, I wouldn't recommend using EMBR in that case since you would only be able to have four loaded at any one time. Go ahead and use an extended partition if that's what you're used to.

I wouldn't worry about any wear from imaging a SSD (it would be reading).

[sigi]

TeraByte Support(PP) wrote:
> sigi wrote:

> > QUESTION 1
> > Should I use the Win7 Disk Manager or IFW for deleting all partitions on the GPT
> > disk?
>
> Disk Management should let you delete them since it's not the Windows disk anymore.
> Either method should work, though.

Disk Management let me delete partitions (D:), (E:) and (F:) (see Att.2 of the preceding posting). But it refused to delete the EFI partition. I used IFW to delete it, this time the copy function. It is easier to use than the restore function (which I used in my posting "Re: Converting BIBM-non recognized GPT disk to MBR with TBOS - Postby sigi » Mon Oct 05, 2015 6:53 pm") because the latter needs an image file, which I keep on an external drive, whereas the copy function can use any source partition available on the internal drive. The context menu of the selected destination partition then offers the delete function (see Att.1).


> > QUESTION 2
> > I have to achieve an empty MBR disk in order for BIBM to see it and create an
> > Extended Partition there as planned. Will the deletion of all partitions on the disk
> > still leave a GPT disk so that I have to run the chgdtype script? Is it better to
> > apply chgdtype prior to or after emptying the disk or is it irrelevant?
>
> You don't need to run chgdtype on it. Just convert the disk to MBR. You can do this
> in Disk Management (after all partitions are deleted) or with IFW. I would also
> recommend creating a normal primary partition instead of an extended partition.

It was easy to convert the GPT disk to MBR using Disk Management in Win8 (on the SSD) (see Att.2). Thereafter the disk was again visible in BIBM and I could create the desired Extended Partition there (see Att.3). But when I first tried to do the conversion with IFW, I did not see how. Can you please tell me which steps would lead me to the respective (context) menu item or where I would find instructions in the IFW manual?

After receiving the answer to this one, I can consider this thread as having solved all my problems. I have attained the desired partitions and BIBM as the master of all of them.

A word of apology:
I have included many Attachments in my postings and described some actions in much detail. I did not want to be didactic but did it for my own benefit (later recollection) and perhaps for the benefit of a few readers that are not so familiar with partitioning problems as most of the members of this forum are.

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

sigi wrote:
> But when I first tried to do the
> conversion with IFW, I did not see how. Can you please tell me which steps would lead
> me to the respective (context) menu item or where I would find instructions in the
> IFW manual?

It's on the IFW screenshot you attached to the previous post -- the "Change Disk" button.

[sigi]

Many thanks for this answer and for you excellent and patient support throughout this thread, which was for me like a guided tutorial. One has to search long for a comparable forum in the internet.
sigi