Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

Simple question, probably a damn complicated answer.

I have a 100GB 'Extended (Logical)' partition, and I need it to be a 'Primary' partition.

1. Is it possible to convert it?
2. If so, how?

Thanks :tu:

---------- Post added at 21:43 ---------- Previous post was at 21:38 ----------

Forgot to say, there's not much data on there at the moment - so I can remove it all if that helps the process.

Would rather avoid touching the other primary partition though (the one with ths OS on).

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

Partiton magic will do it(i think), or Acronis Disk Director.

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

If you're not bothered about losing (or backing up/restoring) the data, can't you just use Windows (if you're running Windows) to delete the extended partition and create a primary in its place?

If not, as Jon T says, or Paragon Hard Disk Manager.

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

Rob Dont use partition magic its absolutly Kack, so much its not worth ****in on.

Acronis Disk Director as jon T says, is ya best bet :D & does so without loosing data :) no need to backup restore etc.

Converting is pretty simple, it will give u a wizard or a manual operation.

Njoy

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

Qualify this statement.

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

ok, every time ive used PM, its crashed or frozen, everytime ive converted with it, its crashed, rendering the pc to reboot at every reboot which involved a reformat. Ive lost a few GB of space when partitioning drives, when formating the hd with Pm it will pop up an error, format with windows or in dos its fine. Maybe just a bad experience. However it is very easy to use. BUT i Will not use again.

Everytime ive used Acronis DD, not a single problem. Also very easy to use.

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

PM is fine, its worked every time for me unlike above ,or you might try GParted LiveCD
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php, i v not tryed a 'Logical' partition, to a 'Primary' partition with that as PM has served me so well, but i think GP can do that too without loosing data and its free OC.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/features.php

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

Thanks guys, I'll take a look at some of these suggestions when I get home this evening :tu:

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

Rob, out of interest why are you using basic disks on FAT32 partitions?


And not the preferred NTFS?

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

They're both NTFS partitions.

The Windows installer created them when I re-built the laptop.

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

Primary and Extended partitions are BASIC type, which is FAT32.

I'd advise you to use NTFS simple volume.

You can convert upto NTFS with no data loss.

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

The type of partition has nothing to do with it's format.

One of the machines I use at work is a PC with two partitions on one disk, both formatted as NTFS, but the disk type is "Basic"

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

The type of partition has nothing to do with the format of any drives within that partition. My drives on this PC are (simple) Primary Basic partitions formatted as NTFS.

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

It's always handy having a copy of Hiren's Boot CD, or Engineers Boot Disc.

I Partition Magic has always worked well for me. The only time it hasn't is when the disc it was on was damaged. (Scratched)

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

Ive never had any issues with it on any system ive used it on.

Will diskpart do what you require? (the one built into Windows)

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

Sometimes the simplest answers are the best, just deleted the partition after taking the data off and recreated it in the Disk Manager in Windows.

All sorted :)

Greenies all round, thanks :tu:

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

i agree everytime ive used Partition Magic ive ended up having to redo it with something else as the partitions corrupt somewhere down the line.

Re: Converting 'Extended (Logical)' Partition to 'Primary'
 

I've used PM a fair bit. I think a lot of problems it causes are due to subtle changes Microsoft have made in the NTFS format over the years. Some of which seem to occur even if you just read data from the drive.

For instance, while all versions of Windows since ME (apart from XP home) can access NTFS drives, drives that have been used in XP with SP2 and later cannot be used in Windows 2000.

As long as it's a fairly recent version of Partition Magic, it should be OK.