Converting C:/ partition to Logical Partition

I have an HP dv6 laptop which came with 4 primary partitions:

System Reserved Partition
C: (contains OS)
Recovery Partition
HP_Tools

I think HP is an amateur company which doesn't even know, putting data in OS partition is nuts but they force their customers.

Now I want to create a new partition (primary) for putting my data in it, as of now all the data is in C:/.

Question:

Can I convert C:/ to a logical partition, so that I can create a new Primary partition for putting data in it? If I do so, will Windows 7 boot from system reserved partition?

Here is the snapshot of my harddrive: enter image description here

I am using Windows 7

Regards

Umer Farooq

Posted 2014-01-19T14:29:18.607

Reputation: 241

This question is so old I won't try very hard to elaborate on it, but I will definitely confirm that on a disk using an MBR-based partitioning scheme, a primary partition can be converted to a "logical drive" within an "extended partition"-type of setup. I could definitely pull this off with OpenBSD fdisk, which provides a rather manual- (rather than automated-) way to do such things (even by typing in sector numbers). Shrinking the filesystem volumes may be a different question, but changing the type of partition can definitely be done. – TOOGAM – 2020-02-19T19:53:03.857

Anybody who knows the answer? – Umer Farooq – 2014-01-19T14:50:45.527

You are going to run into an issue. Your disk is a MBR disk which means you already have the max number of partitions created. Most people keep their data on a single partition. The reason HP didn't do it in this case is more then likely the system didn't ship with a GPT disk. – Ramhound – 2014-01-19T18:50:31.137

@Ramhound If you mean that he can only create four partitions and he has four.. then try to read his question. He asked "Can I convert C:/ to a logical partition, so that I can create a new Primary partition for putting data in it? If I do so, will Windows 7 boot from system reserved partition?"</i> And, If he has 4 primary partitions and converts a primary to a logical(or rather, an extended and a logical), then he's not going to be looking at 5 primary partitions is he! It's not going to be more than four. – barlop – 2014-01-22T21:32:10.053

@barlop - Thanks for the information, I don't agree, but willing to accept your feedback on my comment. – Ramhound – 2014-01-22T21:34:41.333

@Ramhound Look if you have 4 primary partitions. P,P,P,P and you convert one to a logical call it L. That's creation of an extended partition and one or some logical partitions. P,P,P,E,L There are not more than four primary partitions there. He had 4 and if he does the conversion he would have 3. Neither of those are >4! Also see http://superuser.com/questions/368173/what-is-the-maximum-number-of-partitions-that-can-be-made-on-a-hard-drive You can have 4 primary partitions, or 3 primary partitions and one extended partition containing any number of logical partitions.

– barlop – 2014-01-22T21:40:30.697

Answers

See "Method Two" from this guide:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/146694-partition-extended-logical-drives.html

added by barlop
Looking at that webpage, that webpage lists two things, creating a partition with diskpart which it calls "method 1". But what you want, is under "Method 2" on that webpage, it mentions how to convert primary to logical. It says to use Partition Wizard which can be bootable CD here or bootable USB here. I haven't tried it but I see from that webpage It lists partitions, it doesn't list "convert" under operations, but it can convert- you can right click the partition choose "modify" then "set partition as logical" and that does it. It can also "set partition as primary". And it mentions that you can run diskmgmt.msc as administrative, and right click a partition and choose "shrink volume" or "extend volume" (no doubt non-destructively and no doubt it does likewise with the partition and not just the volume within the partition.).

There is also a note on that page which i'll describe here, you need an active primary partition to boot from. On a windows 7 system the active primary partition is called "system reserved" and is 100MB/200MB (as opposed to the C partition). On XP there is no "system reserved partition" and the active partition is typically C.

tehnyaz

Posted 2014-01-19T14:29:18.607

Reputation: 31

@barlop So if I make C:/ drive to logical which in my case is "Boot, page file, primary partition", I will still be able to boot in to Windows 7? Am I right? – Umer Farooq – 2014-01-20T09:33:41.633

@UmerFarooq I suppose if it's logical it'd be inside an extended. If you're terribly worried then back up beforehand but I think you'll find it's all reversible anyway. Remember besides partitioning, XP had bootcfg /rebuild.. Win 7 has its equivalent (seems to be bootrec.exe). And these operations are extremely quick to do. So if you become "screwed", you shouldn't be screwed for too long. It's a matter of making the right partition primary and active (Seems the reserved one in 7's case) then (if need be) making sure that can see all the others. bootrec.exe /fixboot bootrec.exe /fixmbr – barlop – 2014-01-20T16:21:57.603

I haven't done it in years and haven't done it with win7. but it's no big deal. – barlop – 2014-01-20T16:24:11.300

No, that won’t work, for multiple reasons:

Windows will refuse booting, because you don’t have an extra boot partition
Logical volumes exist in the so-called Extended Partition
- The extended partition has to be the last partition (in the partition table)
- While it is possible to order partition table entries independent from the actual disk layout, this can lead to compatibility problems.

So the recommended solution is to create a recovery disc, if possible, and simply remove those partitions. You could also create a whole disk backup and install Windows from a clean install medium.

Daniel B

Posted 2014-01-19T14:29:18.607

Reputation: 40 502