drive parititoning problem

[Pretender]

Alright, here's the story:
I have 2 IDE HDs, my main drive 20 GB which I split into 4 partitions (primary, primary, logical, logical), and my backup drive 8 GB which is one single partition.

My first primary partition on the 20 GB is C: (fine), the 8 GB drive is D: (also fine), but for some reason, the 2 logicals get the next 2 letters (E: and F:} and my other 20 GB primary partition is getting stuck with G:


Shouldn't all the primary partitions come first, and become C:/D:/E:, not C:/D:/G:? Could I have done something wrong, or is this normal? And if it's normal, should I turn the second primary into a logical (I'm planning on putting win2k on this one, and on the first primary I have win98se on it)?

 

[Ionizer86]

Odd problem. When I installed an Iomega Zip 100 in my system, all the drives messed up. Previously I had C, D, E, and F. C was primary, the rest was extended. All 10gb partitions on my 40gb. Anyway, the Zip100 became letter D, and the extended partitions shifted 1 letter forward. IN win2k there was no problem. C-F were all my HDD partitions then G was the Zip100. I think that since Win98 is based on DOS, it makes the primary drives come first. So my Zip went ahead of the logical HDD partitions. In your case, what if you try only one primary on your HDD next tie you reformat?

 

[bonkers325]

confused but to let u know
in win2k u can assign drive letters

 

[Mday]

pretender, any drive can only have ONE primary partition. any other partitions are logical partitions created from an extended partition.

unless you have 3 HDDs, you can't have 3 primary partitions.

 

[Mapidus]

<< pretender, any drive can only have ONE primary partition. any other partitions are logical partitions created from an extended partition.

unless you have 3 HDDs, you can't have 3 primary partitions. >>



Actually, you can have up to 4 primary partitions per drive, including the extended partition. FDISK might not let you do this, but programs like partition magic and GDISK will let you have multiple primaries on a drive.

 

[Mday]

documentation please =)

 

[Stanman]

Just a thought, if you want you can set your bios to &quot;none&quot; for the 8 gig drive and then it wont be seen until you get into windows, (drives are named before you get into windows) and then it windows will name this drive after all the other partitions, F - G or whatever.

 

[Mapidus]

<< documentation please =) >>



This article mentions the four primary partitions per drive.

 

[Mday]

thanks ='D

 

[Pretender]

also, read SUOrangeman's guide here, that's where I first heard of it.


I converted it to a logical partition and now it's E, which solved the problem. I was under the impression that all OSes intended to boot should be on primaries, but I guess it's not mandatory, so problem solved I suppose.

 

[Shuja]

I have the same configuration, 20 GB HDD(6 Partitions),having three primary and three logical partitions, and as I reuire to setup other computers I frequently mount other HDD on my PC to configure and partition it. In general case first primary partition take letter c2GB), but than D2GB),E4GB) and F4GB) all logical partitons, than comes the Primary PArtitions cf. G4GB) and H4GB). I have installed win 2K on E: a logical partition and Win NT on G: a primary partition and boot partition i.e C: having win98. There is no problem anyway.