Windows 7 won't allow four primary partitions???

[brocks]

I just got a new drive, and I went to split it into four partitions like I always do with drives. This was the first time I did it using Win7's Disk Management utility, though.

First problem - when I clicked on the empty space, it doesn't offer "New Partition" as one of the choices like XP does, but it does offer "New Simple Volume." Wasted ten minutes looking around the net and verifying that they mean the same thing. And then I notice that if you click on the "New Simple Volume" you just created, it offers "Delete Partition" as a choice. WTF do they go out of their way to confuse idiots like me?

OK, so that's settled, I make my partitions, 1,2, 3, but then it won't make the fourth partition a primary. It automatically makes it extended, and I don't see any way to get around it. I look around the net again, and sure enough, every source says Win7 Disk Mgmt allows you to make 3 primary and 1 extended, and none of them say why you can't have 4 primary like XP's DM lets you make.

I have a dozen ways to get around this - I can boot up XP and do it, or I can use True Image, or I can use the disk utility that came with the drive, but why should I have to? Can anyone tell me why Win7 won't allow 4 primary partitions, and if there is a registry hack or something I can do to change it? Thank you.

 

[Voo]

The first question is, why do you need four primary partitions? I'm not even sure if the first partition must be primary anymore in the last Windows OSes - last time I checked that was back in DOS times.
So it's not like you have any disadvantages.


But if you want to know why they changed it, no idea. Primary partitions have to be in the MBR and the MBR has a fixed size, so maybe they didn't have enough bytes per entry to adress some adresses (the MBR scheme is ancient, probably nobody thought about 2TB disks back then) and wanted to fix that - who knows.

 

[corkyg]

I could do this in a few minutes using Acronis Disk Director. A lot of the problem here is confusing semantics. If the objective is to create 4 virtual lettered drives, don't get wrapped around the axle of primary, etc.

 

[hanspeter]

I'm not even sure if the first partition must be primary anymore in the last Windows OSes - last time I checked that was back in DOS times.

You must still have at least one primary partition. The mbr can only hand over the boot process to a primary partition.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Strange limitation in Windows 7.

 

[xSauronx]

The first question is, why do you need four primary partitions?

all i can think of is if he wants to multiboot, maybe.

volumes ftw, people.

 

[hanspeter]

You don't need multiple primary partitions to multi boot Windows. Just one.

 

[pcgeek11]

I just got a new drive, and I went to split it into four partitions like I always do with drives. This was the first time I did it using Win7's Disk Management utility, though.

First problem - when I clicked on the empty space, it doesn't offer "New Partition" as one of the choices like XP does, but it does offer "New Simple Volume." Wasted ten minutes looking around the net and verifying that they mean the same thing. And then I notice that if you click on the "New Simple Volume" you just created, it offers "Delete Partition" as a choice. WTF do they go out of their way to confuse idiots like me?

OK, so that's settled, I make my partitions, 1,2, 3, but then it won't make the fourth partition a primary. It automatically makes it extended, and I don't see any way to get around it. I look around the net again, and sure enough, every source says Win7 Disk Mgmt allows you to make 3 primary and 1 extended, and none of them say why you can't have 4 primary like XP's DM lets you make.

I have a dozen ways to get around this - I can boot up XP and do it, or I can use True Image, or I can use the disk utility that came with the drive, but why should I have to? Can anyone tell me why Win7 won't allow 4 primary partitions, and if there is a registry hack or something I can do to change it? Thank you.

It can make four Primary Partitions:

1. Windows System 100 MB Partition. ( hidden ).
2. Windows OS Partition. User defined size.
3. User Defined.
4. User Defined.

You only see the # 2 - 4 Partitions.

Either way it's no big deal.

pcgeek11

 

[C1]

I would think WIN7 would allow four primary partitions. You no doubt have a hidden one (eg, hidden restore partition) defined.

Back even to DOS the max. # pri partitions was restricted to four. The whole thing is a big trade off with File Allocation Table space & speed of access versus cluster sizes, disk size (especially that they are available in much larger sizes than even a few years ago), etc.

Addendum:
Also, I would avoid use of extended partitions as these are correlated to the primary parent & have various limitations (eg, ability to support OS installs, independent deletion of the parent partition, hiding partitions from each other, etc.). If the parent partition gets into trouble it messes up the extended partition too.

 

[crizcom]

Hi all!

First of all, why recommend people do things your way If you dont need a second primary partition you dont propably have the merits to give any advice. No pun intended im just saying this to you as a thing to consider when posting a reply to a topic where somebody is desperately looking for an answer to hisher question and you are wasting hisher time.

I run into this problem too. I want another primary partition to make win7 system reserved partition bigger. This will enable me to use win7 inbuilt backup. (Shut up! I dont need reply's on why im using it. I just want to help the questioonnee to solve a problem).

I found out there's a nice little tool in windows called diskpart.exe. Im using the management console version no more.

open an admin console
open diskpart
type create
it'll display the options you need to create your partition

for more options type ? on diskpart prompt

 

[Nothinman]

look around the net again, and sure enough, every source says Win7 Disk Mgmt allows you to make 3 primary and 1 extended, and none of them say why you can't have 4 primary like XP's DM lets you make.

Because the only partition that has to be primary is the boot partition, all of the rest can be logical and nothing will notice so logical is the safer option. Once you're out of primary partitions and you want to create another you either have to use a 3rd party tool to convert one of the primary's to logical or do it by hand by deleting one and creating the extended partition. The safer choice is obviously to not let you back yourself into that corner.

 

[rjdafoe]

You actually have 4 primary. Windows 7 makes a hidden 100Mb primary partition, XP did not. I believe you would not have been able to make a 5th partition in XP either.

 

[Nothinman]

You actually have 4 primary. Windows 7 makes a hidden 100Mb primary partition, XP did not. I believe you would not have been able to make a 5th partition in XP either.

From the OP's description I'd say he's setting up a new data drive so there wouldn't be any 100M hidden boot partition.

 

[dman]

From the OP's description I'd say he's setting up a new data drive so there wouldn't be any 100M hidden boot partition.

Maybe he's booting from the Win7 CD (or media) to set it up. If so, then the installer automagically creates that hidden primary partition. Might be a way to break out and manually fix it from the CMD line.

If it's happening from within a booted W7 environment then I'm puzzled.

 

[Nothinman]

Maybe he's booting from the Win7 CD (or media) to set it up. If so, then the installer automagically creates that hidden primary partition. Might be a way to break out and manually fix it from the CMD line.

If it's happening from within a booted W7 environment then I'm puzzled.

I just created a VHD and tried to create 4 simple volumes, the first 3 were primary and the 4th caused an extended partition to be created automatically with no option to override it.

 

[Modelworks]

Create the first partition before you do an install of Win7 and it will not create the 100MB boot partition. It only does that if the first partition is unassigned.

I have two systems, neither with the 100MB partition.

 

[Modelworks]

I just created a VHD and tried to create 4 simple volumes, the first 3 were primary and the 4th caused an extended partition to be created automatically with no option to override it.

It may be a bug/feature in the windows disk partitioner assuming the hidden partition exist whether it does or not.

 

[Nothinman]

It may be a bug/feature in the windows disk partitioner assuming the hidden partition exist whether it does or not.

If I had to guess I'd say it's a feature so that you don't make yourself into a corner and can't make new partitions. But frankly, no one should care these days. Directories are for organization, not partitions. You should really just create one big partition on your drives with maybe the exception of the OS volume to make imaging simpler.

 

[Broyd]

Hello all!

I ran into this thread because I tried to create the 4th primary partition using Win7 disk management GUI, and like you,found out that the GUI creates an extended partition as the 4th.

However it is possible to do this in Win7 using the command line tool 'diskpart'.
You can find the diskpart command reference here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415
Refer to this reference for details to see what to expect!

Open a cmd window by typing cmd in the 'Search programs and files' line.
The commands you will need are as follows: Stuff in brackets are comments ... do not type them. Type:

diskpart (to start diskpart)

list disk (to display the disks in your system - note the number of the disk you want to add the 4th partition to)

select disk n (where n is the number of the disk you want to add a forth partition to)

list partition (to see if you have the right disk - shows 3 partitions)

create partition primary (to add the 4th primary partition - without any other operands, it will use the remaining unallocated space; you will now have a new 4th primary unformatted (raw) partition)

exit (to exit diskpart)

exit (to exit cmd)

...

NOW go back to the GUI disk management to finish this off.

-Format the partition with ntfs quick.
-Assign a drive letter and Volume name.

And you should be done!