Windows 7 max partitions problem - help please

[Tiago]

Hi,
my girlfriend bought an Compaq CQ62 210 SP
It came with win7 64 bits, i installed office etc etc etc.... everything fine.

But it came with the partitions:
SYSTEM,
c:WINDOWS 283gb
d: RECOVERY 14,3gb
e: HP_TOOLS 99,3 mb

so it has 4
I would like to have a partition for "Backups" with something like 100gb and c: with 180 to.

i cannot create another partition because of 4 it's the maximum you can have?

i go to:
start + computer + manage and then to disk partition software
then i go to c:\ and make a shrink to 100gb to create a empty 180gb for my backup partition

this worked fine with my old laptop i only have 1 partition

with this one he says that he would have to convert from dynamic to basic system and i would no be able to boot .... WTF ?????

i read on the web it's because win can handle only 4 partitions ? is that it?

some pleose said that i can delete the HP_tools partition that would give only 3 partition and then i as able to shrink the C:\ without that warning....

what you think of it?

[Harrison]

This is very true, however it gets more confusing. Windows only allows a maximum of 4 partitions on each physical HDD. 4 Primary partitions, or 3 primary and one extended partition.

Primary partitions are the only type an OS can be installed and run from.

Extended partitions are however not the same. They cannot be formatted like a primary partition, but instead contain logical drives. An unlimited number of logical drives can be created, formatted and a different drive letter assigned to them. So by using an extended partition, and then adding as many logical drives inside it, you can create as many logical drives as you like on the HDD. So using this method you can have more than 4 in total on a single drive.

Windows 7 requires 2 partitions when installed (system and windows in your case) and these have to remain.

I would suggest you shrink the C:windows partition to the size you wish, then create an extended partition for the rest of the disk. You will then be free to create as many logical drives inside that extended partition as you like.

I would also just ditch the HP tools partition and back its contents up to CD/DVD instead for safe keeping.

[Tiago]

well,

SYSTEM,
c:WINDOWS 283gb
d: RECOVERY 14,3gb
e: HP_TOOLS 99,3 mb <---delete this partition

and then i was able to shrink c: partition without the error of converting dynamic to basic, simple, with no problems.
what i hate is the lack of information about it. Compaq dont put any info in manuals and even in there websites they dont talk to much about it...

It looks like almost all compaqs with WIN 7 has the same "problem" if anyone get a new Compaq, you now what to do...

[Tiago]

magic partition or partition magic? i used to have that one in my XP... does it exists for win 7 x64?

[Demon Cleaner]

magic partition or partition magic? i used to have that one in my XP... does it exists for win 7 x64?

Yes, look here --> http://www.partition-tool.com/resour...-windows-7.htm

EDIT: Check downloads section.

EDIT2: Forget it, can't upload the file, says it's too large to upload. How large can one single file be, so I will split it?

[Harrison]

The server limit is 20MB on here, but it might be limited further to 8MB max by mysql. You also have the option to upload to webspace and then link an external file in the downloads section.

[Demon Cleaner]

Ok, it's posted there as link now, feel free to download

[Tiago]

Thanks demon, i will do it.