On Fri, 5 Aug 2016 21:47:55 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

Micky wrote:

How am I supposed to get more than 4 partitons?
Extended Partitions not found on Easus Partition Management

With MBR (Master Boot Record), you can only have 4 *physical* partitions
on a device (disk). That's it! The partition type can be primary or
extended. There can can 1 to 4 primary partitions. There can be a
maximum of 1 extended partition per device. The MBR only has 4 records
for physical partitions. That is why there is a limit of 4 physical
partitions of whatever type when using an MBR.

The physical partitions (primary and extended) are tracked or defined by
the 4 partition records within the partition table within the MBR.
Logical drives are tracked or defined by structures defined *within* an
extended partition.

If you have 4 physical partitions already defined in the MBR, you
reached the maximum number of partition records available in its
partition table. Are all those physical partitions of the primary type?
If so, you have no extended partitions within which you can define
logical drives. If one of them is an extended partition type then you
can define logical drives within that extended partition.

For more information, read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_boot_record
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_p...nded_partition

I must be confused, but I've created 3 primary partitions on the new
harddrive, and when I wanted to make an extended partition, Easus PM
(dl'd only a week ago) only had two choices, Primary and Logical.

It is helping you too much. An extended partition with no logical
drives defined with it is wasting disk space. An extended partition is
a superstructure to encompass the definition of logical drives within
that partition. There is no point in creating an extended partition
unless you ALSO create a logical drive within it. So the tool is
eliminating asking you to create an extended partition and then asking
you to create a logical drive within the extended partition. Instead it
just asks if you want to create a logical drive and, if so, then it will
create the extended partition, if missing, and add the logical drive's
definition within the extended partition.

If you elect to create a logical drive, either an extended partition
must already exist or one must be created. The logical drive resides
within an extended partition.

I fell for it and made a logical partition and then couldnt understand
why I coudln't subdivide it. I'd forgotten the word extended, but I
remember it now. I deleted the logical partition and tried to make an
extended one, but that wasn't a choice!!

There can only be 1 extended partition on a disk when using MBR. So if
there is already a physical partition of the extended partition type
then you cannot create another one. You would have to delete the
extended partition to create a new one.

If you define the logical drive to consume all of the space inside the
extended partition then you have no more room to define more logical
drives inside that partition. With physical partitions, you cannot
assign more space to them altogether than the physical space available
on the disk. With logical drives, you cannot assign more space to them
altogether than the physical size of the extended partition.

As I recall (but I did not check), only primary partitions can be marked
"active" so the BIOS knows which one to use its boot sector to load an
OS. The active-flagged primary partition boots the OS (well, at least
the the boot loader for the OS).

MBR
.---------------------------------.
| Primary partition #1 |
|---------------------------------|
| Primary partition #2 [optional] |
|---------------------------------|
| Primary partition #3 [optional] |
|---------------------------------|
| Extended partition |
| .-----------------------------. |
| | Logical drive #1 | |
| |-----------------------------| |
| | Logical drive #2 [optional] | |
| |-----------------------------| |
| : : |
| : : |
| |-----------------------------| |
| | last logical drive | |
| '-----------------------------' |
'---------------------------------'

My gosh it's not mentioned in the Help for Win Disk Management either.
How am I supposed to get more than 4 partitons?

I appreciate your detailed very helpful post, but I have to take issue
with this one point, at least semantically.

You can't when using MBR. There are only 4 partition records in which
you can define 1 to 4 physical partitions (primary or 1 extended). If

You're not counting logical partitions as partitions. You call them
logical drives but I've seen them called partitions.

It reminds me of the question Abe Lincoln used to ask.

How many legs does a horse have if you call its tail a leg?

you want more *logical drives* within an extended partition than you
either have to make them smaller to make free space WITHIN the extended
partition for a new logical drive or you have to enlarge the extended
partition (perhaps by shrinking the other physical partitions) so there
is room inside of it for a new logical drive.

So just what partition *types* are currently defined on your disk? How
many of them are primary partitions? Is one of them an extended
partition type?

Four. Calling it a leg doesn't make it a leg.

But a leg is more well defined than a partition.

So I let Easus do it, and it seems to be fine, and I went into Windows
Computer Management and before I had looked at actions or something
and didn't notice that at the bottom there was a legend that included
dark green for extended partition. And indeed, my 3 little
partitions together are so marked.

Thanks and thanks all of you.