Creating a New Primary Partition?

mk6705

Right. On my laptop I have what appears to be four partitions. Three are primary and one is extended (Which counts as primary). One has Vista, another is recovery and another is a dell utility partition. The extended partition contains various Ubuntu drives. So is there any conceivable way I can create a new primary partition? Maybe within the extended partition?

oscarBravo

No, four primaries is the limit. Why do you want another primary?

Eliot Rosewater

As far as I know you can have a maximum of four primary partitions, one of which can be an extended partition. So you've used up all of yours.

I don't know if you can delete Dell Utility or Recovery; you'd want to be extremely certain that you can before you do and definitely find some trustworthy advise first. To be honest, I'd be inclined not to.

The only alternative I can think of is to install another hard drive, but given that it's a laptop that's probably out of the question too.

Are you installing BSD or something?

mk6705

To put another operating system on my PC. Let's just call it "XP" for this site.

EDIT: Is it possible to
a) Grow an extended partition (ie make it bigger) and
b) Put a primary partition in an extended partition?

Or if not, to convert an extended partition into two logical partitions? (ie. the contents of the extended partition?)

Eliot Rosewater

Adro947 wrote: »

To put another operating system on my PC. Let's just call it "XP" for this site.

I'd say there's an "X" in it alright, and it's preceded by "OS", eh?

Adro947 wrote: »

EDIT: Is it possible to
a) Grow an extended partition (ie make it bigger) and

Yup. You can use a utility like gParted. gParted is on the Ubuntu live cd, and there's also a dedicated gParted live cd. Apparently it's good practise to de-fragment your Windows partition (in Windows) before resizing it.

Adro947 wrote: »

b) Put a primary partition in an extended partition?

Nope.

Adro947 wrote: »

Or if not, to convert an extended partition into two logical partitions? (ie. the contents of the extended partition?)

No again. Logical partitions can only exist within extended partitions.

EDIT: I'd say your just out of luck. The only solution I can think of is to delete those extra partitions. It's worth considering, but as I said, be very careful.

PogMoThoin

If You're out of warranty You don't need the Dell utility (or rather Dell don't need it to prove You accepted the EULA)
http://www.goodells.net/dellutility/

digme

Adro947 wrote: »

Right. On my laptop I have what appears to be four partitions. Three are primary and one is extended (Which counts as primary). One has Vista, another is recovery and another is a dell utility partition. The extended partition contains various Ubuntu drives. So is there any conceivable way I can create a new primary partition? Maybe within the extended partition?

linux can boot from a logical partition

Eliot Rosewater

digme wrote: »

linux can boot from a logical partition

Yeah, but Windows and BSD can't! And OSX can't either, I think.

PogMoThoin wrote: »

If You're out of warranty You don't need the Dell utility (or rather Dell don't need it to prove You accepted the EULA)
http://www.goodells.net/dellutility/

Cheers for that link!

digme

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

Yeah, but Windows and BSD can't! And OSX can't either, I think.

is he installing windows or bsd or osx?
i dunno....

mk6705

Right. I've backed up all the data on the DELLUTILITY drive. I did this by making it visible to Vista and copying everything. So I'm thinking I'll delete it? But leave the free space there. That way I can recover it using an Ubuntu CD from a USB drive if my laptop goes kaput and I need to recover it.

Nothing inadvisable about this? I certainly can't see any disadvantages. That'll mean I'll have another primary partition and I'll be able to install "XP" on my PC. :pac:

Eliot Rosewater

Adro947 wrote: »

Nothing inadvisable about this?

I'd say not. I've had this Dell PC for 4+ years and I've never used either of those partitions. Might delete them myself to be honest; it's annoying the way the Dell Recovery one comes up in my menu on Ubuntu.

Adro947 wrote: »

That'll mean I'll have another primary partition and I'll be able to install "XP" on my PC. :pac:

<_<

>_>

:pac:

mk6705

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

I'd say not. I've had this Dell PC for 4+ years and I've never used either of those partitions. Might delete them myself to be honest; it's annoying the way the Dell Recovery one comes up in my menu on Ubuntu.



<_<

>_>

:pac:

I've had no problems since I deleted the partition. Installing "XP" has proved harder though. But I'm making progress.