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more primary partitions
- Thread starter vaat
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Howdy:
You can have up to 4 primary partitions per disk but only one can be active at a time..
See, the following for a great explanation..
Here is a brief exerpt from the url..
Partitions and Logical Drives
A disk can have a maximum of four Primary Partitions, of which only one can be 'Active' at any one time. An operating system must be on a primary partition and will usually only be bootable if that partition is made the active one (some multi-boot menus can get around this). Microsoft operating systems can't cope with multiple primary partitions, so only one can be 'visible' and the rest must be 'hidden'.
For a Microsoft OS to be able to use multiple drives as in the above linked example, the disk must be partitioned with Logical Drives. Logical drives have to sit within an Extended Partition, which must be created first. If an extended partition is used on a hard disk, then only three primary partitions can be used, instead of four. There is no practical limit to the number of logical drives which can be put in an extended partition, although each needs a drive letter to reference it. Operating systems cannot boot from logical drives and must be installed on a primary partition.
Murray
You can have up to 4 primary partitions per disk but only one can be active at a time..
See, the following for a great explanation..
Here is a brief exerpt from the url..
Partitions and Logical Drives
A disk can have a maximum of four Primary Partitions, of which only one can be 'Active' at any one time. An operating system must be on a primary partition and will usually only be bootable if that partition is made the active one (some multi-boot menus can get around this). Microsoft operating systems can't cope with multiple primary partitions, so only one can be 'visible' and the rest must be 'hidden'.
For a Microsoft OS to be able to use multiple drives as in the above linked example, the disk must be partitioned with Logical Drives. Logical drives have to sit within an Extended Partition, which must be created first. If an extended partition is used on a hard disk, then only three primary partitions can be used, instead of four. There is no practical limit to the number of logical drives which can be put in an extended partition, although each needs a drive letter to reference it. Operating systems cannot boot from logical drives and must be installed on a primary partition.
Murray
SESaskDFC,
I hate to say it, but that extract is talking through its hat (other than basics about number of partitions on a drive). An operating system does not have to be on a primary partition (its boot sector does). Standard 98/XP dual boots will usually have XP installed on extended partition.
MS o/s CAN cope with multiple primary partitions (NT/2k/XP have disk management tools to allow you to create them! and win9x/ME will happily access them if they're there). Only issue is dual booting varieties of win9x/ME each installed on a separate primary partition - yes you can do that too! (bios tends to see them all the same, so will always boot the first unless its hidden).
I hate to say it, but that extract is talking through its hat (other than basics about number of partitions on a drive). An operating system does not have to be on a primary partition (its boot sector does). Standard 98/XP dual boots will usually have XP installed on extended partition.
MS o/s CAN cope with multiple primary partitions (NT/2k/XP have disk management tools to allow you to create them! and win9x/ME will happily access them if they're there). Only issue is dual booting varieties of win9x/ME each installed on a separate primary partition - yes you can do that too! (bios tends to see them all the same, so will always boot the first unless its hidden).
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