primary or logical parition

[AP81]

Hi guys,

Someone asked me today whether they should partition their two spare hard drives (not the OS volume) as Pri or Logical partitions. These would be one single partition on both drives and used for basic storage, i.e. music, movies, backups, etc.

I believe it doesn't make a difference, as XP can cope with either. I don't see much point to making single logical paritions so I'd most likely make it a primary partition.

Any one care to share any opinions on this?

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[linney]

An extended partition is a partition created from the free space that remains after you create your primary partition(s). You're allowed only one extended partition per disk. When you create an extended partition, the maximum number of primary partitions you can create drops from four to three. One distinction between primary and extended partitions is that a primary partition can't be subdivided. With an extended partition, you can create multiple partitions called logical drives. Logical drives allow you to subdivide your hard disk beyond the four primary partition maximum."

Choosing the Right Disk Storage for Your W2K System

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwinpro01/html/winpro0900.asp

 

[AP81]

An extended partition is a partition created from the free space that remains after you create your primary partition(s)

That is not true, using the XP computer management I just deleted all partitions from the drive, made an extended partition taking up the entire space, then made a logical partition taking up the entire extended partition...

So you can have an extended partition without a primary partition. I also tested this user Linux using cfdisk, so it does work...

_______________________________
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
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[linney]

Was XP running from a Primary Partition while it was Formatting the other Partition? I suppose Microsoft based their information on having an operating system installed in the first place.

So you and Microsoft are both right in your application of the procedure.

 

[AP81]

XP was running on its own drive (C which was a primary partition taking up the entire drive.


_______________________________
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
_______________________________

 

[firewolfrl]

Actually Linney is right


The way is works is you have the option to make 3 primary partitions then one extended partition with up to 255 logical drives within the extended partition.
The Extended partition is primary drive without the bootable MBR. If you look at an extended partition without a primary installed on the drive the first portion of the drive is not used (bootable MBR+ a tiny portion of the drive)

In my case I prefer to make the data drives primary.

as for functionality I think that it does not matter a bit how you set it up.


sounds like you got it the way you want. that is what counts