How to make extended partition not extended?

Hi Guys!
I'm having a little problem here. I had my 120 GB hard disk splitted in 4 partitions. 20 GB, 10 GB, 77 GB, 5 GB. I extended my 20 GB partition so its now 30 GB (+10 GB partition). The 77 GB partition is extended so that didn't allow me to put 5 GB and 10 GB partitions together, even though they both were unallocated.

Does anyone know how to make an extended partition not extended ?
That would save me so much time, because then I'd have to back up my data, delete + format the partition and then put the data back...

Please help me if you can...

 

use drive partitioning software (backup your stuff first!!!). Acronis works for me when i need to resize partitions like that.

 

So what you're saying is - I have to back up my data, delete the partition, format it and put the data back, right ? There is no way to make it not extended ?

 

I'm not 100% sure what you need? You want to take room from the extended 77GB partition and give it to your primary partion (the 30GB), is that correct? In any case, Acronis can do this non-destructively but as with any partitioning software, you should always back up your data in the event something doesn't go as planned.

 

All I want to do is make the extended partition which is 77 GB a Logical drive. I'm going to back up my stuff and delete, format and put stuff back - on a logical drive this time.

Do you know a program that would quickly compress and un-compress my files ? It would be great if I could compress my 27.3 GB into 12.5 GB ...

Thanks :roll:

 

no, i don't know what would do that.
I don't know if you understand what a logical drive is completely? A logical drive resides inside an extended partition. Perhaps I'm not understanding your data structure setup.

so you have a 30GB Primary partition, correct?
then you have a 77GB extended partition. And then you have another 5GB extended? or is it not a partition at all? If that is the case, then you can use acronis to merge the 5GB to the 77GB partition and add it to the logical drive space.

 

i'm with goofball, i'm having a hard time understanding how your current hdd is structured and what you're trying to achieve. a logical partition, aka drive, already exists within an extended partition, but you say you want to create a logical drive within the 77gb extended partition?

 

Right so, here is my disk:


My problem is that the 5 GB partition doesn't go with any other partitions. Not even when I had it unallocated and another 10 GB partition unallocated. Both of them were seperate. Windows wouldn't allow me to create a partition on the 5 GB unallocated space in the first place. I used some kind of a partition tool to make it a simple volume. I think that the extended partition (which is in the middle) somehow seperates the partitions. Do you get me now ?

 

that makes it easier.
So if you were to use acronis, you would delete the 5GB partition, then add it to the 77GB. You can't do what you're thinking, as you are right, the 5GB is separated by the 77GB extended.
Or what you can do, if I understand you correctly, is take the 5GB partition, format it, then you should be able to mount it in an empty NTFS folder on the C:\. Not 100% what you're probably thinking of but it would add the 5GB to be usable space all under C:\.