voyager
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I am in the process of cleaning and neatening up my PC.
My PC has 6 drives:
(C
(D
(E
(F
(G
(H
C: & D: need to be Primary & Active because of the OS and installed applications.
My conceen is with drives (E
They're DATA drives and have no need to be active primary drives or partitions.
I would like to convert them to being logical, but worry about DATA loss.
Can they be converted to logical without DATA loss?
My PC has 6 drives:
(C
(D
(E
(F
(G
(H
C: & D: need to be Primary & Active because of the OS and installed applications.
My conceen is with drives (E
They're DATA drives and have no need to be active primary drives or partitions.
I would like to convert them to being logical, but worry about DATA loss.
Can they be converted to logical without DATA loss?
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Solution
voyager
Extraordinary Member
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I see that there is.
A primary drive/partition can be made active, which these already are.
Which tells me that actions can be initiated from them as in drives C: and D:, by installed apps.
By everything as I understand, malware and other things could be installed there and be active.
If they're logical they should be inert.
A primary drive/partition can be made active, which these already are.
Which tells me that actions can be initiated from them as in drives C: and D:, by installed apps.
By everything as I understand, malware and other things could be installed there and be active.
If they're logical they should be inert.
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Untrue, malware can just as easily install on any of those drives and run; however, most malware generally installs in well-known locations. The only meaningful reason to use primary vs logical is that Windows needs to be installed on a primary partition.
voyager
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OK, I think I may be beginning to understand why I'm having so much trouble trying to convert drives E/ thru G/ to being Logical drives.
MBR drives, D/: and H/: can have both primary and logical partitions.
C/:, E/:, F/:, and G/: are GPT drives.
Their 1st partition must be primary.
C/: requires primary because of the OS.
I set D/: as primary because of plans to install applications there rather than on C/:.
E/:, F/:, and G/: have a single partition and are GPT.
H/: is MBR allowing it to have its single partition to be logical.
Don't know how clear that is to everyone else, but I understand it.
I may not like it.
But, I now understand that's how the world works.
MBR drives, D/: and H/: can have both primary and logical partitions.
C/:, E/:, F/:, and G/: are GPT drives.
Their 1st partition must be primary.
C/: requires primary because of the OS.
I set D/: as primary because of plans to install applications there rather than on C/:.
E/:, F/:, and G/: have a single partition and are GPT.
H/: is MBR allowing it to have its single partition to be logical.
Don't know how clear that is to everyone else, but I understand it.
I may not like it.
But, I now understand that's how the world works.
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Having an extended partition allows you to create 1 or more logical partitions, this was/is a way to overcome the 4 partition limit on an MBR disk. GPT can handle 128 partitions so doesn't have the limitation and no reason for having logical partitions.
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