Windows 7 Not able to create new data partition

You are correct in that for an MBR configured drive, 4 primary partitions (or 3 primary and 1 extended) is the most Windows will allow. Adding a partition with a third party utility might mess up Windows, and is not worth taking a chance.

Can you use an external drive?

If you had a UEFI install and the Drive was configured as GPT, you could put as many primary partitions as you might want.

But you could use the snipping tool to take a picture of your Disk Management Window and attach using the paperclip. Maybe someone would have another suggestion.

I very much doubt if all three additional partitions are required for recovery. Please post a snip of your disk management window as Saltgrass suggests and we can advise your further. You will lmost certainly be able to convert one of the partitions to a extended one then manipulate the size of the contained partitions to create aditianal logical partitions on which you don't suffer the limitation of four for primary partitions.

Hello leifgjh, Link Removed to Windows 7 Forums,

You can change all but the " OS System/Primary" partition to "Logical", allowing you to put as many more Logical partitions you want.
On my Windows 7 drive, I have 7 additional logical partitions on it.

Hope this helps

Don

Need to be just a bit careful - if you want to boot from a recovery partition it may well need to be primary but others are likely to be ok.

patcooke said:

Need to be just a bit careful - if you want to boot from a recovery partition it may well need to be primary but others are likely to be ok.

Click to expand...

Yes, he would probably loose the link to the MBR, but then he could just use the Windows boot loader and that would allow booting in to any partition regardless of type.

Saltgrass said:

You are correct in that for an MBR configured drive, 4 primary partitions (or 3 primary and 1 extended) is the most Windows will allow. Adding a partition with a third party utility might mess up Windows, and is not worth taking a chance.

Can you use an external drive?

If you had a UEFI install and the Drive was configured as GPT, you could put as many primary partitions as you might want.

But you could use the snipping tool to take a picture of your Disk Management Window and attach using the paperclip. Maybe someone would have another suggestion.

Click to expand...

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I can send a picture of disc manager, but
1. the first partition is system partition
2. c-drive with win7
3. d-drive with lenovo applications and drivers (not possible to change size)
4. oem partiton

This is standard lenovo setup, I think.

I would like my recovery button on the pc to function.

The easiest solution is to use the c-drive for user data (as is standard setup) and take backups regularly.
But on my old pc , the userdata was on a separat drive (d and then I could restore windows without ruining the user -data. I think that is the best solutino, and I can't understand why Lenovo has "blocked" this solution.

I always recommend keeping system and user data drives seperate for all sorts of reasons which we can go into but first it would be useful to see the snip and confirm actual partition types, sizes and relative positions, we can then suggest a way forward, probably using something like Easeus partition manager.

Ok I will do that.
But come to think of:
I will probably upgrade to win8. Isn't it so that if I do that, then the recovery button will not function anyway.
In other words, the windows8 will not be on the recovery partiton on tge pc.
What is then the best solution after win8 is installed?
and after win8 is installed, do I have to use windows standard restore function instead of the restore button
so that i can delete one of the existing restore partitions and use it for user data?

If you want to:

1. Preserve your current system as configured
2. Maintain a means to recover your entire system back to factory settings
3. Run Windows 8
4. Partition your system to make most efficient and secure use of available space.

I would:

1. Burn a set of recovery dvd's (your system will have a mechanism to do this and you should have done it anyway).
2. Make a second copy of the recovery dvd's and keep them in a separate place.
3. Back up all your user data to an external hard drive (to play safe for the next stage of re-partitioning).
4. Use Easeus partition manager (free download) to remove all but the system partition (drive C).
5. Shrink drive C to current used space plus (say 20gb).
6. If necessary move the C partition to the beginning of the drive.
7. Create a second primary partition on which to install windows 8 (suggest about 40gb).
8. Create a third primary partition on which to store all user data. (use all remaining disk space).
9. Copy all user data to the data partition leaving drive C to store only op sys and installed programs.
10. Install Windows 8 as a dual boot to the partition created earlier.
11. Install a trial copy of Acronis True Image (strongly recommend you buy it)
12. Run Acronis to create an image of both your Windows 7 and Windows 8 installs on the data drive
13. Maintain a copy of all your user data and Acronis images on an external drive.

You will then have a secure system for which you may recover either of your operating systems or user data in a matter of minutes.

To maintain your secure state:

1. Maintain up to date backups using Acronis and copying from the data drive across to the external drive.
2. Run Ccleaner, defrag and malware scan regularly.

Happy days!

Thanks a lot! finally a practical solution.

Just a few questions:

1. If i understand this right, my restore button will no longer function and I will have to rely on the dvd's and the images.

2. Do I have to use Acronis, does not win8 have a function for storing system images?

3. Is it best to have both win7 and win8 on the pc or can I just have win8? What do You recommend?

1. Yes, you'll be relying on the dvd images for a full back to factory settings, that's why I recommend you keep two separate copies.

2. Acronis is a much more comprehensive and powerful system whereas the integrated Windows backup has serious limitations. Acronis is not expensive and I strongly recommend it - system backup is, IMHO, much too important to use anything but a very robust solution.

3. It is very early in Win 8 development to commit entirely to it - I would strongly recommend maintaining it alongside Win 7 for at least some time to come, at least until you are confident that Win 8 meets all your needs and is compatible with all your applications. I am currently triple booting Win 8, Win 7 and Win XP (plus Ubuntu Linux for good measure!).

Thanks a lot to "patcooke" and to all the rest of the helpful people in this forum !! )