I'm trying to intall a new laptop. My current desk has a system disk (c:) and five simple volumes (d:, f:, g:, h: and X:). These are dynamic disks because there's no way to create five partitions on an MBR disk. It seems to me that there used to used to be a way with XP to create at least 5 MBR disks. On my desk top, all disks are dynamic. My question is how did I create them and these disk? Did I do it with a boot disk for Vista Or XP? Renee

Search through DiskPart Command-Line Options for the terms extended partition and logical drive. That's how to do it. You probably have no need for a dynamic disk config, which allows you to combine more physical disks into one. It's kind of confusing. In summary, you can make only 4 partitions on a disk. One of them can be an extended partition. You can create plenty of logical drives in that extended partition. Try to not delete your C: again. : )

I won't. It did not used to be like this: "To encourage the use of dynamic disks, multi-partition volume support was removed from basic disks, and is now exclusively supported on dynamic disks." But you can put more than four partitions on dynamic disks because I'm running them on this system here. "Try to not format your C: again. " I never formatted to begin with and did not say I had. Renee

Where are you citing that from? I'll have to read it in context to understand what it means. The TechNet DiskPart article is stated to be current as of Vista. The WikiPedia article specifically mentions Windows 7. Here's a more recent Diskpart description, which specifically names Windows 7. These are the exact pages you want: Create partition and Create partition extended and Create partition logical PS Congrats on your new laptop. Enjoy it.

Where are you citing that from? I'll have to read it in context to understand what it means. The TechNet DiskPart article is stated to be current as of Vista. The WikiPedia article specifically mentions Windows 7. Here's a more recent Diskpart description, which specifically names Windows 7. These are the exact pages you want: Create partition and Create partition extended and Create partition logical PS - Congrats on your new laptop. Enjoy it.

Ok, I found the passage you were referring to here: Basic and Dynamic Disks These articles are notorious for using terms that are not defined. I haven't a clue what a "multi-partition volume" might be, that supposedly is only supported by a dynamic volume now, compared to before. LOL. I think they just said that to confuse us on purpose. But as you can see from the three bulleted items at the very beginning of that page, multiple partitions are definitely supported on a Basic Disk. And an Extended partition is too. I've learned to just skip it when they say stuff like that. PS I meant when you "Cleaned" your disk. : )

Ok, I found the passage you were referring to here: Basic and Dynamic Disks These articles are notorious for using terms that are not defined. I haven't a clue what a "multi-partition volume" might be, that supposedly is only supported by a dynamic volume now, compared to before. LOL. I think they just said that to confuse us on purpose. But as you can see from the three bulleted items at the very beginning of that page, multiple partitions are definitely supported on a Basic Disk. And an Extended partition is too. I've learned to just ignore it when they say stuff like that. PS - I meant like that time you "Cleaned" your disk with DiskPart. I soak mine in the bathtub. Same effect. Bubbles. Rubber duckie. Quack. : )

Not me. I never alluded to that. But I will enjoy my new laptop. The question does have an answer. Which is what my quote alluded to: To have more than four disks, partitions must be of the Dynamic type which may be converted using Diskpart which I did. It did not used to be like this, which my quote said. It seems to me that I used XP install to create these disks But reality is a funny thing. Microsoft let out a large secret in my quote. They change reality. Renee

You know, you memory may be better than mine because I do remember a "clean" command with diskpart and being hurt by it. Renee

I was laughing with you, not at you. I've done it too. Like just 2 days ago. Quack quack. DiskPart's interface is designed to trick us into nuking a partition. It's just waiting for the chance. Seriously. With most of its commands, we (have to) type it to see its context-help and syntax. But the most destructive ones, type the command and it just takes off and does it. No hesitation. No moment of prayer. No "Are You Sure?" Nope. Just poof and your partition is gone. You can hear it smugly chuckling while you're desperately banging ^C and begging stop! pleeeease!? It's evil. Make an image-backup before you even think to dare use DiskPart. PS - Nice hunk of white space you just posted. Reminds me of a blank partition. Rehearsing, are we?

Believe me, I have, In fact it should be finishing up now. It just finished. How does the new zip work with the Zip in windows 7? Renee