Re: Dual Boot / Alternate Boot Questions

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

On Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:06:31 -0400, "John John (MVP)"
<audetweld@xxxxxxxxxxx> typed furiously:

David wrote:
Note: there are four primary partitions allowed. The extended
partition is a primary partition. The first logical drive in the
extended partition will be numbered 5.

Timothy Daniels wrote:
The Extended Partition differs considerably from a Primary
partition, and the volume numbering you present (with a gap for
the Extended Partition itself and "5" signifying the 1st logical drive)
would only be true if:
1) The OS were Unix/Linux/Solaris/etc, AND
2) There were 3 primary partitions in addition
to the 1 Extended partition

BUT... we're talking about WinXP (and NT and 2K) here.
In those (and probably previous) Windows OSes, there is
no gap in numbering between the highest numbered Primary
partition and the first logical drive within an Extended
partition. Here is an example of volumes in their physical
order on a hard disk and the corresponding entry in the
boot.ini menu file:

Primary partition 1 <--partition(1)
Primary partition 2 <--partition(2)
Extended partition, 1st logical drive <--partition(4)
Primary partition 3 <--partition(3)

I have actually just tested this to confirm it. I put 4 clone
copies of my WinXP OS on a 2nd hard disk in my
desktop system in the physical order given above,
identified eash OS by putting a folder on the Desktop that
indicated the volume's identity, expanded each OS's
boot.ini file to include 4 optional "partition()" selections, set
the 2nd partition "active", disconnected the 1st hard drive,
and started booting. The OSes that booted are indicated
by the above table.

David wrote:
Read your description above and my description. They are both correct.
You are allowed to have up to four primary partitions which are
numbered 1 to 4. The Extended partition is one of those primary
partitions and it may be numbered from 1 to 4 depending on where its
record is in the partition table contained in the Master Boot Record.
(MBR) You could have primary partitions numbered 1 and 4 with no 2 or
3.

The first logical drive in an extended partition is always partition 5
whether there are one, two, three or four primary partitions.

I'm afraid that is incorrect, David. The primary partitions will
receive numbers first and then the first logical drive inside the
extended partition will be given the next available number. If you have
one primary partition and one logical drive inside an extended partition
the logical drive will be partition 2. If you have three primary
partitions and one extended partition with logical drives the first
logical drive will be partition 4.

I stand corrected.

Then Micro$oft is, as usual, not following convention. They did follow
convention in this manner right through to Win98.
--
Regards
David
fundamentalism (n.): fund = give cash to; amentalism = brainlessness
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Recover disappeared partition
    ... each divided into a single small primary partition followed by an extended partition that covered the rest of the HD and was divided into multiple logical drives. ... Were you using WinXP or Vista or something else when the volume disappeared? ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.file_system)
  • Re: Partition
    ... >> easily create a single primary partition plus an extended partition, ... >> create two logical drives in the extended partition. ... >> primary partition, just an extended partition with 3 logical drives. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Cant create new primary partitions, only logical drives. Fdisk or
    ... you have to first delete all the logical drives in the extended ... Then you delete the extended partition. ... > and shinny primary drives, on which I wish to reinstall XP, one as my main ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.configuration_manage)
  • Re: Dual Boot / Alternate Boot Questions
    ... partition is a primary partition. ... extended partition will be numbered 5. ... You are allowed to have up to four primary partitions which are ... reserved for floppy drives and C reserved for the active partition, that leaves 23 letters for logical drives. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: missing extended partition- XP Home
    ... partition and manage the hard drive One of the logical drives was used ... get at the extended partition all my data is backed up there. ... I did reinstall from the recovery CD. ... > I suppose you realise that the backup problem is not related to ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment)