Extended partitions

[Fox2]

A disk with 2 or more partitions can be formatted as multiple primary partitions, or primary + extended partitions (with logical drives).

Does DD indicate which is which, and allow this aspect to be managed? I can't find information.

[K0LO]

Yes, although it differs slightly from most partitioning tools. DD10 does not explicitly show the extended partition container like most other tools. But it does mark each partition as being either primary or logical as shown in the snip below.

For comparison a snip from Vista's disk management console is also shown. Note the explicit display of the extended partition container as shown by the green outline around the logical partitions.

[Fox2]

Yes, that's true.

(PartitionMagic also shows (or showed) the extended partition explicitly, as Vista does.)

The problem is, that not showing the extended partition means it can't be manipulated. If there is space between primary and logical drive partitions, you can't specify whether that space is in the primary or extended space. You can't configure an extended partition to be a given size; it's automatically handled.

In many/most cases that's fine. But when you do want to manipulate the extent of the extended partition size or location as a whole ... well, does one really want half a partition manager, one that can manipulate logical drives and primary partitions only, but cannot define the extended partition explicitly?

Here's a nice way to handle it: an optional bar to show the extended partition, with a "show/hide" option in its context menu. Default = hidden, but that way it's visible and can be sized and positioned by experienced users.

Image: extended partition bar when shown:

[K0LO]

Fox2:

Agreed; the program could be improved if the whole extended partition container could be manipulated as you have described.

You can sort of work around this. In your illustration if you want incorporate the free space between the first primary partition and the extended partition container into the primary partition you would just expand the C partition into the free space to its right. Similarly, to incorporate it into the extended partition container you would expand the D partition into the free space to its left.

This only becomes awkward when you want to, say, add another primary partition between the first and the extended partitions. I usually do this by first creating free space, moving things around, and then creating the desired primary partition. Admittedly, it could be done differently.

[Fox2]

Indeed, it would improve it

I'd see it as a missing feature, if partitioning software allows zero control over the extended container. In the same way most users will never edit cluster size (but some do)... most users won't need to directly manage the extended partition (but some will).

[Acronis Support]

Hello Fox2 and k0lo,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Partition and Disk Managing Software.

I would like to thank you both for the suggestions and your will to make Acronis Software (Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 in this case) more informative and flexible.

I will forwarded your suggestion to the appropriate person in Acronis Development Team and we will certainly take it into consideration.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov