Cannot create partition

Dell WinXP SP2

60Gb HDD.

The laptop comes formatted with 2 partitions, one Local Disk C: and the other Backup D:

I tried splitting the Backup D: (from 12Gb to 10Gb) to make another partition. Problem is i now have unallocated space and whenever i try to format that it gives the me the Error that Acronis failed to format the partition. I'm at the end of my wits here, and i really wanna recover back that 2Gb!

Just cannot seem to do it

Anyone got any ideas how to recover it?

Also, once its recovered, can someone just make sure my partitioning skills are okay?

Many Thanks guys

 

Would it be possible to post a screenshot of what DD shows (in Manual Mode) for the drive?

What version and build of DD are you using?

Did you try to do the Split in Windows or from the DD CD?

 

Tried to do a split in DD10 build 2160. Heres a picture of whats going on.



http://i29.tinypic.com/29123ia.jpg

 

Baz1991,

It's normal. You already have 4 primary partitions. You can't have another primary partition.

Do you really want to keep the FAT32 restore partition? It probably won't work anymore as you have altered a partition. Dan Goodell's page tells how to make it work again but as you have TI, a restore partition isn't needed.

 

You'll probably need to either Resize a partition to use the unallocated space or Merge the unallocated space with an existing partition.

I recommend Resizing since Merging sometimes causes problems.

You already have four Primary partitions so all four Partition Table Slots are full. That means you can't create another partition on the hard drive (at least, not without removing one of the Primary partitions and creating Logicals).

You should be able to just Resize the D: partition to use the 2GB unallocated space located after it.

 

Ah i see now, so if i remove the restore partition and merge it with the Backup partition will i have the ability to create another seperate partition?

Is there a maximum of 4 partitions to a HDD?

So is it possible i can have
NTFS (C
Backup (merged with Restore partition)
2Gb Unallocated partition restored
Fat 16

Are these perfectly valid?

 

Update:

Just merged the Fat32 Restore partition with the Backup.

Now have a total of 54Gb space which sounds about right for a 60Gb HDD

Thanks guys!

Right next question, can i delete the Fat16 partition, is there anythign important on there?

 

It's the Dell Diagnostic partition. Keep it if you don't need to create another primary partition as it saves you looking for the Dell CD if you want to run diagnostics. But it's not an essential partition. If you delete it you may have to edit boot.ini in your WinXP.

If you merged the Restore partition with the Backup partition, the Restore function definitely won't work. You may as well delete the restore file.

 

There is a maximum of four Primary partitions. You can have as many Logical partitions as you want. However, the Extended Partition Container that holds the Logical partitions must occupy a Partition Table Slot. In this case, you could have a maximum of three Primary partitions and then any number of Logical partitions.

There is at least one boot manager that will allow using unlimited Primary partitions, but you have to only use its partitioning tools to avoid corrupting the drive.