Too Many Partitions?

Edit - Been over 24 hrs since original post - Is there something else I need to provide to get some help?


Hopefully this is easy to solve.

Want to create a new partition to store data and leave programs and such on
C: but Paragon won't allow as there too many existing partitions (4).

PC Info: Dell Inspiron E1705 Notebook, Win XP SP3.

Currently about 40 GB free on C, but am cleaning now. My plan is to
move data from C to new partition (D?) and extend size of D as I free up
space on C.

BUT, need some advice on what to do about the 'too many' partitions
issue?? I know what the Dell Utitlity partition is but what is the "0xDB Digital Research CP/M ?" Do I really need that? What does it do?

Attaching WinDiskMgr and Paragon Disk Mgr screenshots.


Appreciate your help!

Ken

 

Hi Ken,

Sorry for the late response.

Those unknown partitions were put there by the oem (Dell).

They will be connected with recover to factory condition process and various dell apps that came preinstalled.

Hard to say if you will need those.

Of the 4 partition total - one can be an eXtended partition. You can divide an Extended partition into several logical drives.

Logical drives are similar to a regular partition - except you can't mark them Active.


You could shrink drive C from the right.


Then increase the size of the Extended partition ( the one with green border) to the Left and create another Logical Drive inside it.


Depending on how the oem have set it up, changing the partition boundaries might mean you can no longer access the oem tools in the MediaDirect partition.

It is likely the manufacturer supplied recovery image is in the 3.66gb partition.

 

Please see http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/mediadirect.htm
"Some Dell notebook computers include a special Dell MediaDirect feature. MediaDirect enables you to watch DVD movies, slideshows, or listen to music without having to boot the complete XP operating system...."

 

Thank You both. Am attaching a new screenshot fm PPM.

I forgot about the MediaDirect. I can't remember when I've used it so if resizing it disables the MediaDirect so be it as long as I get a new usable partition of decent size.

What do I do before resizing partitions? The Express Resize wizard says there are no partitions that can be resized.

Do I have to first format the 1.9GB MediaDirect partition?

Or, how do I make it "extended?"

Thanks!

 

you need to:
1) shrink C to desired size
2) Enlarge extended partitions group to cover unallocated space
3) righ-click free space inside extended and click create partition
please have alook at https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1748935&postcount=6 it has screenshot for alike situation

 

C:/ - is partition. If you mean Hard Disk 0, it could have up to ~120 partitions:
3 primary & all other in Extended partitions group.

According to screenshot, it is laptop's HDD, which contains OEMs partitions: MediaDirect & Recovery (last 2 partitions) + EISA partition (the first one), which contains the Dell diagnostic utility and probably Windows boot files.
It is normal configuration for modern laptops.