Unable to create new partition... please help!!!

[Aline]

I'm trying to partition drive C but it won't let me

New laptop is Toshiba Satellite and had the store configure it for me since I'm new to Vista.

1. Through Disk Management, I shrink drive C and now have an unallocated space of 51G.

2. From the unallocated space, I create a new simple volume. It goes through the Wizard, but then I get the following error message:
"The attempted operation is invalid. Either the parameters specified are invalid or the operation cannot be completed on the selected object."

3. The contour of the unallocated space is highlighted in black instead of green. Is that an indication of something? And shouldn't it say: Free space instead of unallocated?

Additional info:

There are currently 4 partitions. They are:

1: 1.46GB Healthy (EISA Configure)
2. C: 121GB NTFS Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, etc.)
3. D: 5.88 BG NTFS Healthy (Primary Partition) - This is reserved for a recovery
4. 5.34 GB Healthy (Primary Partition) - Don't know what this is for.

My 51 GB Unallocated is between C: and D:

I'm logged in as an Administrator. Are there addition privileges that I would need to have? UAC is off.

Thank you in advance.
Aline

 

[Brink]

Hi Aline,

Welcome to the forum.

You can only create a new partition at the end of a drive not inbetween with Disk Management. To create a partition inbetween other partitions, you would have to delete the partions after where you want it first. You of course would lose that data. To be able to create and move partitions at will, you will need to get a 3rd party disk management program.

See the WARNING in step 6 in this tutorial about unmovable files to.
How to Shrink and Create a Partition with Disk Management in Vista

and

How to Delete and Extend a Partition with Disk Management in Vista

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Aline]

Hi Shawn,

Thank you for you response. Much appreciated.

I read both sections you posted. From what I see, I'm stuck unless I use a 3rd party software.

I have read about Gparted. Is that one that you would recommend? Or are there others? The only think about Gparted is that it's Linux, which I don't have or want, and it says I won't be able to boot my computer unless I have my Vista installation DVD.

When the store configured my system, they installed Vista right from the system as it came preloaded with my Toshiba. They created recovery disks (2 of them). Are those my Vista installation DVDs or are theyonly good for recovery?

Here is the link where I read the above:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-gparted-to-resize-your-windows-vista-partition/

Thank you,
Aline

 

[Brink]

Aline,

I have not tried Gparted. It seems to be a bit complicated and risky to use though. Acronis® Disk Director Suite 10.0 is a great partion program that works just fine in Vista. It costs $49.99 though. It does have a free fully functional 15 day trial download you can use though. That will let you do what you want.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/?source=google&keyword=partition&s_scid=disk%20partition|1077196397&gclid=CJaqyP7HyZACFQUllgodIXM5WQ


Free Trial Version:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/diskdirector/

Shawn

 

[Aline]

Thank you Shawn,

Downloading as I write this post. Will report back .

Thank you so much for your help. Being new to Vista... well, for me, it's like tacking a new monster. And to think, I used to support Windows 3.1... hehehe.

BTW, from the tutorials that I've seen so far on this site, and written by you, I must say they are very well done. I love the visual part of it as I am visual. And this comes from a technical writer . I will definitely make it a point of reading them all.

Again, thank you,
Aline

 

[Brink]

Your welcome Aline,

Hope it does the trick for you.

Yeah, I could not see the point in writing a tutorial without having some kind of visual reference to help guide folks through the steps. It just makes things easier. I hope that they will be of help to you if needed.

Shawn

 

[eMZii]

Your problem is simply this: you can't create more than 4 primary partitions in windows on one hard drive (at least in xp, most likely it's same in vista too). Don't try to force it with 3rd party software or you might end up formatting the hole thing

what you need to do is create an extented partition, but if i remember correctly you can only have 3 primary partitions with one extented area consisting as many partitions as you like, so you would prolably have to remove one of your partitions to create the extented area

 

[Brainc]

Your problem is simply this: you can't create more than 4 primary partitions in windows on one hard drive (at least in xp, most likely it's same in vista too). Don't try to force it with 3rd party software or you might end up formatting the hole thing

what you need to do is create an extented partition, but if i remember correctly you can only have 3 primary partitions with one extented area consisting as many partitions as you like, so you would prolably have to remove one of your partitions to create the extented area

I concurr eMZii, just set up my boss' new Dell M1330 today. I suffered from same situation as Aline. The disk partion is similar too:

1: 1.46GB Healthy (EISA Configure)
2. C: 121GB NTFS Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, etc.)
3. D: 5.88 BG NTFS Healthy (Primary Partition) - This is reserved for a recovery
4. 5.34 GB Healthy (Primary Partition) - Don't know what this is for.

After shrink C:, I get 51 GB Unallocated space item 3 and item 4. After I ready eMZii's feedback, I confirmed my thought. So I deleted item 4. After item 4 is deleted completed, my unallocated space merged with item 4. And it turned out to be an extended partition. Then I can easily create an new partition based on this.

Thanks for you guys' sharing, so I didn't failed my mission today.

Brian

 

[artix123]

Sorry to bump this up, but I have something unclear that I really wanna ask.

Does it mean that 3rd-party software like Acronis will be able to create a partition at the space between the 2 partitions?

For reference, my hard disk configuration is like this:

And the 30GB unallocated space is the space that I need to create a partition. So Acronis is able to do it?

 

[Brink]

Hi artix123,

If you are unable to create a partition with the 30 GB one using step 8 below, then Acronis should be able to do it for you. You can use the trial version.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/95398-disk-management-shrink-partition.html

Shawn

 

[artix123]

Hmm, I'm gonna try it now.

The thing is, I'm trying to create a partition of id=af to install iATKOS. Will Acronis be able to do that for me?

EDIT: I can't create a partition, as the trial version of Acronis can only create 8MB partitions =.=