7MB Unallocated HD Space?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Same Guy
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Same Guy

OK,

I just installed a new WD1200JB and went through PowerQwest Drive Image Pro
to partition the drive (I usually use FDISK, but decided to see how this
works). Drive Image tells me that I have 7MB of Unallocated space on this
drive (as well as two others). Is there any reason for this unallocated
space?

I have a total of 4 drives and the three with the unallocated space do not
have the C: drive. That drive has all of its space allocated.

Thanks for any insight.


Here's another issue: I'm running Win2K and when I right-click on My
Computer and then go to Manage>Disk Management, it shows all of my other
three drives and 'Basic', but the new one as 'Unknown'. Any clues here as
well?

TIA!!!
 
Fri said:
Here's another issue: I'm running Win2K and when I right-click on My
Computer and then go to Manage>Disk Management, it shows all of my other
three drives and 'Basic', but the new one as 'Unknown'. Any clues here as
well?
Click to expand...

I rebooted and it went away. Please disregard this question. Thank you
for reading though.
 
Same Guy said:
OK,

I just installed a new WD1200JB and went through PowerQwest Drive Image Pro
to partition the drive (I usually use FDISK, but decided to see how this
works). Drive Image tells me that I have 7MB of Unallocated space on this
drive (as well as two others). Is there any reason for this unallocated
space?

I have a total of 4 drives and the three with the unallocated space do not
have the C: drive. That drive has all of its space allocated.
Click to expand...

Your C: partition is a primary partition. All other partitions are logical
and are part of an extended partition. To create an extended partition, a
primary partition *must* exist on that drive. (I don't know if/why it has to
exists, but most partitioning tools create it anyway). This primary
partition will be the smallest possible size for a partition (7MB in most
cases) and will not be used, unless you format it. (Sometimes I install the
Linux bootmanager LILO on this partition....).

Here are some rules for harddisk partitioning:
* A (physical) drive can contain up to 4 primary partitions, or 3 primary
and 1 extended partitions.
* An extended partition can contain any number of logical partitions.
* At least one primary partition must exist on each drive (this is the
reason of your 7MB unallocated space).
* Only one primary partition can be active each time. This means you can
only 'see' the active primary partition. All others will be invisible (this
is for DOS/Windows, not for Linux/Unix).
* Most operating systems can only boot from a primary partition, which must
be on the first (physical) drive.

Your partitions will look like this:

DRIVE 1:
* Primary partition (C:)
* Extended partition
- logical partition (D:)
- logical partition (E:)
- ...

DRIVE 2/3/4:
* Primary partition (unused)
* Extended partition
- logical partitions (F: G: H: ...)
- more logical partitions
- ...

I hope this answers your question.

Wouter
 
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