Unable to Partition Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I have installed a new Maxtor 160G external hard drive and formatted it as NTFS. It is named 'G', 152.66 GB in size and appears under disk 1. My attempts to partition the drive into two (or more) partitions have been unsuccessful. I have used both Disk Management under XP Home and as a command line with no luck. Right clicking on the pane for the G drive does not provide the option to create a partition as described in the Miscrosoft Management Console. The instruction is to 'Right-click an unallocated region of a basic disk', a statement that is not clear as this only leads to speculation as to where that region is (I have guessed and clicked on many seemingly logical and illogical points, but nothing follows.) The use of the command line results in invalid statements and the like

In the same regard the literature is not clear on this, but, considering that there is a good likelihood that I will be able to partition this hard drive, would a backup partition of, say, 10-15 GB be a reasonable size for an image of my C drive?

Many thanks for your kind replies.
 
Doug D said:
I have installed a new Maxtor 160G external hard drive and formatted it as
Click to expand...
NTFS. It is named 'G', 152.66 GB in size and appears under disk 1. My
attempts to partition the drive into two (or more) partitions have been
unsuccessful. I have used both Disk Management under XP Home and as a
command line with no luck. Right clicking on the pane for the G drive does
not provide the option to create a partition as described in the Miscrosoft
Management Console. The instruction is to 'Right-click an unallocated
region of a basic disk', a statement that is not clear as this only leads to
speculation as to where that region is (I have guessed and clicked on many
seemingly logical and illogical points, but nothing follows.) The use of
the command line results in invalid statements and the like.
In the same regard the literature is not clear on this, but, considering
Click to expand...
that there is a good likelihood that I will be able to partition this hard
drive, would a backup partition of, say, 10-15 GB be a reasonable size for
an image of my C drive?
Many thanks for your kind replies.
Click to expand...

First you create a partition and then you format the partition. As you state
that the drive is formatted, you must have created a single partition on the
drive.

Remove all files {if any} from the drive to one of your other drives. Then
go back to Disk Management and delete the single partition on the drive.
Now the drive is all unallocated and you can create partitions as desired.

If for some reason you have files on the drive that you cannot move, than
you must use a third party program such as Partition Magic to reduce the
size you your current partition to create unallocated space for addition
partitions.

Don
 
I have installed a new Maxtor 160G external hard drive and formatted it
as NTFS. It is named 'G', 152.66 GB in size and appears under disk 1.
My attempts to partition the drive into two (or more) partitions have
been unsuccessful. I have used both Disk Management under XP Home and
as a command line with no luck. Right clicking on the pane for the G
drive does not provide the option to create a partition as described in
the Miscrosoft Management Console. The instruction is to 'Right-click
an unallocated region of a basic disk', a statement that is not clear as
this only leads to speculation as to where that region is (I have
guessed and clicked on many seemingly logical and illogical points, but
nothing follows.) The use of the command line results in invalid
statements and the like.

In the same regard the literature is not clear on this, but, considering
that there is a good likelihood that I will be able to partition this
hard drive, would a backup partition of, say, 10-15 GB be a reasonable
size for an image of my C drive?

Many thanks for your kind replies.
Click to expand...

If there is unallocated space, it will be shown as such in Disk Management.
When you right click on the section labelled in this manner, then the menu
options for creating a partition will appear.

Delete the existing partition if you want something different than what is
there now. You will see the graphical representation of the drive in Disk
Management change to "unallocated." You can then create two separate
"logical drives" - or - 1 extended partition that holds two logical drives
- or - whatever else you decide that you want here.

After the partitions have been created, right click on them again to get
the format options and carry out that procedure. After formatting, the
drives will be ready for use. Adjust drive letters for these new partitions
if necessary (option available on the right click where other commands were
found).

I had one drive give me a tough time when I installed it. Can't remember if
it was a Maxtor or a Western Digital. Anyhow, XP kept making it a dynamic
disk. Had to resort to "convert to basic disk" to finish setting it up. If
you prefer basic disk to dynamic, may want to check periodically while
setting up this drive that it is still listing as basic.
 
Back
Top