Solved Cannot extend volume on External Drive

D

daniellouwrens

Member
Member
Messages
216
Hi

I have W8.1 x64, I have a 1TB drive attached on USB 3.0 port, the disk has four partitions, two are not allocated, I am trying to extend the volume on one of the active partitions, a Healthy, Primary partition but I get a message
"The operation you selected will turn the selected disk(s) to Dynamic disk(s).

I'm not sure what it means but how do I get the extended volume to be a Basic volume?

Thanks

Daniel
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64 with 8.1 Update
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3450 CPU @ 3.10GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus
    Memory
    8Gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    Poor
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Asus
There's no such thing as an "unallocated partition". There is allocated space (partitions) and unallocated space. The latter is OUTSIDE any partitions.

Since you already have 4 partitions, any attempt to create another is going to force the conversion of ALL the partitions into Dynamic Disks.
 

My Computer

System One

Mark Phelps said:
There's no such thing as an "unallocated partition". There is allocated space (partitions) and unallocated space. The latter is OUTSIDE any partitions.

Since you already have 4 partitions, any attempt to create another is going to force the conversion of ALL the partitions into Dynamic Disks.
Click to expand...

I apologise for using the wrong terminology, the drive has three partitions, and one area of "Unallocated"
when I try to extend any of the three partitions to include the "Unallocated" space I get the message

"The operation you selected will turn the selected disk(s) to Dynamic disk(s).

How do I get the extended volume to be a Basic volume?

Thanks

Daniel
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64 with 8.1 Update
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3450 CPU @ 3.10GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus
    Memory
    8Gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    Poor
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Asus
How do I get the extended volume to be a Basic volume?
Click to expand...

Basically -- you can't. Apparently, your drive is formatted using MBR BIOS, which limits the number of top-level partitions to 4.

There must be a partition you're not seeing, possibly a hidden boot partition, that is maxing out the present number.

There is simply no way you can have five basic volumes on that disk.

If you want another partition, you would have to do the following:
1) Copy the contents of one partition to an external drive
2) Remove that one partition
3) Create a new partition in its place -- an Extended partition. This is basically a "container" for other partitions.
4) Create new Logical partitions inside the Extended partition.
5) Copy the contents of the external drive into one of the Logical partitions.
 

My Computer

System One

Mark Phelps said:
How do I get the extended volume to be a Basic volume?
Click to expand...

Basically -- you can't. Apparently, your drive is formatted using MBR BIOS, which limits the number of top-level partitions to 4.

There must be a partition you're not seeing, possibly a hidden boot partition, that is maxing out the present number.

There is simply no way you can have five basic volumes on that disk.

If you want another partition, you would have to do the following:
1) Copy the contents of one partition to an external drive
2) Remove that one partition
3) Create a new partition in its place -- an Extended partition. This is basically a "container" for other partitions.
4) Create new Logical partitions inside the Extended partition.
5) Copy the contents of the external drive into one of the Logical partitions.
Click to expand...

Hi

thanks for your help, something is wrong in this process, I can use the unallocated space to make a new simple drive, which becomes Drive x healthy (primary partition) then I do have four partitions and no unallocated space, if I then delete that partition it changes to unallocated or free space, I don't know why the difference, but when I try to add that free space to another partition on that disk, I get the Dynamic Disk issue.

Cheers

Daniel
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64 with 8.1 Update
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3450 CPU @ 3.10GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus
    Memory
    8Gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    Poor
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Asus

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64 with 8.1 Update
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3450 CPU @ 3.10GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus
    Memory
    8Gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    Poor
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Asus
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top