Solved Partition Problems

I am trying to install win 8 consumer preview on a new partition, but when selecting the partition in windows setup I get "windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space" "the partition contains more dynamic volumes that are not supported for installation"


I currently have four partitions in windows disk management.


1. A blue 15GB factory restore partition
2. A gold 100MB system reserved partition
3. A gold 820GB windows 7 partition (my main Os)
4. A gold 100GB windows 8 partition (clean)


back in September I had no problem installing the developer preview, does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?

Post a picture of your Disk Management. With only 4 partitions, you should not have dynamics. Then we'll see what can be done about that.

Thank you for your response, here is what my Disk Management looks like

Hmm, I see 5 partitions. I am not sure what that UDF partition is doing relative to the total primary partition count. But it seemed to have gotten you into this predicament.

I suggest to delete that UDF partition. It is empty anyhow. Then reconvert the others to Primaries with the bootable CD of partition Wizard 4.2.2. You can download the iso from here (pw422).

As an extra safety measure I would then also convert the recovery partition into Logical. In Partition Wizard, you highlight the partition and go to the Partition tab > Modify.

Thank you, I will give it a shot.

The udf partition is actually just my dvd drive with the windows 8 install disc.

I will report back with my results shortly

OK, I see. I did not id it as an optical reader. But then I ask myself how you got the dynamics in the first place.

Well, I am typing this from my new windows 8 installation, so I would say that fixed the problem.

Thank you very much whs.

the only thing I could not do was change my recovery partition to logical, it seems to be locked somehow, as all options on it were greyed out

Good deal. Then (on occasion) change one of the OS partitions into logical. That way you can create further partitions without running into those dreaded dynamics. And since you have the 100MB system partition, the OS partitions need not be primaries.

whs said:

Hmm, I see 5 partitions. I am not sure what that UDF partition is doing relative to the total primary partition count. But it seemed to have gotten you into this predicament.

I suggest to delete that UDF partition. It is empty anyhow. Then reconvert the others to Primaries with the bootable CD of partition Wizard 4.2.2. You can download the iso from here (pw422).

As an extra safety measure I would then also convert the recovery partition into Logical. In Partition Wizard, you highlight the partition and go to the Partition tab > Modify.

Click to expand...

Does this method of using Partition Wizard wipe the data? Here's what my Drives look like:

No, it does not wipe the data. But you can only do it if you start with 4 dynamic partitions. So you have to first get rid of one of the 5 - other than System and C:\ they are all cadidates.

whs said:

No, it does not wipe the data. But you can only do it if you start with 4 dynamic partitions. So you have to first get rid of one of the 5 - other than System and C:\ they are all cadidates.

Click to expand...

So I just delete the new (empty) Windows8 partition and leave it unallocated
then reboot with partition wizard
then change all of them to Primaries

Correct. But you need free Partition Wizard 4.2.2. The new version 5 does not have that function. You have to buy the pro version to get it.

whs said:

Correct. But you need free Partition Wizard 4.2.2. The new version 5 does not have that function. You have to buy the pro version to get it.

Click to expand...

Ok I reboot and changed them to primary



When in Disk Management I right clicked on the unallocated drive it has only one option:
"create new simply volume"
I did this and it changed them all back to dynamic drives.
So I rebooted and ran Partition Wizard again and changed them back. It now looks like the picture above.
What I am doing wrong?

Ok I reread back thru the posts....
do i have to reboot to Partition Wizard and change the C:\ drive to a logical drive

DavidMD said:

Ok I reread back thru the posts....
do i have to reboot to Partition Wizard and change the C:\ drive to a logical drive

Click to expand...

Absolutely. You cannot create an additional partition when you have 4 primaries - even not a simple extended (logical) partition. Make sure you start with 3 primary partitions when you want to create an additional partition. From there you can create 124 additional logical partitions (which will be part of the first logical container called 'extended').

Converting the C:\ partition to logical is a good choice. It need not be primary since you have the 100MB system partition which is the active partition. Only active partitions MUST be primary - and for some reason also the recovery partition.

PS: the controls to make your C logical are in the Partition tab > Modify of PW. Highlight C first.

DavidMD, please make a tutorial how to change from dynamic to basic and email to me. tq

abelong said:

DavidMD, please make a tutorial how to change from dynamic to basic and email to me. tq

Click to expand...

You can only do it with PW 422 which you find here: https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=b0a22789320e3247&sc=documents&id=B0A22789320E3247!215

But you must first delete the last partition you created so that you have only 4 partitions.