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Thread ID: 115829	2011-02-05 22:22:00	Partitioning Conundrum	Billy T (70)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1175412	2011-02-05 22:22:00	Laptop is looking good, so I've moved on to the USB hard drive we've bought as a going away present. It is one of those dinky WD500GB 2.5" types and I got it from DSE because their warranty/replacement policies are second to none, so she'll have no problems in Oz if it gives trouble. I decided to partition it F & G, with F being a backup of the OS partition and G being for data backup. Then I was going to partition the C drive into C & D so that recovery of the OS would not compromise her data. That's the theory, and I've done plenty of partitioning before so I confidently rolled into Disk Management brought up the disk, right clicked the blank area to get the 'create new partition' option and nothing happened. I though it might be an obscure permissions problem so I swapped the disk over to my computer (where I know for sure I have full rights) and bugger me if the same thing didn't happen there too! So, is there another access path to this process that I could try? I can't imagine that partioning is disallowed on the USB drive, but I stumped for an answer. I did a quick web search and they all say to do exactly what I just did, except it ain't working! I'm getting to that stage where I'm thinking I might have to try to do it on my old W2K Portege! Cheers Billy 8-{) :confused:	Billy T (70)
1175413	2011-02-05 22:28:00	Dont know if this is any help, some laptops have a hidden partition where the install stuff is kept.	PENTIUM (426)
1175414	2011-02-05 23:48:00	Yes, I've noted that. Could this mean that I'd have to access that partition to do this? (Can't think why, seems totally irrelevant.) I don't see how I could anyway, unless there is a utility I haven't found yet, because it appears only in disk management and it doesn't have a drive letter assigned. The only anomally I can see is that the USB drive is showing as a Primary Partition (dark blue) whereas all of the others except C are Logical Partitions (light blue) but it seems to me that this is correct anyway. Time to break out the W2K dinosaur I think, I'm not making any progress at all right now. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1175415	2011-02-06 00:06:00	Get Parted Magic and give that a try.	mikebartnz (21)
1175416	2011-02-06 00:14:00	Get Parted Magic and give that a try. Well, W2K was no help either, same problem only the services are much less user-friendly. Maybe an external partioning program would be the answer! What baffles me though is that I've done all this before, and on a USB external drive with no problems at all. I wonder if there's some hidden files on on the disk? That could stuff things up I suppose, but I can't even simulate partioning action on any of my existing drives either. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
1175417	2011-02-06 00:17:00	Delete the partition on the USB drive. Create an extended partition and two logical drives.	Snorkbox (15764)
1175418	2011-02-06 00:57:00	Parted Magic is a Linux boot CD with GParted and a load of other useful things on it. Found here. (partedmagic.com)	mikebartnz (21)
1175419	2011-02-06 01:51:00	I decided to partition it F & G, with F being a backup of the OS partition and G being for data backup . Then I was going to partition the C drive into C & D so that recovery of the OS would not compromise her data . It doesn't matter what drive letter the external has . Image C: onto it's whatever partition . End of worries .	pctek (84)
1175420	2011-02-06 02:11:00	Your problem is probably because the USB drive has no free space to create a partition as it is already partitioned to use all the space. The answer is either to shrink the current partition then create another one in the free space left or delete the current one and create two others. As a comment, I used to be a believer in partitioning but now just leave the one as is. This is influenced by my change to imaging instead of file copying. Get the lot (OS and data) and move on. So, the latest machine I set up has 1TB of C: drive and 1TB of USB drive. And I scheduled Macrium to image to the USB drive once a week. It can't be complicated for the 'normal' user or it won't be done. I hope I have at least one client with a regular backup system!!	linw (53)
1175421	2011-02-06 02:16:00	Fixed it! :thumbs: Jeez I can be thick sometimes. All I had to do was delete the existing partition, whereupon the "create partition" option opened up and it was all go from there. In fact I did it on the laptop as well, being so engrossed in what I was doing that I forgot that I was also trying to protect that machine from any adverse consequences caused by my blundering around! Thanks to all for the support, I got the bit between my teeth and it helped keep me going at it. Cheers Billy 8-{) :D If you can't find what's broken when it is sitting in front of your nose, maybe the problem is right behind it! :blush:	Billy T (70)
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