Compaq Tools CD - make a new partition?

I have a Compaq S4020WM running Windows XP Home SP2 on a new 160GB Maxtor
hd, which has 1 partition C: (NTFS) at this point. After installing the op
system, I originally had a recovery partition but have already removed it
with the Compaq Tools CD, no problems there.

The Compaq Tools CD also offers to create a new partition (one time only),
leaving the original partition operational, without loss of data. [After the
new partition has been created, the XP Disk Management tool will be used to
subdivide it into additional partitions.] It requires me to select either
"primary" or "extended" for the new partition, but offers no explanations.
What's the difference? Which should I select?

Thanks,
--
skydiver
(this space intentionally left blank)
P.S. If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

The primary partition is normally the C: partition and extendeds are the D:,
E:, etc.
HH

"skydiver" wrote in message
ink.net...
I have a Compaq S4020WM running Windows XP Home SP2 on a new 160GB Maxtor
hd, which has 1 partition C: (NTFS) at this point. After installing the op
system, I originally had a recovery partition but have already removed it
with the Compaq Tools CD, no problems there.

The Compaq Tools CD also offers to create a new partition (one time only),
leaving the original partition operational, without loss of data. [After
the new partition has been created, the XP Disk Management tool will be
used to subdivide it into additional partitions.] It requires me to select
either "primary" or "extended" for the new partition, but offers no
explanations. What's the difference? Which should I select?

Thanks,
--
skydiver
(this space intentionally left blank)
P.S. If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.

Thanks. That seems to be the general consensus. I intended to do it that way
but forgot to click that radio button so a primary partition was made
instead (the default). It didn't work right. There were several MS error
messages saying that software which hadn't been "logo-tested" was involved,
and I was advised to abort. I went ahead instead. The result was generally
functional, except there was no taskbar! Rather than try to fix it I decided
to reformat and start clean. I used Maxblast3 without any problems to make
and format the desired partitions, then did a standard recovery with the
Compaq CDs. I have a good feeling about it. It's working great.

It was sorta interesting and a challenge when I was trying to get the drive
compacted towards the beginning, so the new partition could be big enough.
The Compaq repartition software only sees the free space AFTER the
furthest-out data on the drive. And the Windows XP defragmenter will NOT
compact all of the data towards the beginning of the drive! It insists on
putting something smackdab in the middle of the drive, which is ridiculous.
I only had 7GB of data on a 160G drive, but it still put a little blip of
data exactly in the middle of the drive! So the Compaq repartitioner was
only offering to make a new partition in the 65-94GB range. I had to use
another defragger (dirms) to get the it compacted towards the beginning of
the drive. Still, the biggest partition it would offer to make after many
tries was 115GB. I don't think I would try that method of repartitioning
again...
--
skydiver
(this space intentionally left blank)
P.S. If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.


"HH" wrote in message
...
The primary partition is normally the C: partition and extendeds are the
D:, E:, etc.
HH

"skydiver" wrote in message
ink.net...
I have a Compaq S4020WM running Windows XP Home SP2 on a new 160GB Maxtor
hd, which has 1 partition C: (NTFS) at this point. After installing the op
system, I originally had a recovery partition but have already removed it
with the Compaq Tools CD, no problems there.

The Compaq Tools CD also offers to create a new partition (one time
only), leaving the original partition operational, without loss of data.
[After the new partition has been created, the XP Disk Management tool
will be used to subdivide it into additional partitions.] It requires me
to select either "primary" or "extended" for the new partition, but
offers no explanations. What's the difference? Which should I select?

Thanks,
--
skydiver
(this space intentionally left blank)
P.S. If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you.