PARTITIONING and such

My situation is the following : I have 4 partitions , all are primary ;2 of them support OS's : Win XP ; 2 of them do not support OS but have important datas on them;I would like to make an extended partition , but I amtold that first I have to put one of them into logical ; Suppose driveH is the one that is a good candidate : no OS but Datas ; what effetc will have the transformation of beeing primary into logical? Will this operation erase the datas ? is it something like formatting the drive?
Please , if you answer , if the answer is : the operation is harmless for your datas , you may be short ;otherwise consider that you are writing to somebody of good will but almost analphabetized; I read a lot of things about partioning but this particular question is unanswered , not even raised.

 

Thanks but I need a precise answer

Thank you very much Tony ,; I will take care of your alaways always always ; however could you please answer this question : changing a primary status into LOGICAL does it have the effect of erasing the datas on the partition? If datas are on that primary partition which became primary probably beacuse I asked it wrongly or for another reason but DOES NOT have any OS on it ; I do not use it to boot : does the change from primary to logical affect the datas? Thanks OLIVIER GEBUHRER

 

When using the tools that Windows supplies, you can't change partitions with out wiping out the data and reformatting the newly created partition.

There are some good third party programs that can handle the job without data loss. I use Partition Manager with good results. It works it's magic by storing the data in a special dedicated holding area while it manipulates the partitions to your order. Then it copies your data back to the new configuration. It works very well but be aware that a power failure during the operation can put your data at risk. A good backup placed on separate media is always recommended if you have valuable data.

 

Thank you , Superdude, I use the same tool but there was no indictation about the question I raised in the Help manual ; what I did , was to directly asked Paragon and the answer confirmed your answer : there is no danger in such an operation provided the pertition is not bearing your OS of course (or any of theOS's which are implemented to boot. many thanks for your explanation