Norton Partition Magic 8.0--Cannot create new partition

Brand new version Norton PM 8.0 seemed to install OK but I cannot create a new partition, using either the Wizards or Partition Tasks.
When I click on the hard drive in the Disk Map and then use a Wizard, I get this message
"The selected disk contains one or more partitions which cannot be moved. To complete the task use the Operations menu rather than a wizard."
But Create Partition on the Operations menu is greyed out.
I looked all the way through the first reference on the following Google page, which is a very similar situation to mine, but was not sure if David ever did solve the problem.
http://www.google.com/search?source...+one+or+more+partitions+which+cannot+be+moved
My PC is a Dell 4600 and I already have four "Primary" partitions of the hard drive indicated. Two come from Dell, one is my C:\ drive (described as Active) and there is an "Unallocated" one (about 50MB), which when I try to delete (or change to Logical), I am told there is a program is running from that partition (Error 38) and it cannot be deleted. I gather that is PM itself.
I feel that Partition Magic cheated me.
Can anyone help me create a new partition? I have about 130GB of free space on the hard drive.
I was expecting this to be an easy task for PM.
My purpose is to install WinXP Pro on a new partition. I already have WinXP Home on the hard drive, but do not want to replace it or lose the other data on the exisiting partition.
Thanks.

 

So says PQ Partition Magic. Jim, it looks like you'llhave to get rid of one of those Primary Partitions and then you'll be allowed to create an Extended one. Then you can create all the Logical one you need.

 

surferdude2--Yes, I was aware of that requirement. However, I do not see how to get rid of the four Primary partitions I have now.
I had earlier tried to play with the Unallocated partition (47MB). The only Partition Operation allowed was Create Partition, but I could not increase its size to what an installation of WinXP Pro would require. (The max size was 47MB.) Using the Create Partition window, I could indicate I wanted it to be Logical and set location (to say F or "None ") but that only led to creating another 47MB partition (in F or *), still leaving the original in C, though now the original was called Extended. So I still had four Primary partitions. As mentioned in my first post, I cannot delete this Unallocated partition. And I do not see how to change it from Primary to Logical.
HOWEVER, I started to play again with PM this morning.
I highlighted the C line (148MB--Active--Primary), under Partition Operations clicked Resize/Move and changed C to about 128MB. That carved out a "part" from C. I then clicked on the new part, clicked Create Partition (Partition Operations), changed the properties of the part to Active and named it F. See the Thumbnail.
I did not Apply this setting yet. Do you feel this is going to do the job? It looks promising. Of course, I may still be told I cannot to this when I click Apply.
Would appreciate further comment/advice.

 

Hi Jim,
Sorry, but that won't work, the list under the diagram now actually shows 5 primary partitions. The max possible is four, or three primary and an extended partition.
Have you tried extending 'C' to take up the unallocated 47MB?
I'm sure that if you can't convert 'F' to logical, you will have to delete it!
If you shrink 'C' again and can create some unallocated space, don't make it active, try and make it logical. Whatever happens, you will have to reduce the number of primaries to four.

Roger

 

Jim,

Is that last partition "Local Disk (*)" a DELL recovery partition? Do you need it? Do you use an 'imaging' program? Roger has the right idea... merge the small (47G) partition with you C drive, then allocate more space from your C drive. When you create your new F partition, make it 'Logical' and that should create the 'Extended' partition you need for your logical drives. The Extended partition is a 'primary' partition so something has to go before you can create more partitions. If you have other recovery methods (Windows disk, disk image, etc) I would probably get rid of the DELL partitions, but you would probably have to track down motherboard drivers, etc.

Another thing you could try... highlight the 47G partition in PM and under Partition Operations select 'Convert Partition" (if available) and convert that partition to logical.
Sorry I can't type "partition" anymore. If I have any more ideas I'll post back. Good luck.

B

 

I always dump the hidden Restore partition right after warranty expires and start using my own imaging system. I like to think of it as an updated Restore Disk. With that, I never need to track down drivers for anything or worry about losing updates, etc. Cool way to go.

 

Thanks to all for the good ideas. The CP/M partition is the Dell System Restore, and you are correct that I probably could Delete it. That is the only Partition Operation I am permitted for it. (No Convert, etc.) And I was not allowed to Merge that 47MB partition into C.
Played around some more, and I mean played. I think (!) what I did was to "convert" the Dell Utility partition (which I believe to be Dell's Diagnostic Utility) to Logical and then carved out 20GB from the C partition and created an F partition), so I have now created the situation in the Thumbnail below. I have not yet clicked Apply, but the setup seems to satisfy the "no more than four (EDIT 2/15--should have said ) Primary partitions" limit and give me a new 20GB F partition in which I would hope to install WinXP Pro.
Would you please comment if I should click Apply?
P.S. I am offered no way to delete the 31.4MB * Extended partition indicated at the top of the list. (It was created as part of one of the other procedures.) I have no idea what the 2GB of "Unused" is all about. But I can spare the 2GB.
P.P.S. I have posted this issue to the Dell Forum.
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_harddrive&message.id=83419
Not sure if you can see it without registering.
So far they have no clue. One suggestion was to use fdisk and the next poster said that would not work. I would think this would be a fairly common request from owners of Dell PC's.

 

That looks good to me Jim. I would have dumped the Restore Partition and used it myself but to each his own. I think you have nothing to fear there except perhaps a power failure during the process.

I'd do a defrag of the C: prior to this just for luck.

 

Jim,

Okay, let's try to wade through this... this looks like it will work. The one thing that is making me nervous is your referring to the F partition as 'active'. The only partition that should be 'active' is the partition you want to boot from, and from the graphic you have, your C drive is active and this is correct. Your new F partition is showing up as a 'Primary' and your small partition wound up as 'Extended'. You should have a larger extended partition then you can have as many smaller 'logical' partitions within the extended partition as needed. See attached image.
Personally, I would make the C drive smaller and utilize the space by making some smaller logical partitions. They are easier to manage. The thumbnail is 'my' C drive (and D, E and F) the other drive is my second internal drive G.

B

 

surferdude2 and Mr. B--thanks for the further comments and encouragement.
Mr. B--You are correct about Active vs. Primary. I mispoke (miswrote?) in my post of yesterday. I have tried to correct that mistake for those who read this thread (and that post) in the future.
I have not grasped the concepts of Extended and Logical yet. But if you think the set up in my Thumbnail will give me a partition I can use for WinXP Pro without disturbing or wiping out the data on C, I will proceed and worry about expanding my education about partitions later.
I understand I can switch the Active partition from C to F (and back) using PQBoot and a reboot--thereby allowing me to access either XP Home XP Pro when I want to. (I had originally installed BootMagic as well as PM, but BM gave me another Primary partition, which made matters only worse, so I uninstalled it. PQ Boot seems to do more or less the same thing as far as switching Active partitions.)

 

I take that to mean you installed it to and trying to run it from the HD.

It may not work PROPERLY. ( or does not if I remember correctly )

Have you by any chance booted directly to the PM 8 CD.

From what I recall from ages past PM may not work properoly when run from the HD.

I think it may have a lot to do with. Running files are tuff to work with. And active partitions can not be changed. By booting directly ( from a power off ) no HD partitons are active. Or at least not in use.

Any thoughts about these wild and/or crazy ideas will be greatly appreciated.

BillyBob

PS.
Neither will FDISK.

BB

 

Jim,

If you want to install XPpro on the F partition it will work fine. You don't need BootMagic, Windows will dual boot just fine. During installation it will ask if you want to keep your current Windows installation (Yes), then it will ask what partition you want the new install on (F). Windows will then offer you a choice during boot as to which OS you want.

BillyBob,

The newer versions of PartitionMagic will work just fine in Windows. This changed with ver. 7 (maybe ver. 6) and yes the older versions worked much better in DOS. (The newer 'imaging' programs also work very well in Windows)

B

 

Mr. B--thanks for the further advice and encouragement. If I have the time tomorrow, I may click that Appy button.

 

PM 8.0/Dell OS/Dual boot

For those of you who are having problems with partitioning your dell unit with partition magic 8.0, including those with the error "the selected disk contains one or more partitions which cannot be moved. To complete this task use the operations menu rather than a wizard" you will/might have to delete all additional partitions "except for Câ€, to be honest, you really don’t need the new dell computer utility, this new installation started by dell for restoration of a customer OS "my opinion" was done to make it easier on dell technicians to resolve most problems by bringing a customer system back to a factory default. Ok, one of the best way to probable resolve the above bolded problem is to first re-install/format your OS, at the stage in which you’re given a few options on which partition to use, or delete etc, delete the dell utility and the other partition that was placed by dell, after deleting those and any other, you should be left with only one partition = C "DON’T DELETEâ€, the others I believe are going to read un-partition or something, re-install/format on C, on completion of this process, re-install partition magic 8.0, and you should be able to partition your system w/o any problems, you will also then have to re-install all of your dell drivers etc, but at least it works.
Good luck…