various hard disk options

[okeee]

On 1 hard disk, I have 2 partitions and also section called 'unallocated' and 'extended' . What are these for? How can I both assign them to one of the partitions? I use Partition Magic.

[.Technician.]

you could try partition magic...

[okeee]

I use Partition Magic. What are 'unallocated' and 'extended' for? How can I both assign them to one of the partitions?

[.Technician.]

unallocated basically means nothing is on it.

Extended i dont know.

Try using partition magic to merge them to one...

[oracle128]

"Unallocated" means a partition of a drive has not yet been partitioned or assigned a file system. "Extended" means it's an extended partition (as opposed to a primary partition or a logical partition). Without getting into technical details, the difference between a primary and logical partition is that a drive can have only 4 primary partitions, but an almost unlimited number of logical partitions - however, logical partitions can only be created by dividing up portions of an extended partition.

[okeee]

How can I assign 'unallocated' and 'extended' to one of the two partitions? I use Partition Magic.

[oracle128]

Your operating system can probably do it. Windows XP, for example, can easily partition an extended partition into several logical drives, and can do either a primary partition or another extended partition with the unallocated space.

See this article (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000/)

[okeee]

I have changed 'unallocated' into a ntfs partition, and I wanted to merge with another partition. When I chose option merge partitions, I couldn't couldn't, as a message stated that there are no partitions on the hard disk that can be merged. I use Partition Magic. Both partitions are ntfs. The partition I try to merge haven't got win xp installed on it, the partitions are on another hard disk. When I try to resize, the maximum size is only as big as the size of the partition.