Arch Linux

jaXke

Member

Registered: 2016-06-20

Posts: 18

[SOLVED]Windows takes up 4 primary partitions

Hi.

Bought a new Thinkpad and need the pre installed Windows for work stuff. I went on to install Arch beside it but I can't create a new primary partition because Windows has 3 of them and the fourth is EFI system. So my question is can I convert one of those partitions to extended(partitions are: Microsoft Reserved, Windows recovery environment, Mirosoft basic data)? If not how should I go about installing Arch?

I wish I didn't have to deal with this Windows c**p

Thanks!

Last edited by jaXke (2016-10-07 15:09:42)

ayekat

Member

Registered: 2011-01-17

Posts: 1,589

Re: [SOLVED]Windows takes up 4 primary partitions

That limit only applies to MSDOS partition tables, but AFAIK newer laptops with preinstalled Windows systems partition their drives with GPT.

So... are you positive it's an MSDOS partition table? Have you tried creating a new partition?
(note that if the existing partitions occupy all the space on the disk, you will need to shrink at least one of them to allow creating further partitions - you should do that from within Windows, to avoid any trouble)

---

pkgs │ hacks │ cfg │ blag

frostbittenking

Member

Registered: 2013-05-01

Posts: 52

Re: [SOLVED]Windows takes up 4 primary partitions

Since the 4th Partition is an EFI Partition according to your info, this implies that the Disk is already formatted with GPT, so it should be possible to create additional partitons. Or, is the last partition using the remaining disk space?
It would help if you posted the partition layout(fdisk / gdisk).

---

RiP, Jeff http://www.slayer.net/at/jeff-hanneman

jaXke

Member

Registered: 2016-06-20

Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED]Windows takes up 4 primary partitions

That limit only applies to MSDOS partition tables, but AFAIK newer laptops with preinstalled Windows systems partition their drives with GPT.

So... are you positive it's an MSDOS partition table? Have you tried creating a new partition?
(note that if the existing partitions occupy all the space on the disk, you will need to shrink at least one of them to allow creating further partitions - you should do that from within Windows, to avoid any trouble)

No way! I always thought it's some kind of law that there can only be 4 primary partitions max. You're right and I apologise for the incredibly stupid question