Hello, Can anyone assist me with the diskpart command? I would like to use a third external HDD, but I do not want to boot from it. I just want to use it for additional storage. I know how to use diskpart to create a bootable drive, but can I leave out CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY ? Below is how I use diskpart Code: diskpart list disk select disk ? clean create partition primary <----- Can I leave this out to make it non bootable? select partition 1 active format fs=ntfs quick label=”Storage 2” assign letter=s exit I would appreciate it for any and all assistance with this minor issue. Thank you. David
?? the command active marks the partition as bootable... nothing else. you can also mark a bootable partition inactive with inactive command.
Thank you for replying so quickly. Can you explain the deference between create partition extended & create partition logical I'm sort of new to partitioning HDD, and I couldn't understand the difference. What would you recommend I use in my case? I'm using and external USB WD 4TB HDD for storage only. I want to get the most amount of storage as possible. Thank You again! David
Thank you for responding. If I use the inactive command on a bootable drive, besides making it not able to boot, will I gain any extra space? Lastly, when I use the command Code: create partition primary Should you use this command when making an external USB WD HDD, which will be only use for storage? Can you please try to explain why this command is needed, even it's a storage drive, whether it be external or internal HDD? I would appreciate all the time you spent answering my questions. Thank You. David
You seem to have absolutly no idea of partitions. 1) you won't gain more space. in/active is 1 bit flag. yes you always create a primary partition for everthing. - it's the 'normal thing' to create regular partitions. forget about logical partitons and so on as long as you don't need more than exact 4 partitions. with 5 or more partitions you have to use logical drives. this is generell base of MBR Disks. There is also GPT (kind of the upcomming/replacement for MBR) which allows more than 4 PRIMARY partitions. but I woudn't recommend it for compatibility issues (older hardware and so on). If you don't need more than 4 don't think about GPT also if i say newer it doesn't mean better.
What disk management program do you recommend? Just one last question on diskpart" Code: list disk select disk 1 clean create partition primary active format fs=ntfs quick assign When I'm completed I'm left with a 2048GB drive. It is a 4TB (4000TB) WD My Book drive. Is there something I didn't do correctly? I would appreciate any and all assistance you can supply. This is a learning experience for me, and I really don't want to rely on disk management software. Thank You. David
Go to the Control Panel \ Administrative Tools \ Computer Management . Down the left hand side is Disk Management Clicking on that will bring up a list of drives connected to your hard drive. If you RIGHT CLICK on your chosen drive it will tell you your drive is MBR Delete all partitions\volumes right click again and select "Convert TO GPT" Now make a new partition and format. you should see all the drives capacity.. I would advise the next time you install a new OS convert that drive to GPT then install. Then from then on convert all your new drives to GPT.. Hope this helps...
Or just right click on computer in explorer and select manage it will bring up Computer Management then you can select Disk Management
THANK YOU! This definitely helped! Should I convert all my HDD under 2TB to GPT, as well as my boot (C: ) drive as well? Thank you. David
typical thread to make it all over complicated. If he would have said that he wants to use some 4TB partition that it would be a lot easier... long life diskmgmt.msc