Paging someone who knows about partitions

I'd still like the chance to install w7 64-bit on my new laptop while
keeping the 32-bit version in case it all goes belly up. I've reduced
the boot partition to create some space but I just don't know where to
go now.

The disk is now like this:
partition 1: 100MB system
part 2: Boot (C) 293GB primary
unallocated 271GB
part 3: Recover (D) 30GB primary
part 4: 1GB OEM (Reserved)

The d: drive has all the drivers and stuff on it. I guess I have as
many primaries as I'm allowed so the install process won't let me make
a new primary on which to install the 64-bit os.

Clearly I'm clueless so any advice would be welcome. The ultimate plan
was to see if I can get on with 64-bit then delete the 32-bit
partition.

 

First thing I would do is a complete image backup to an external HD using
Clonezilla. That way, no matter what happens you can restore what you have
now.

Even better than that, just buy a 2nd internal disk, remove the original
disk & install W7-64 on the new disk.

 

That may be the way forward. Backup, fresh install, then if it goes
wrong just restore. I was hoping to be able to dual boot but I guess
I'd need to make a lot of changes to get another bootable partition.

Don't fancy opening it up just yet with it being brand new, I haven't
checked the warranty sit yet.

 

You can only have four primary partitions. If you want more
(logical) partitions, than one of the primaries needs to be subdivided
into the logicals. So you can only have three usable primary partitions
if you want more than four partitions -- IYSWIM.

Now, I'm wondering what exactly your Partitions 1 and 4 are --
I've only ever seen OEM reserve one partition before. Sometimes there's
a recovery partition that can be used to create recovery CD/DVDs -- at which
point you can hold your breath and blow away the recovery partition...

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Only 4 /primary/ partitions are allowed on any one disk. This is OS
independent. Somehow you need to use logical partitions. I have
absolutely no idea how to do that in Windoesn't. If you can convert some
of those contiguous partitions to logical then the unallocated space will
be usable.

 

Likewise. It doesn't leave much room for maneouvre.

Well d: contained exactly what was on the apps CD that came with the
machine. I could wipe it but I'm bound to lose the CD. I really don't
know what's on the others - one will be a recovery doings but I give
up on the other.

At any rate, I went with plan b and just did a fresh install. Others
on hotukdeals seemed to have found the process problematic but it
seemed straightforward in the end. I lost office startup (or whatever)
edition but that's crap anyway. It all seems tickety boo so far. I'm
absolutely loving the HDMI out.

I still can't work out why there's only 64MB dedicated graphics memory
but I guess I'll get to the bottom of that one day.

 

Ok, one option then would have been to copy all those files into a
subdir on C:, as well as make a few more CD copies. Then you cold have
blown away the 4th partition (losing its 1 GB) and made your 271 GB free
space into the root of the logical partitions.

Och, then, all's well that ends well.

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".