

The use of the Relative Sector and Total Sectors fields for logical drives in an extended partition is different than for primary partitions. And the entry for partition 2 is the address of the sector that contains the Partition Table for the next logical drive. The entry for partition 1 in each Partition Table contains the starting address for data on the current logical drive. The Partition Table entry is the only information on the first side of the first cylinder of each logical drive in the extended partition. The entries for partitions 2-4 are all zeroes. The last logical drive has only its own partition entry listed. This format repeats for every logical drive.

As a practical matter, the number of available drive letters is the limiting factor in the number of logical drives that you can define. Within the extended partition, you can create any number of logical drives. There can be only one extended partition on a hard disk.
Basic data partition vs primary partition windows#
Windows NT detects an extended partition because the System ID byte in the Partition Table entry is set to 5. Some computers create an EISA configuration partition as the first partition on the hard disk. If the disk does not contain a system partition, you can configure the entire disk as a single, extended partition. The second partition can be created as an extended partition, which can contain all the remaining unpartitioned space on the disk.Ī primary partition is one that can be used as the system partition. When more than four logical disks are required on a single physical disk, the first partition should be a primary partition. Logical Drives Logical Drives and Extended Partitions
