The hard disk of your PC can be of two types MBR or GPT. There are many differences between MBR and GPT and one of them is that if there are already 4 primary partitions on the MBR disk, it is not possible to create another partition on the disk, unless you use ad hoc software tools. If you are on this page too you may be wondering how to create more than 4 partitions on MBR disk without converting basic disk to dynamic. This article will show you two methods which will help you create more than 4 partitions on MBR disk.
MBR (Master Boot Record) and GPT (GUID Partition Table) are two different ways of storing partition information on a drive. When adding a new hard drive, Windows selects the MBR type by default, probably because any version of the Windows operating system (OS) can be installed on an MBR disk.
However, on an MBR disk, you can only create 4 primary partitions or 3 primary partitions plus one maximum extended partition. So it is not possible to create more than 4 partitions on MBR disk. GPT disk has no such restrictions, but only supports 64-bit version of Windows 7 and Windows 10. So, you may be wondering: How can I create more than 4 partitions on one MBR disk without converting MBR to GPT ?
A first solution to create more than 4 partitions on MBR disk, is to delete an existing primary partition and create a smaller partition in Disk Management or convert at least one primary partition to logical partition using partition management software such as Partition Assistant ( read below how to do it)
If you instead use Windows Disk Management to do these operations, you risk deleting precious data from your disk, unless you back up all the files and then restore them (therefore a much more delicate and complex operation If you want to avoid such problems and you want to create more than 4 MBR disk partitions without data loss then we recommend you to try the Partition Assistant software , read below how it works.
Create more than 4 partitions on Windows with Partition Assistant
Partition Assistant is a reliable and safe partition management tool to use. With it you will be able to convert a primary partition to logical partition, create, format or resize the partition easily and without deleting a single file! Here’s how to create more than 4 partitions in Windows with this powerful software.
Step 1. Download and install the software on your Windows PC
Support Windows 10/8/7 / Vista & XP
After installation you will see a screen like this:
Step 2. Right click the partition you want to convert from primary to “logical”. From the menu that appears select the ” Advanced ” option and then select ” Convert to logic “.
Step 3. A window will open where you have to click on “OK” to confirm the operation.
Step 4. From the initial screen of the program click on ” APPLY ” at the top to perform the operation.
Step 5. After you have successfully converted the primary partition to logical partition, you can split the partition by resizing that partition. Select the logical partition you created and click Resize Partition on the left of the program
Step 6. Specify the size by moving the blue tab. You can also enter the specific size directly. Once this operation is done, unallocated space will be created on that partition and after selecting it (always in the program), by clicking on CREATE PARTITION you can finally create your new partition
Always remember to click on APPLY in the main program screen to carry out the operations.
The above procedure allows you to create more than 4 partitions on one MBR disk. Obviously if you are looking for a faster way to do this you can always convert MBR to GPT (always with Partition Assistant) and permanently remove this limit …
Create more than 4 partitions on Windows with Disk Management
Disk Management is a free utility included in Windows that allows you to create new disk partitions, but it creates them as primary partitions by default. If there are already 4 primary partitions on an MBR disk, you cannot create a new partition with Disk Management, but you can follow these directions to bypass the problem.
- Open Disk Management and click on an existing primary partition and select Delete Volume. NB: This will erase the data on the selected partition!
- Right-click the unallocated space (created by deleting the partition) and select New Simple Volume.
- You can now create a new partition, but make sure there is enough unallocated space to create it.
- This will create a logicalpartition and thus you can exceed the limit of 4 partitions on the disk.
