Could someone explain the difference between an extended partition and a primary partition? I know this is basic but it would help me. Thanks Cliff Fussell

The most important things are: 1. You need a Primary partition to install an OS. 2. You can divide an Extended partition up into multiple drives.

A primary partition is required in order for things to work properly. The primary partition is the active partition where the master boot record resides. The extended partition is where logical drives reside. If you are wondering about anything else, please reply to this post. Thanks, KTTD P.S Most folks that are new to partitions screw up when it comes to making the extended partition.

Thanks for the replys. I guess my main questions were related to the choices I had on my second hard drive. Basic vs dynamic and partations extended vs primary. I'm only using the second hdd for data storage and I formatted it as a basic disk. I didn't want anything too complicated just a place to store data and back up certain files. From what I've read I think I have a simple understanding of the types of formats. I just was curious as to the best way. I'm sure there are several. Thanks again for the reply. CF

You don't need a Primary partition on the second hard disk if you do not plan to put an OS there. One little quirk of windows is that it assigns drive letters to all the Primary partitions first. Then he starts assigning drive letters to the extended partitions. So if you have more than one drive on the first hard disk, it will affect the drive letters there if you create a Primary partition on the second hard drive.

I forgot to mention: I have no idea what you mean by 'Basic' and 'Dynamic'.

I'm not going to complicate things. You have it working as it should be properly. So don't worry about basic or dynamic. KTTD