Can't format free space for new partition?

[stanley porkchop]

Had Ubuntu installed before needing to do a fresh install of Vista, which wrote over my bootloader and caused to system to immediately load up Vista when turned on. Thought about reinstalling GRUB, but figured I could do without Linux at the moment. Decided to delete the information on my Ubuntu partitions (129 GB freed up), but now can't format the empty space as an NTFS drive. I have a 500GB HDD and 3 current primary partitions. This fourth one is sitting there unusable, and I've just deleted all my Linux files for nothing. Can anyone help? I keep getting an error reading: "There is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation."

Using Vista's built-in disk management util.

[obs0lete]

Try using GParted to delete the partition, then format it as NTFS.

Link

Edit: Forgot to mention, use the LiveCD

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

Have you tried getting performing the process using Vista's built-in diskpart utility? Might be worth a go - sometimes handles disks slightly better than the GUI does.

Have you tried clearing the 4th / blank partition and making it again but say 1GB smaller just as a test to see if it'll let you create one?

[stanley porkchop]

  Chicane-UK said:

Have you tried clearing the 4th / blank partition and making it again but say 1GB smaller just as a test to see if it'll let you create one?

Just tried, still no luck. I thought Vista would allow me to have 4 primary partitions, but it looks like there may be a problem with that theory.

Tried diskpart, still giving me an insufficient space error when there clearly isn't one. Ah, Windows.

[+BudMan MVC]

Could you please post a screen shot of your disk manager - example

To create a partition it has to be unallocated, you mention free space a couple of times.. Free space is already part of a partition just not used, etc.

Just so everyone is completely clear with what your working with -- a screenshot is best. But yes there is a limit of 4 primary partitions on a basic disk.

[stanley porkchop]

Not sure if there's something I'm missing or what. Still can't figure it out.

[ray_finkle]

what options does it give you (that aren't grayed out) when you right-click the "free space"?

[stanley porkchop]

"New simple volume" and "delete partition." If I choose new volume, it gives me an error stating there isn't enough free space to create it.

[+BudMan MVC]

Well you have a extended partition there -- just delete the whole thing and create a primary, or just create a logical drive inside the extended partition you already have. You if you pick new simple volume that will create a logical drive inside the extended partition.. Are you changing the size -- by default it will use up the whole thing when you create a logical (simple volume). Only reason I can think of that your getting size error is if your trying to create a drive bigger than the partition.. drop it down it size to say half -- does that work, if so then move it up, etc. but the default size should work to fill up the whole thing.

example -- this is what you have.

If you want a PRIMARY partition -- once you hit 3, windows 7 limits you to only creating extended with the gui.. Vista might do the same thing? Not sure off the top of my head. But from the diskpart command line tool you can create the primary.

example

From an elevated command prompt -- ie run it as administrator, diskpart, sel disk 0, create partition primary. Once you have your primary you can format and assign a drive letter.

[stanley porkchop]

No luck with reducing the size, keeps giving me errors. So frustrating.

edit:

Ok, got it to work. Thanks everyone (Y)

[+BudMan MVC]

so what were you doing wrong?

[stanley porkchop]

  BudMan said:

so what were you doing wrong?

Didn't realize the "free space" was a partition, thought it was all unallocated. Needed to delete it, as you suggested. Simple fix, really. Problem was due to my own ignorance.

[+BudMan MVC]

ah so you thought that was free space on the end of your E drive? Yeah that would explain why you would have issues trying to extend E ;) or trying to shrink it by more than the actual free space you had on the partition.. looks like about 17GB something vs the 128GB you had in the extended partition.

If you just wanted to create another drive though -- that should of worked. Highlight the extended part and create a logical drive, etc.

Glad you got it all worked out.

[stanley porkchop]

  BudMan said:

ah so you thought that was free space on the end of your E drive? Yeah that would explain why you would have issues trying to extend E ;) or trying to shrink it by more than the actual free space you had on the partition.. looks like about 17GB something vs the 128GB you had in the extended partition.

If you just wanted to create another drive though -- that should of worked. Highlight the extended part and create a logical drive, etc.

Glad you got it all worked out.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to do. Not sure why it wasn't working, but it's all set now so there's no point in worrying about it.

[+BudMan MVC]

Well no Im not "worried" about it ;) but understanding the under laying issue might help people in the future. You clearly should of been able to create a drive inside the extended partition.. So just wanting to understand where exactly you were seeing an error.. If you highlighted the extended partition and selected new simple volume it should of created a drive using up all the space, you should of been able to lower the size of the drive or used up all the space, etc.

Or maybe if you changed it to fat32, etc. might of caused you issues - pretty sure windows likes to limit you to 32GB fat32, etc.

But again - no not worried about it, glad you got it to do what you wanted. But understanding root cause is always good thing ;)