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I have installed Windows 7 SP1 in my laptop. I have 4 partitions:

  1. System reserved (Primary partition): 100mb
  2. C (Primary partition): 70GB
  3. D (Logical partition): 150GB
  4. E (Logical partition): 175GB

I have 2 primary and one extended partition with 2 logical partitions.

When I tried to install Fedora 20 automatic partition failed. And when I try to manually create partitions, I am only able to create one partition. When I try to create second partition it says "not enough space". I think it's the problem of partition table, since Windows only allows 3 primary partitions. But I have only 2 primary partitions, so it shouldn't be a problem. Any idea what’s happened?

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    Maybe there literally isn't enough space remaining? How much capacity does the disk have? What is the size of the first partition you created?
    – Robin Green
    Dec 29, 2013 at 9:11
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    it's 500Gb HDD . There is about 70GB of free space. First i tried to create /boot with 500mb and later when i tried to create swap with 6GB it's not created. Later i tried once more creating the swap first and successfully created swap with 6GB and failed to create /boot. So i tried again by creating the / first. I am able to create one parttion but failed to create another.
    – harilalkm
    Dec 29, 2013 at 11:52
  • and also in partition screen in Fedora it shows 1.System reserved (Primary partition): 100mb (SDA1) 2. C (Primary partition): 70GB(SDA2) 3. D (Logical partition): 150GB(SDA5) 4. E (Logical partition): 175GB(SDA6)
    – harilalkm
    Dec 29, 2013 at 11:56
  • I have an idea why this might be happening, but I would need more details about exactly what the partition table looks like. A screenshot might help, or maybe the output of the p command after running fdisk /dev/sda in a virtual terminal (you may be able to switch to a virtual terminal by pressing ctrl+alt+f2).
    – Robin Green
    Dec 29, 2013 at 12:00
  • Disk /dev/sda :465.8GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 Sectors Units : Sectors of 1*512 = 512 bytes Sector Size(logical.physical) :512 bytes/4096 bytes I/O size(minimum/Optimal): 4096 bytes/4096 bytes Disklabel type : dos Disk Identifier 0xb7bc4esc Device Boot Start End Blocks id System /dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT /dev/sda2 206848 147007487 73400320 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT /dev/sda3 147007488 828581887 340787200 f W95 ext'd(LBA) /dev/sda5 147009536 461582335 157286400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT /dev/sda6 461584384 828581887 183498752 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
    – harilalkm
    Dec 29, 2013 at 12:36

2 Answers 2

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The problem is that the current extended partition (sda3) only covers enough space needed to contain the logical partitions within it. And for compatibility reasons you cannot have more than 4 primary partitions.

I think the only way to fix this - at least using Linux fdisk, which is the tool I know - is to delete the logical partitions and the extended partition, then recreate the extended partition but make it bigger, then recreate the logical partitions, in the same order as before. Don't worry, it shouldn't lose any data inside the partitions, as long as you enter precisely the same parameters (start sector and size) for the existing logical partitions. Double-check that the parameters are the same before you write the new partition table to disk. If you use a tool other than Linux's fdisk, you need to make sure it does not try to format the "new" partitions - because they contain your data! Linux's fdisk never formats partitions so you don't need to worry about that with fdisk.

Do not try to recreate a logical partition as a physical partition or vice-versa!

But I would still recommend backing up all your data, just in case something goes wrong.

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  • thanks for the reply.. it's really usefull .. i can't vote up as i don't have much reputation.. i already did the backup. now i am trying to reinstall windows and fedora. so can you give me picture regarding a fresh install ..
    – harilalkm
    Dec 29, 2013 at 14:48
  • OK, that's a good idea to reinstall everything. You should install Windows first, then Fedora, otherwise Windows will overwrite Fedora's bootloader. Just make sure the extended partition, if any, is big enough this time!
    – Robin Green
    Dec 29, 2013 at 14:50
  • But i don't know how to create extended partition? I need to create after installing fedora or before?
    – harilalkm
    Dec 29, 2013 at 14:55
  • It's up to you, you can still have multiple partitions, you've just got to make sure they are created correctly. If Windows doesn't give you the necessary level of control to avoid the same problem reoccuring, you could create the Linux partitions as Windows partitions and then delete them afterwards.
    – Robin Green
    Dec 29, 2013 at 14:57
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    i have installed it. First i installed windows 7 with only one partition ie C:. Then i installed fedora 20. And restarted in windows and created two drives extended..
    – harilalkm
    Dec 30, 2013 at 9:56
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i resolved it by installing windows 7 first with only one partition ie. C: . Then installed Fedora 20 and rebooted into windows 7 . Using disk management i created other two partitions. Thanks to @Robin Green for his support.

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