0

I am trying to dual-boot my laptop with linux, which requires you to add a partition where the OS will be installed, however, my laptop (which runs Windows 10) already has these 4 partitions (I have never added any):

  • 100mb - Healthy (EFI System Partition)
  • ACER (C:) - 465.20 GB NTFS - Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
  • 500mb - Healthy (Recovery Partition)
  • Data (D:) - 465.71 GB NTFS - Healthy (Primary Partition)

Is it possible for me to delete any of these partitions, or is there a work around so I can add another partition for the linux boot?

Improve this question
6
  • You may shrink the primary partitions.
    – Biswapriyo
    Commented Sep 5, 2017 at 13:17
  • But you can only have 4 partitions right?
    – user768257
    Commented Sep 5, 2017 at 13:20
  • 2
    You can only have 4 partitions on an MBR partitioned disk (default on BIOS based firmware), but the fact that you have an EFI partition shows you have a UEFI firmware where the default partition scheme is GPT which allows more partitions.
    – Mokubai ♦
    Commented Sep 5, 2017 at 13:22
  • 3
    Possible duplicate of How can I migrate a Windows 10 from BIOS/MBR boot to UEFI/GPT without reinstalling?. In order to use this tool you will likely have to delete your data partition. Any tool to convert MBR to GPT would require a similar process by the way. However, MBR2GPT is the supported method by Microsoft, which means it is less prone to mistakes. If you are already using GPT then you can disregard this duplicate close vote.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 5, 2017 at 13:34
  • Although converting from BIOS/MBR to EFI/GPT might be a useful solution to Shawn's issue, chances are it's unnecessary; and even if it would be a useful solution, it's not the only one. Thus, this question really is not a duplicate of the one Ramhound suggests as a duplicate.
    – Rod Smith
    Commented Sep 7, 2017 at 18:19

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

You say your computer runs Windows 10 and that its first partition is an EFI System Partition (ESP). This combination strongly suggests that it's currently booting in EFI mode from a GPT disk. If so, there is no 4-primary-partition limit, and you can create up to 124 more partitions on the disk before you hit the 128-partition limit of GPT -- and that limit can be raised, if necessary.

If my inference is wrong, you can convert a partition from primary to logical form with some partitioning tools. The one with which I'm most familiar is my own FixParts, which comes with most Linux distributions in a package called gdisk or gptfdisk. Some commercial Windows tools can do the job, too, but I'm not familiar with the details. Note that there are some caveats and limitations, which probably vary from one program to another; see the documentation for whatever you're using for the details.

See this page of mine for information on determining your current boot mode.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.