Windows 2000 Setup Does Not Allow Selection of Partition Type

When you create a partition on your hard disk during Windows 2000 Setup, you are not allowed to select the type of partition to create (primary or extended).

This behavior occurs because Windows 2000 Setup determines the partition type for you, based on the existing partition table and where you choose to install Windows 2000.

To work around this behavior, follow these steps:

1. Before you install Windows 2000, start your computer using a Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, or MS-DOS boot disk.
2. Use the Fdisk.exe program to create the partition(s) you want.
   
   NOTE: Fdisk only allow you to create a single Primary partition, however, if you want Windows 2000 in a second Primary partition, create an extended partition on the drive.
3. Start Windows 2000 Setup and install to one of the partitions you created, or let Windows 2000 create another Primary partition.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 2000.

Windows 2000 text-mode Setup uses the following rules to determine the type of partition to create when you choose to create a partition:

• If no partitions are present on the drive, a primary partition is created.
• If only a primary partition exists, Setup creates an extended partition using all unallocated space on the volume, and then creates a logical drive with the size you specify.
• If both a primary and an extended partition exist, Setup creates another primary partition.

For additional information about how Windows NT determines the partition type to create during Setup, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: