Want to change partition type to primary or logical? Except for Diskpart, you have better way to change partition type without formatting on Windows PCs.
Before you figure out is it possible to change partition type through Diskpart, it is better to learn what partition type is.
Theoretically, partition type is a byte value intended to specify the partition contains and/or to flag special access methods used to access these partitions. That is an answer from Wikipedia. Do not understand clearly? Don’t worry, you’ll see partition type in Disk Management marked as Primary partition and Logical partition.
Files like bootmgr and ntldr to boot Windows should be saved in a primary partition. Also, in MS-DOS and earlier versions of Microsoft Windows systems, the first partition (C:) must be a primary partition.
Please note that the Logical partition concept only exists in MBR disks. Therefore, the disk must be an MBR disk if you see Logical words in Disk Manager. Besides, if you want to change a partition type from Primary to Logical, make sure that your disk is MBR style (If not, convert to MBR first).
As different types of partitions have different features, you may need to change partition type:
If you want to create more partitions on an MBR disk which owns 4 primary partitions already, you can set one of primary partitions to extended/logical since an extended partition can hold multiple logical partitions.
When there have been 3 primary partitions and 1 extended partition, creating partition from unallocated space will convert the current disk to dynamic one. In this situation, converting one of primary partitions to logical is an ideal method too.
It is possible to set up dual boot operating system by changing an existing logical partition if there’s no other primary partition.
While there could be many other reasons as well, now the question is how to change partition type?
The fact is that even Windows 10, which has been improved much compared with early versions, doesn't provide features of using Diskpart change partition type. Neither in its Disk Management.
By this token, you need a third-party software to help you. AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, a professional and easy-to-use partition tool applying to all Windows PC systems, could be your best option that can safely change partition type within just a few of clicks:
Step 1: Download free demo, install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant.
Step 2: All partitions' statue will be displayed on the main interface, including partition type. Right click the one you’re going to change. Select Advanced → Convert to Logic Partition.
Step 3: In the pop-up window, click OK.
Step 4: Afterwards, it comes back to the main interface. Click Apply to execute pending operations.
Note:
Please don’t convert a boot partition to logical otherwise your computer is likely to stop working.
If there are applications running on the partition which you intend to change, AOMEI Partition Assistant will execute the operation in PreOS Mode.
The location and the size of the primary partition will be slightly changed after conversion since a logical partition has 63 sectors, bigger than a primary partition.
Overall, the answer to use Diskpart to change partition type is No. However, it is quite easy to change partition type to primary or logical with the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. In fact, the software supports change file system without formatting on partitions. It has many other helpful features like assign free space from one drive to another, move OS to SSD without reinstalling, command line operations, etc.
If you’d like to change partition type on Windows Server, please turn to its Server edition.