What happens when you mount more than 24 partitions in Windows

**ada101** · 24-10-13, 09:21 PM

We all know drives mount as C:\, D:\, E\:, F:\, G:\... but what happens when you mount more drives than letters? I looked this up on google with no definite result. Most people said that drives might start mounting as A1:\, B1:\, C1:\... and others said that drives will just stop mounting as letters.

Today i’m going to see what happens when you make more drives than letters.
I will use:
Virtualbox 4.3.0
Fresh Windows 8 VM
2x Virtual Hard Drives, 1 With the OS and one with all the partitions
Linuxmint 13 xfce ISO for creating partitions (partitions were created with GParted)

1. Create partitions
This was by far the most repetitive thing I have ever done. Right click, New, make size smaller, Choose NTFS, Create, Start over. But I managed to create 39 partitions nevertheless. You might be thinking “You can’t create 40 partitions on one disk!!1!”. You can’t create 39 partitions on a disk, but you can create an Extended Partition, then create more (I can guarantee you can create at least 39 partitions) in that. Result:
Image is really long,
2. Remove the DVD
This will simply free a drive letter, and make it available for partition to use.
We are now ready to boot into Windows!
THE RESULT!
and…
It took a lot longer to boot than normal. That’s probably due to the driver installation of the new HDD and the mounting process. Anyway, this is what “Computer” looks like:

It seems that Windows stops mounting after 24 drives (it isn’t 26 drives because Drive A: and B: seem to still be reserved)

This doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t mount more than 24 drives in Windows!
How to mount more than 24 drives in Windows:
1. Go into Computer Management by pressing Windows Logo Key+R, typing “compmgmt.msc” into the box and pressing enter or OK:

2. Click “Disk Management” on the tree on the side:

3. Right click on the partition you would like to mount, and choose “Change Drive Letter and Paths”

4. Click “Add”, choose “Mount in the following NTFS folder”, click “Browse” and Choose a folder. Make sure it is an empty folder.

>I recommend creating a New folder on the root of the installation drive
After choosing an empty folder, click OK and OK again.
5. Your drive should be mounted inside the folder of your choice:

I hope you enjoyed. A “Thanks” is always appreciated if you (of course) want to say “Thanks!”

**jwoegerbauer** · 24-10-13, 10:42 PM

Windows -> The maximum is 24 logical drives; the extended partition can only have 23 logical drives.

**ada101** · 24-10-13, 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by jwoegerbauer

Windows -> The maximum is 24 logical drives; the extended partition can only have 23 logical drives.

Strange... I was able to make 39 partitions with no problem using GParted, and Windows was able to access all of them too. I can send you a copy of the .vdi if you need proof, but it worked a dream. Maybe Linux supports but Windows doesn't? :/

**jwoegerbauer** · 25-10-13, 12:13 AM

Originally Posted by ada101

Strange

Not strange per se, because you initially didn't clarify which Windows version in use. Hence you got an all-Windows-versions-valid answer.

Let me clarify it:

Recent Windows versions, such as Windows 7, can use either a GPT or an MSDOS partition table.
Older Windows versions, such as Windows XP, require an MSDOS partition table.

If you use a GPT partition table you can have up to 128 partitions and do not need to distinguish between "primary" and "extended" partitions.

**ada101** · 25-10-13, 01:15 AM

Originally Posted by jwoegerbauer

Not strange per se, because you initially didn't clarify which Windows version in use. Hence you got an all-Windows-versions-valid answer.

Let me clarify it:

Recent Windows versions, such as Windows 7, can use either a GPT or an MSDOS partition table.
Older Windows versions, such as Windows XP, require an MSDOS partition table.

If you use a GPT partition table you can have up to 128 partitions and do not need to distinguish between "primary" and "extended" partitions.

I formatted the partition table to msdos as GParted defaults to msdos and I didn't change the option when formatting, and I can only create 4 partitions normally, but can create up to 39 partitions (I don't know if you can create more) in GParted without error on an extended partition in msdos. Mabye Gparted doesn't acknowledge the fact that it can't create more partitions when on an extended partition... It works, nevertheless

**jok11n** · 25-10-13, 01:17 AM

Did I miss the point of all this, why would anyone want that many partitions?

**jwoegerbauer** · 25-10-13, 01:34 AM

Originally Posted by jok11n

Did I miss the point of all this, why would anyone want that many partitions?

Asked myself same question...

And the worst is you have on desktops running Windows or Mac OS X to boot a Live-Linux with pre-installed GParted.

Also asked myself what topic's heading "What happens when you mount more than 24 partitions in Windows" really wanted to express: it's a question.

My answer: If successfull, congrats. LOL

**jwoegerbauer** · 25-10-13, 01:58 AM

And in all Windows versions you can mount any existing directory as a virtual drive (means create a symboloc link to a directory).

DOS:

Code:

subst X: F:\some\folder

Using freeware utility called makes things even easier.

**peteramjet** · 25-10-13, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by ada101

... but what happens when you mount more drives than letters?

So what 's the answer???

I assume it only permitted the 24 drives to be mounts (c-z), and that the extra 15 partitions you created mounted as virtual drives? But what letter/number did they use, or could you name them anything you want?

**ada101** · 25-10-13, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by jok11n

Did I miss the point of all this, why would anyone want that many partitions?

Because I wanted to find out, and I thought you might find it interesting too.

Originally Posted by peteramjet

So what 's the answer???

Read the whole post, Under the "Computer" image, it says:

It seems that Windows stops mounting after 24 drives (it isn’t 26 drives because Drive A: and B: seem to still be reserved)

**jok11n** · 25-10-13, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by ada101

Because I wanted to find out, and I thought you might find it interesting too.

so you don't actually have a practical purpose for this then?

**ada101** · 25-10-13, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by jok11n

so you don't actually have a practical purpose for this then?

No, i've just always wondered what would happen if I had made more than 24 partitions for some reason, and I thought someone else might have been wondering the same thing. I thought that since I couldn't find a definite answer, I might give people one

**jok11n** · 25-10-13, 01:09 PM

well, appreciate your efforts, can't say it's anything I ever wondered about though

**admin** · 25-10-13, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by ada101

No, i've just always wondered what would happen if I had made more than 24 partitions for some reason, and I thought someone else might have been wondering the same thing. I thought that since I couldn't find a definite answer, I might give people one

You are a glutton for punishment

Interesting though.

**lsemmens** · 25-10-13, 01:22 PM

Just put it in your basket of useless information that might come in handy if someone ever asks you the question, maybe at a quiz night.

**jwoegerbauer** · 25-10-13, 05:22 PM

If there is a need for you to use a third-party partition manager, I recommend to use freeware Aomei's Partition Assistant Home Edition 5.0 (PAHE). Aside from being a nice upgrade from the integrated Windows tools provided by Microsoft, PAHE is probably the easiest-to-use partition utility I've encountered.
PAHE doesn't deserve its "Home" designation, which frequently appears in software names as shorthand for "feature-deprived." The program can resize, move, split, extend, copy, create, delete, format, wipe, and hide partitions--mostly within Windows, and without a reboot.
It's favorite feature is the list of pending changes at the bottom of the tasks pane on the left side of the main window. As that description suggests, you can stack changes and then apply them all at once so you don't have to wait around for each operation to finish.

**ada101** · 25-10-13, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by jwoegerbauer

If there is a need for you to use a third-party partition manager, I recommend to use freeware Aomei's Partition Assistant Home Edition 5.0 (PAHE). Aside from being a nice upgrade from the integrated Windows tools provided by Microsoft, PAHE is probably the easiest-to-use partition utility I've encountered.
PAHE doesn't deserve its "Home" designation, which frequently appears in software names as shorthand for "feature-deprived." The program can resize, move, split, extend, copy, create, delete, format, wipe, and hide partitions--mostly within Windows, and without a reboot.
It's favorite feature is the list of pending changes at the bottom of the tasks pane on the left side of the main window. As that description suggests, you can stack changes and then apply them all at once so you don't have to wait around for each operation to finish.

I am primarily a linux user, and so I use linux tools for partitioning

. My main tools are gparted and gnome-disks. I've used GParted for a few years now, so I am very familiar with it, and gnome-disks is my backup tool in case GParted spits the dummy. Both are on all Linuxmint13 livecds, which I always have laying around somewhere (and both tools do work on the installed OS). For making complete disk/partition images, I use Acronis True Image Home 2013. I find all tools excellent in ease, reliability and performance. I will, however, look into Aomei's Partition Assistant

. In the tutorial part of the post, I only used the Windows disk thingo as everyone with recent versions of Windows has a copy of it in the same location. I do, however, find Windows Disk thingo hard to use as everything is in wizards and stuff is not where i'm used to them being.

**peteramjet** · 26-10-13, 10:12 AM

Originally Posted by ada101

Read the whole post, Under the "Computer" image, it says:

I read the whole post - but you didn't answer what the extra virtual drives are named after C: to Z: are used. ie, was it C1: or could you name them anything you wanted?

**ada101** · 26-10-13, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by peteramjet

I read the whole post - but you didn't answer what the extra virtual drives are named after C: to Z: are used. ie, was it C1: or could you name them anything you wanted?

Windows will stop mounting, and if you want to mount more you can mount it into an empty folder, then the folder is the drive instead of a letter
e.g. A drive could be mounted as C:\New Folder instead of a letter such as G:. To access a file on the root of the drive, you would access it by typing "C:\New Folder\program.exe" instead of "G:\program.exe".

**jwoegerbauer** · 27-10-13, 01:37 AM

Only correct as long as you are speaking of Mounted drives and NOT of Mounted partitions, as this was this thread's initial heading ...

Never confuse Mounted partitions (AKA Mounted volumes) and Mounted drives !!!

In Windows's terminology Mounted drives let you extend the storage capacity of a drive or partition (C-Z). Say you save financial records to the Finance folder on drive C, but drive C is getting full. A separate drive, drive E, has room. By creating an empty folder in the Finance folder called Records, and mounting drive E to the new folder, you can then save files to C:\Finance\Records to take advantage of the extra storage space on drive E.

Mounted drives have an advantage over shortcuts because you can move the mounted drives without having to update the folder that the drive is mounted to.

Note: The Recycle Bin does not recognize mounted drives, so if you try to delete a file that's stored in a mounted drive, you might receive an error.