Hi, I was trying to create a new extented partition from system(basic disk - c:) partition thru disk management console. But in the graphic view, there was no unallocated space coming up? though the disk has about 30 gb of free space. Can't I create another parition for the disk using the XP tools ?

You can't do that using WinXP only. You need a third party partitioning software.

Try Ranish, get it at the link below.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/ranish...

"But in the graphic view, there was no unallocated space coming up? though the disk has about 30 gb of free space.

from the way i read it, it looks like your C: drive is the capacity of your HD viz 1 partition covering the entire disc. bit tough trying to create another partition within a partition.
(btw, can that be done ? lol)

you could d/l the FREE version of GParted Live CD ISO, burn it to a CD as an ISO, boot from that CD, and shrink the C: partition down by about 20 Gb giving you Unallocated Space of 20GB and leaving you with 10Gb of Free Space within the C: >>>>>> keeping in mind that that 10Gb of Free Space would need to be no less than 15% of your total C: partition.....which is what Window$ uses/needs for its own "housekeeping".

having done all that, forget the Extended Partition (as you mention) and simply create another Primary partition (or 2) in the 20Gb of Unallocated Space with XP's Disk Management.

EDIT: you need the ISO one >>>>
http://sourceforge.net/project/show...

.
Central Coast NSW Aussie

There are 10 types of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't.

Free space on a partition and unallocated space on a hard drive are two different things.
Free space on a partition is space that is not already being used for data, but it is already formatted.
Unallocated space on a hard drive is space that has not been partitioned or formatted.

By default your operating system partitions the entire hard drive, so there is no unallocated space on it.
(Actually, in 2000 or XP there is a little bit that is unallocated if the operating system prepared the hard drive, but only about 8mb - that's another subject - 2000 or XP won't let you partition and format that space)
If you have a brand name system software installation, the original hard drive always has two partitions; otherwise, the default is it has one partition that occupies the entire hard drive.

"You can't do that using WinXP only."

Whatever number of existing partitions you already have, you can't change that situation in XP (or 2000) unless you delete at least one partition, often the C partition, in which case you lose all the data already on it.

"You need a third party partitioning software."

If you use a third party program that can manipulate partitions, you can make existing partitions smaller to free up un-allocated space on the hard drive, then that un-allocated space can be partitioned and formatted as it's own partition and have it's own logical drive letter, without you losing data already on the hard drive.