Difference between active, primary, extended and logical partitions?

[NostradamusZen]

There are three types of partitions:

Primary Partitions Extended Partitions Logical Partitions

Thanks for that, Scum - clearest I've seen so far. I think I'm making mistakes - I'll find out in about five minutes if they're fatal . . . My desktop PC wouldn't display a partition on an external (firewire) disk after I'd merged it with unallocated space. So I fired up Paragon Partition Manager and looked at the options. 'Oh yes - Make Partition Logical - that seems logical!'

Fifteen hours later and I'm on tenterhooks waiting to see if I have any data left, and whether my rusty old Dell will manage to recognise the drive.

Maybe I'll just keep all my drives to one partition from now on.

Cheers, Mark