Should a hard disk have only one primary partition?

[jss2020]

My Windows 8 system had a C drive which is the boot drive and also the primary partition. I have created a new partition which also shows up as a primary partition. Is this as it should be or did I do something wrong while creating the new partition?

 

[cl-scott]

It's not a problem. A drive can have one of the two following configurations:

1: 4xPrimary partitions
2: 3xPrimary partitions, 1xExtended partition and then an unlimited number (space permitting) of logical partitions within that extended partition

 

[jss2020]

Thanks for your response.

When I go to Disk Management in Windows 8 it shows me that the C partition is a Boot, Page File, Crash Dump and Primary Partition whereas E drive is just a Primary Partition. If I want to make the E drive also bootable for dual boot do I have to do something or is it enough for it to be a primary partition for it to be bootable?

 

[cl-scott]

You can only have one active/bootable partition. That's where the boot manager goes, which then would handle booting a second (or more) OS.

 

[jss2020]

Best answer selected by jss2020.

 

[jss2020]

You can only have one active/bootable partition. That's where the boot manager goes, which then would handle booting a second (or more) OS.

I didn't know how to explain it properly but that's what I meant i.e. I want to have a dual boot system with two OSes on two partitions. However, it appears my Windows 8 is on a GPT partition and Windows 7 Pro does not get installed on GPT partitions.